Outside Shower Enclosure

One note.. boondocking/dispersed camping, is very different from park or campground camping.. 

Originally posted by osage Don't quote me on this but I believe it is against the rules to use a outside shower in natl. parks.

That's more or less true in at least some parks.  The way I remember the rule reading it that no waste water can be poured on the ground.  So if you have some sort of catch basin for your shower and you take the water to a proper disposal place, you should be okay.  Someone does make a shower tent with a catch basin.  I don't remember who, or where I saw it.

There is another thread going on here now about dumping grey water on the ground.  Same issue.  What is used shower water?  (Choices are potable, gray, black.)  Aside from any regulations, there are etiquette issues (regarding dumping waste water, not nudity.  Although maybe that too.)

Some places it might be okay to rinse off outside.  A real soap-shower or washing dishes and dumping the water on the ground, not so much.

Like David said though, I'm not sure why this should even be an issue for R-Pod owners.  We all have inside showers and kitchen sinks attached to grey tanks.

TT

Don't quote me on this but I believe it is against the rules to use a outside shower in natl. parks.

WARNING - the following is one of my "soapbox rants". Reader discretion is advised.

I wish they would quit calling these things "showers". It leads some folks to believe that they are intended for personal hygiene. Not so. Kind of like when the weatherman predicts an "afternoon shower" - we don't grab a bar of soap, get naked, run into the middle of the street (after lunch) and bathe. The word "shower" does not always connote lathering up.

Mine is called a "spray port" and this better reflects it's intended use (ie. rinsing muddy hiking boots, etc.).

Aside from the sanitation issues (gray water, soap residue, hair from various body parts, etc.) left on the ground, in the campsite, there are "decency" issues. One puff of wind and your "curtain" blows open. In most localities, public nudity is illegal. It doesn't matter where you are or what you are doing. If you can be seen by the public......

As I look around a typical campground, excepting younger couples and families, a lot of us campers are getting older. A number of us, as we have aged, have adopted "age appropriate physiques". To see some persons, in this category, in a state of nakedness, would make me want to gouge my eyes out with a fork! (I'm not exempting myself) Also, there are children that might see.

It seems to me that it would be a lot more sensible and less trouble to use the indoor shower - for it's intended purpose. Otherwise, why spend 5 figures on a camping unit with this feature? I don't see what might be gained by trying to undertake this activity outdoors. Maybe I'm missing something?

As other's have said. The outside shower is not an "outside" shower. Used for getting hot water to wash dishes after eating, rinsing sand off of grandkids after day at the beach, etc. We have a small rubber matt we stand on to be out of the "mud".