Mountain Meals for the Trail-Hungry Family

Going camping, hitting the trails, or heading to a vacation rental looking for some easy mountain meals?

Well look no further! Below you will find my mountain vacation menu for a family of 6! Morning breakfasts, trail lunches, and easy in rental dinners are what we’ve got cooking!

In July my family and in-laws took a vacation to the mountains surrounding Crested Butte, Colorado for three nights and four days. We packed most of our meals and also enjoyed a few dinners in town.

Planning for and cooking meals from our rented Mt. House was convenient for making trail-ready lunches.

Planning and Buying

Planning ahead and shopping for our adventure took some advance preparation. But it was well worth it because of the money we saved, and the convenience of having meals, snacks, and menu items within arms reach at our vacation rental.

Many people now use one of the grocery buying services available to them for convenience and food delivery when they arrive to a vacation location. But our area, Crested Butte, was in a relatively remote location in Colorado. So between the location and the added expense of buying groceries upon arrival we chose to bring them all with us in crates and coolers.

Here is the timeline I followed to plan and buy the food for our mountain meals.

10-14 days or more out from the trip: Put together a rough menu outlining how many of each type of meal will be eaten in house, on the trail, or at a restaurant. Don’t forget to consider snacks and fun beverages.
7 days out: Create a detailed menu with corresponding shopping list.
3 days out: Purchase all necessary pantry and produce items.
Day before: Precook or prep meals that can be easily packed or stored in a cooler for the drive.
Day of departure: Pack coolers, and pantry items in travel vehicles within 30 minutes of departing.

Mountain Meals for our Vacation

Below is our menu for a budget conscious mountain vacation. In our case we ate two dinners in town (so we only cooked the burgers at the mt. house) but for today’s graphic and your planning I’ve included three of each meal type.

The money saving advantages of cooking this much from the vacation rental or packing our trail lunches was amazing. For a family of six, each eating adult-sized portions, all meals cost as much as if we had enjoyed only two sit down two-course dinners at a restaurant in town.

Making some items in advance of the meal saves money and is a healthier option than buying fast food on the road.

Is Cooking on Vacation, a Vacation?

Many may say that cooking this much while on vacation isn’t much of a vacation for whoever does the cooking. Here are some ways to still cook-in while allowing everyone time to relax on the trip.

Plan on enjoying coffee, and adult beverages out and about.
Rotate the cooking duties, one person doesn’t need to cook all the main meals.
One person does the cooking, another does the cleaning up.
Cook some of the meals at the vacation rental and eat some of the meals at a restaurant, which is what we did.

Cooking and preparing meals on the trail is easy with a little planning and preparation.

Our trip to the mountains this summer was possible because we chose to cook several of the meals at the vacation rental. Cooking and eating in this way allowed us to save money and not completely exhaust our annual vacation budget. Not all vacations call for cooking from the lodging location, some can though and in the end it’s always worth it.

Tell me in the comments, have you ever cooked from your rental or air bnb on vacation?

With hope for you and your intentional life,