I went car camping with the scouts last weekend in western Utah. For those interested, we went to Vernon Reservoir for a little fishing (although no luck ). This place sits at 6 thousand feet and is located in what some people describe as the high desert. There isn't much large vegetation, a few cedars, and lots of sage brush. Anyways, we had a front move in, and it was really windy. I am not sure how windy, other than it was more than 40 mph gusts. I was planning to make a fire and cook chili with a dutch oven, along with peach cobbler. It was too windy for that, and we ended up just cooking chili, in my van with the door open. The propane two burner stove wouldn't even work with the big wind blocker sitting on the bench. Luckily we had some really heavy springbar tents that can handle a wind like that. I was going to test my tarp out, but decided against it. So, how have others dealt with high wind conditions (40-50 mph+)?