Planning a Camping Trip with Kids

January 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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ContentThere are few things as rewarding as sharing a new experience with your children. Camping is an activity that becomes even more fun when you do it with your kids. However, it requires a bit of extra planning to take your child with you on your camping trip. Learn how to prepare yourself and your child for an exciting camping adventure.

First, ensure that your child is interested in camping with you. Some kids hate the outdoors, to the point that they aren’t even open to trying something like camping. If this is the case, you may want to work your way up to a camping trip. Start with a hike, a campfire, or spending the night in a tent in the backyard.

Be sure to choose a family-friendly campground for your camping trip with your children. Don’t choose a campground that allows open alcohol bottles, markets to party people, or serves alcohol at night. That’s the recipe for a disastrous trip with your child. Instead, choose a campground that has kids’ games, a shallow pool for kids, and different arts and crafts activities for children.

Plan a short camping trip as your first trip with your kids. A camping trip that lasts a full week can be too much for kids, especially if they decide early on that it’s not fun for them. Go for one night or for a weekend. Even better, plan your trip at a campground close to home. If they get homesick or uncomfortable, you can return home if it’s what will make them feel better.

You can create a fun family tradition of camping. It all starts with your first camping trip with your children. Plan a trip that’s short, close to home, and full of kid-friendly activities. They’re sure to look forward to the next trip!

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Camping for Couples

December 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ContentWho wants to spend the night in an expensive hotel when you can go camping instead? As far as romantic weekends go, camping is one of the less traditional options, but it is a fun way for a couple to spend time together.

To ensure that you and your partner have fun on your camping trip together, be willing to compromise. This is particularly important if one partner has been camping for years and the other partner is new to camping. Start with a short trip together to ensure that both people have fun. Another factor to compromise on is where you sleep. If it is the first camping trip for one of you, sleeping in a sleeping bag in a tent might be too much of a shock. Instead, consider sleeping in a camper or a yurt. A yurt is a Mongolian-style hut that is a bit less rugged than a tent.

Find a campground that has couples-friendly activities. A campground located on the waterfront is perfect, since there’s plenty of space for romantic canoe trips and sunbathing. Additionally, a campground with camp sites that aren’t too close together is a preferable choice. If the camp sites are practically on top of each other, it’s hard to sit with your honey and have romantic fireside talks. Look at a campground’s marketing to determine if it’s a good place for couples. If there are lots of activities for children, keep looking. Rowdy kids aren’t conducive to a romantic camping trip, especially if you’re looking for a weekend away from the kids!

Most importantly, have fun with your partner. Eat s’mores, sleep in, and unplug yourselves from technology. A break from answering emails, texting, and taking phone calls is fun too. This can make for the perfect camping trip for you and your partner.

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Preparing for a Camping Trip

December 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ContentEveryone looks forward to a camping trip; whether you are going with friends, family, or a romantic partner, it’s the best way to unwind and take a break from real life. To get the most out of your camping trip, plan ahead and prepare appropriately for your trip.

As early as possible, plan the days that you’ll be taking your camping trip. During busy season, campgrounds fill up very early and very quickly. The earlier you pick your dates, the better selection of campsites you can select from. Waiting too long can get you a bad campsite, or worse, no campsite at all.

Make packing lists early, especially if you are camping with children. Nothing ruins a camping trip faster than having to go home because you forgot a toothbrush, glasses, or tent poles. Even better, give each person their own individual packing list. As they pack each item on the list, cross it off.

Stock up on delicious camp food. Camping is a vacation, so feel free to splurge on foods that you usually can’t afford or don’t allow yourself to eat. Sugary sodas, candy, and s’mores are all camping staples. Ensure that you have enough food storage for whatever you bring; not having a cooler can leave you with warm sodas.

Shortly before leaving for your trip, check all of your camping gear. It is far too easy to leave out an essential tent part and have no place to sleep when you’re camping. Check your cell phone and ensure it has a full battery; if there’s an emergency, you don’t want to be more than a phone call away. Write down the address of the campground as well as your camp site number. Have everyone in your group carry it on them at all times; if there’s an emergency, they’ll need that information to get help quickly

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Campground Manners

October 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Most people go camping to get away from society and most of the people that form it, but unless you travel to somewhere extremely remote, you’re bound to run into somebody else out in the wilderness regardless. Campgrounds and wilderness areas are visited by around 13 million people per year in the United States alone, and even if every one of them wanted seclusion and to be in a place with no other people for once, they would still have to share their camping grounds with others who have just as much of a right to camp there as they do.

Treat others as you want to be treated. You probably learned this advice from your parents; it’s true, particularly where camping is involved. Would you want some stranger walking into your camp and talking to you out of nowhere? Neither do the other campers, so generally even if you sight somebody else, you should leave them be unless they’re in some kind of trouble. Would you want strangers to cross through your campsite? Probably not! Make an effort to walk around other campers’ campsites instead of crossing through them.

The same rule applies for blaring loud music or laughing/shouting/singing loudly (particularly at night), using anything that flashes bright lights or burning a large bonfire at night that others might see from far away, playing games or using electronics that are noisy enough to hear from afar, leaving trash or even food scraps behind that others who come after you will know is not part of the wilderness, and dozens of other situations.

Use common sense and be considerate of how your wilderness neighbors will think of the situation rather than your side of things. The music is nice to you, but your neighbor is a captive audience to music they might not even like, and they’re in the middle of the wilderness so it’s probably the only sound for miles!

Finally, extend your courtesy to the wildlife as well, and do your best to avoid them so that they do the same for you. Remember, you’re a guest in their homes.

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The 7 Principles of Leave No Trace

August 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When you go camping, you’ll often hear the words “Leave No Trace”. Many campgrounds and nearly all wilderness areas emphasize that you must follow the Leave No Trace principles to stay there at all. The name says the basics—don’t leave your garbage behind or trash the area, right? But there is more to Leave No Trace than that, and if someone is going to hold you to a set of rules, it’s always a good idea to know exactly what those rules are so that you can do your best to follow them. Here is a run-down of what each principle means.

Principle 1, Plan Ahead and Prepare, states that you must pre-plan your trip so that you have the supplies, equipment, goals and knowledge of the area you are staying in to be able to camp there without any emergencies of the inconvenient kind cropping up.

Principle 2, Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces, warns you to hike and set up camp on solid surfaces so that your feet, tents and the weight of your body while laying down to sleep don’t damage the ground beyond repair.

Principle 3, Dispose of Waste Properly, requires you to bury human waste at least six inches below the surface of the ground, preferably in a cathole.

Principle 4, Leave What You Find, forbids you from damaging the natural surroundings in any permanent fashion.

Principle 5, Minimize Campfire Impacts, asks that you use a fire pan or portable stove instead of building a campfire when possible. If you must build a campfire, disassemble it well enough afterward that no one who looks can tell a campfire was there.

Principle 6, Respect Wildlife states that you should not intentionally spook, chase, pick up, touch or feed animals you may encounter while camping. Report injured animals to the local game warden or Park Ranger.

Principle 7, Be Considerate of Other Visitors, asks that you not blare music or make excessive noise while camping, play pranks on other campers, hold sports games or other noisy, crowded events, wear bright and unnatural-looking colors like day-glow yellow, or intentionally spook other campers’ animals.

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