Camping Etiquette 101
Picture this: You arrive at your chosen and dedicated campsite and you’re all excited to get started camping, only to find that the previous campers left all their trash, broken beer bottles and soda cans half-full of soda with ants crawling around everywhere! They didn’t even clean up after their pets and left the picnic table a mess with barbeque stuff. The hose bib dripping so there’s a big muddy mess everywhere. What is your feeling at this point about the previous occupants of this campsite?
Right, I thought so! So how important is it to you now, to leave the campground better than you found it? Please do your part. This is especially important to the future of public land camping opportunities. The feds are actually shutting down federal land campgrounds, National Parks, and other federal lands because in the past few years there have been so many new campers that have no idea how to treat their campsite, their fellow campers, and the earth. They ruin it all for the rest of us who are smarter than the average bear and treat people the way we want to be treated by leaving the campsite in the best shape it can be.
A few notes on how to treat other campsites and campers: I separate the two for a good reason. Campers are people and campsites are “property”. The property is leased for a time to you and to the other campsites to other campers. As such, their “property” is their property. Not yours, not your kids, and not your pets. Respect their property as you expect them to respect yours. One thing that newbies tend to do, a lot, is to walk through someone else’s campsite to get to the office or the pool just because it’s a shortcut. Imagine you’re sitting there having a private and intimate conversation with your significant other and some kid or worse, a thoughtless adult, walks right past you through your campsite, your property. What do you think of them at this moment? Right, I thought so! No do you want to be thought of this way? No, you don’t. So, treat other’s campsites the way you want other campers to treat your campsite.
To read the Ultimate Guide To Campground Etiquette, click here.
Let’s move on to the final chapter in this series, leaving the campground better than you found it 101.