When you Arrive at the Campground
You have searched out the best place to take your family for your weekend adventure, you arrive at the campground, now you need to layout your camp site. You maybe saying to yourself that it isn’t a big deal, just set up your tent and your good to go. Yet there are 11 do’s and don’t considerations that must be planned out as you are setting up. You should survey whether you are camped on flat land or a mountainside. What direction is the wind blowing? Where are the restrooms? Is there a water source nearby? Are there trees in the campsite?
If you are camping in a campground that has a table and fire pit, you likely will not have full control of how the campsite is laid out. But if you are camping on BLM land, disperse camping, or on vacant land that you own, there will be considerations that you must plan out for your safety and enjoyment. The best way to explain how to plan your campsite set up to put the Do’s and Do Nots in list form.
The Do’s and Do Nots of campsite set up
Do set your tent up on high ground away from any gullies. Make sure fire pit smoke will not blow toward your tent.
Do pile your firewood no less than ten feet from your camp-fire location.
Do set your kitchen and clean up area well away from firepit and tent site.
Do use wide web straps if you plan to hang a hammock on a tree, ropes will damage the bark.
Do store axes and hatchets safely in their sheathes and away from any walking path
Do make sure your latrine is set up well away from your main campsite, check for poisonous plants and water sources. You do not want to pollute a river, stream, or lake with sewage.
Do not set up a campfire on the ground unless you have cleared the ground ten feet around the camp-fire location and made sure that you are not under a tree or low hanging branches.
Do not hang any ropes from trees in your chosen camp site area
Do not put nails in trees to hang anything, learn how to lash a hanger with rope to the tree.
Do not ever have a gas or propane lantern hanging against a tree, the tree may start on fire.
Do not have any wood hanging out of a fire pit, ever.
Do not use freshly cut wood in a fire pit, it will produce flying embers and excessive smoke.
When you are breaking down camp
When you are getting ready to leave a camp site, make sure that you Leave No Trace of your being there. Clean all trash that may have fallen, clean up cigarette butts, and bottle caps, if you made a fire ring then clean up the ashes and distribute the rocks, if you dug trenches around your tent then rake them out, and definitely do not leave a camp fire burning unattended at any time during your adventure.
All of the articles on my blog come from being a camper from the time I was eight years old. I bought my first RV when I was 30, a tent trailer. I traded the tent trailer for a 26′ bumper pull trailer, then a 5th wheel, and I now have a 38′ Newmar Mountainare Class A motorhome. Once I retired from the Motion Picture Industry after a 39 year career, my wife and I sold the house, and moved into the motorhome. We have been traveling, managed an RV Park in Washington, worked at a lake in Southern California (I was the Maintenance Manager), and are planning our seventh season as the campground hosts at a campground in the Los Padres National Forest, in Southern California. We love the Full Time RV Lifestyle. See my course on https://howtofulltimerv.com
I love camping