Jun

16

Family Camping Fun

Filed Under Travel and Leisure 

Welcome to my series on the joys of family camping. In this series I’ll remember my own camping experiences to help you learn why I think that family camping is a great way to bring your family together. My family started camping when I was a young teen and in the almost 40 years that followed, I’ve had some very special family experiences on camping trips. In the process, I’ll turn you on to some great places to camp and help you make a list of the basic gear you’ll need.

One of my favorite things about a family camping trip is the chance to experience nature in a totally new way. The earliest example of this in my life was on our very first family camping trip. It was June of 1969 and my dad decided that we would try camping for that summer’s vacation. Dad decided we were going to visit Ocean City, Maryland and see the wild ponies at Assateague Island National Seashore. Imagine how neat it was for my brother, sister and I (aged 4, 10 and 13 respectively) to see those ponies running around wild. Yes, we could have stayed at a motel and driven to see the ponies, but it just wouldn’t have been the same as getting up, closing our camping tent, packing our picnic basket and then walking to where we could see the ponies. It felt to me like we were part of the ponies’ environment rather than intruders into their world.

Among the amazing wildlife I’ve seen while camping are wild moose in Maine, a spectacular monarch butterfly migration in Long Island (yes you really can go camping in Long Island), dozens of hawks and bald eagles in Central Pennsylvania, thousands of tiny frogs near Myrtle Beach and dozens of deer in one evening on the Skyline Drive in Virginia. All of these trips have left me with memories for a lifetime. I only wish the quality of cameras was better when I was a child. That reminds me, don’t forget to take your camera on your next camping trip and when you go, please, please take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints.

Comments

Leave a Reply