Planning a Camping Trip

Often I get asked where are we going next or what is our next project? And since my mom and I are planners we are always planning something. 🙂 Believe it or not, a lot of thought and research does into many of our trips. You could say my mom and I have a process for Planning a Camping Trip.

Most of the time we pick a campground because of its proximity to a certain town or state because we have an event (birthday, wedding, etc.) that we are attending but other times we camp near a National Park. So that we can visit the park get a stamp for our National Park Passport Book.

For either scenario we follow a pretty standard sequence of events to plan the trip.

1. We figure out where we are going; the state and then the town.
2. From there we do a quick search of campgrounds near that town. We don’t particularly like big commercialized campgrounds so we are mainly looking for a small family-owned campground.
3. For each campground we find we look at the distance between the campground and where we are going. We also look at the type of sites (back in, pull through, etc.) We also look at the hookups for the sites and if all the sites have fire rings or not.  If we are going to be spending a good amount of time at the campground we will also take a closer look at the amenities/activities at that campground.
4. We will look at 3-4 campgrounds in the area and pull them up on Google Maps. Using Google Maps allows us to get a better idea of how easy or hard getting into the campground will be. It also allows us to see what the campsites look like (trees, sloop, size), this is very helpful. My mom has a tendency to pick campgrounds near railroad tracks so looking at the campground on Google Maps shows us how close the train will be.
5. Once we have picked the campground we will print a campground map and make reservations. We always print our reservations and staple them to the map. When booking sites we like to get two sites next to each other. Recently we have been preferring pull-through sites because we can buddy the sites and make a bigger play area for the kids.

It normally takes us a week to decide on a campground, not only does the research take us some time but then we have to get everyone to agree on the campground. Most often mom and I are on the same page and we have to get Jamie and my dad on board. From there we will start talking about meals and agendas for the weekend. 🙂 Even though it does take some time to find campgrounds and make sure they fit our camping style, in the end, Planning a Camping Trip is worth all the time and energy that goes into it.

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