The Joys of Family Camping
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Welcome to my series on the joys of family camping. In this series I’ll remember my own childhood to help you understand why I think that camping is a great way to bring your family together. My family started camping when I was a young teen and in the 39 years that followed, I’ve had some great family experiences on camping trips. In the process, I’ll turn you on to some great places to go camping and help you make a list of the camping gear you’ll need.
One of my favorite things about a family camping trip is the chance to experience wildlife in a totally new way. The first example of this I can remember was on our very first family camping trip. It was the summer of 1969 and my father decided that we would try camping for our summer vacation. Dad decided we were going to visit Assateague Island National Seashore and see the wild ponies. Imagine how special it was for my brother, sister and I (aged 4, 10 and 13 respectively) to see those ponies running around in nature. 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, getting out of our camping tent, packing our picnic basket and then hiking to where we could check out the ponies. It felt to me like we were part of the ponies’ world rather than intruders into their environment.
Among the spectacular 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 bald eagles and hawks in Central Pennsylvania, a migration of tiny frogs in South Carolina and dozens of deer in one evening on the Skyline Drive in Virginia. All of these trips have etched memories for a lifetime into my mind. I only wish that digital cameras were better when I was a kid. 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.
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Posted on: Monday, May 4, 2009 at 4:11 pm 
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