Winter Camping
There's nothing more peaceful than standing in the woods during a soft snowfall or watching a white hare hop through the snow near a frozen lake. These are just some of the things you can experience on your next winter camping trip. Whether you're dreaming of a camping trip in the deep snows, the dry winter prairies, or a damp coastal forest, don't let fears about cold weather stop you from getting out into nature this winter. With a few precautions and well-chosen gear, you can have the time of your life, camping in the winter months.
What To Do
Winter camping offers a huge number of outdoor activities. If you have the gear, you might bring your cross-country skis or snow shoes with you and take a trip on a snowy trail. In a hilly area, sleds, inner tubes, and toboggans are a ton of fun. You can bring your ice skates and find a well-frozen pond, do some ice fishing on the lake, or look for wildlife tracks in the snow.
On family vacations, one of the best activities is to build a snow fort or snow tunnel. Bundle yourselves up in snow pants, hats, waterproof gloves, and warm coats and use your hands to dig out a tunnel or build a snow wall for snowball fights. You can build snowmen, make snow angels, or borrow a block form and pack in snow to make your own igloo.
What To Bring
Food and warm drinks are crucial to any winter camping trip. Because of the low temperatures and the high calorie-burn of winter sports like cross-country skiing, it's important that you bring a lot of carbohydrates. Drinking water is very important, even if you don't feel thirsty. To help yourself stay hydrated, try making warm drinks that sound good, like hot cider, warm lemonade, cocoa, and hot soup. (Water mixed with Gatorade or a juice mix won't freeze as quickly as water.) You can keep a hot drink in a thermos and take it with you on any day hikes or trips you take.
For clothing, leave your cotton shirts and socks at home and opt instead for wool, polypropylene, fleece, and gortex. All of these fabrics stay warm when they get wet, and they wick sweat away from your body, helping you stay warm even when you're active. Always wear a hat in cold weather. More than half of your body's heat escapes through your head! And make sure your socks are dry (bring plenty of extra dry socks with you).
Dressing in layers will keep you warmer, since the pockets of air between your clothes warms up and acts as natural insulation. Three layers are usually plenty on top: a long-john layer, fleece or a wool sweater, and a wind-proof jacket.
Staying Warm
While you're in camp, use your insulate sleeping pad as a seat, since this will keep your pants dry and your rear end insulated. If you can, bring an extra sleeping pad that you can dedicate just for sitting. At night, always use a pad underneath your sleeping bag. Two will keep you even warmer! If you fill a water bottle with warm water at night, you can put it in the bottom of your sleeping bag and use it as a hot-water bottle.
Important Note
If someone in your group becomes very cold or lethargic (and especially if their speech becomes thick and slow), they may be on the verge of hypothermia. Stop your activity immediately and set up camp. As quickly as you can, get this person into a sleeping bag and give them a warm drink. If they aren't warming up, put another person in the bag with them, ideally in very few clothes. Hypothermia is extremely dangerous, so be sure you know the signs before you go.
Experience the Past – Try History Camping
Nothing brings history to life like a visit to the actual place where great events happened. You can’t get the scale of the past without standing on the battlefields, seeing the forts, or viewing the endless stretches of prairie that the pioneers had to cross. Maybe you love to visit living-history centers, where people dress and work the way their ancestors did, wearing bonnets and churning cream into butter. Or maybe you like to tour restored homes, so you can see how people lived in the 18th and 19th century. Whatever your historical interest, there’s a camping destination that’s perfect for you.
If you’re curious about Revolutionary War history, you can head to Boston for a tour of Bunker Hill and the famous Old North Church, where Paul Revere saw that crucial message in 1775 – “one if by land, two if by sea” – that signaled the arrival of the British. You could camp near New York’s Fort Ticonderoga or head to New Jersey to visit Washington Crossing State Park, where General Washington and the Continental Army landed after their crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Day, 1776. From Valley Forge to the Brandywine Battlefield Park, there’s no shortage of Revolutionary War-era destinations in the northeastern corner of the country.
Civil War buffs can explore the sites along the Civil War Discovery Trail, stopping off at battlefields, army camps, and the places where key decisions were made. You could follow Sherman’s historic march to the sea or visit Atlanta and replay Scarlett O’Hara’s flight from the burning city in Gone with the Wind. More than thirty states, as apart as Minnesota and Louisiana, Maine and California, have Civil War sites to visit.
You may want to visit the home of your favorite American author on your next camping trip. In the east, you can see Edgar Allen Poe’s home in Richmond, Virginia or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts. The Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead in South Dakota is a popular destination. And of course, you can visit the areas featured in these writers’ books as well. Take a riverboat cruise along the Mississippi, remembering Huck Finn, or head to Mesa Verde, the setting for Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House. Every state has its great writer who evoked a true sense of the place in their work.
Perhaps you’d like to follow one of the historic pioneering trails, such as the Lewis and Clark Trail or the Oregon Trail. When Lewis and Clark set out to find a water route to the west coast in 1804-1806, their path took them through some of the most scenic territory in the west. Following their trail will lead you from their starting place in Missouri through Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, northern Idaho, and along the Columbia River that separates Oregon and Washington State. Much of this route is dotted with signposts and historic markers that explain important points in their journey. You can learn about their wise guide Sacajawea, President Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, or Lewis’s trusty dog Seaman.
No matter what part of American history you want to explore, you’ll find a destination to visit. Goal setting is a great way to plan a camping trip that pleases everyone in the family. You can get all the fun of camping in new and unusual places, with fascinating daytime stops at historical sites along the way.
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Farm Camping
In our hectic, fast-paced world, getting back to nature can mean many things. For you and your family, it may mean spending time in the woods, far from the sounds of highways and cell phones. Or your family outings may have an educational purpose. Maybe you’d like your kids to know where their food comes from and to learn about growing fruits and vegetables. If that’s the case, then farm camping is your ticket!
Farm camping is less about where you camp and more about what you do during your days. Whether you camp at a nearby RV park, campground, or right on the farm grounds, what’s important is the time you spend exploring the farm during the day. Many family farms are happy to welcome visitors and to show them the ins and outs of the farming life. You and your kids might get to collect eggs from the hen house, watch the cows be milked, and pull fresh carrots from the garden.
If you visit a region that’s known for a particular farm product, you can probably find tours that include behind-the-scenes looks at the animals and plants that make the product possible. For instance, you can often meet the dairy cows on cheese or ice cream-producing farms. Farms that specialize in goat cheese or sheep’s-milk yogurt may have animals for the kids to pet. And many stables are happy to introduce kids to a friendly horse or two.
A great way to start out your farm camping adventure is by adding one or two discreet activities, to see how your family responds. You might go to a pumpkin patch to pick your Halloween pumpkins, or go berry or apple picking at a u-pick field in the summer. Make a habit of stopping at farmer-owned fruit and vegetable stands and asking how the crops are doing that year—your kids will pick up on your interest and they’ll become curious, too. Farmer’s markets are also a great place to introduce your kids to vegetables they might not have encountered before. They can see Brussels sprouts still on the stalk, garlic with the stems still attached, and carrots with their feathery green tops.
Festivals that celebrate farm produce are also a great way to have a farm experience during your camping vacation. You might head to the famous Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California, to the Tyler Texas Rose Festival, or the Georgia Peach Festival in Byron and Fort Valley. No matter how obscure the fruit or vegetable, you can bank on there being a festival somewhere in the U.S. that celebrates it.
Vineyards are also great places to get in touch with the land. Many vineyards give tours of their fields, allowing you to stand in a field of grape vines and soak in the scents, views, and serenity the farmer feels every day. You might find terrific wildlife viewing at the vineyard—ask if you should watch for hawks, eagles, foxes, or deer. The vineyard you visit might grow a small amount of a side crop like tomatoes, vegetables in a garden, or a specific variety of flowers.
You can also get a taste of the farm life by visiting the state or county fair in the area you’re visiting. Whether you’re headed to Saint Paul, Minnesota (home of the largest state fair in the country) or are just taking in the local fair in a small county, you’ll find plenty of animals and farm products at the fair. Look for 4-H activities and strike up a conversation with the kids. You’ll learn all about how they raised their goat or chicken or rabbit, and you’ll come away with a deeper understanding of animal husbandry. At some fairs, 4-H volunteers run a small petting zoo, where your kids can touch friendly pigs, geese, goats, and sheep.
No matter what approach you take, you’ll be enriched by your contact with farms and farmers. Farms represent the source of life, a place where nature’s cycles are played out every day. It’s a phenomenal learning-place for kids, and a soothing experience for adults of all ages.
The Joys of Holiday Camping and RVing
Are you looking for a way to put the magic back into your holiday celebrations? A camping trip might be the answer you're looking for! Camping during the holidays is a great way to get back to the basics, to celebrate nature, and remember all you have to feel grateful for. It's a way for the family to spend quality time together, away from the pull of video games, TV, and cell phones. Most importantly, being outdoors is the perfect way to mark the passing of the seasons, and toast the season or the year to come.
Many RV parks and campgrounds host special holiday events. All over the U.S., you'll find campgrounds that put on special programs for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and July 4th. In fact, Independence Day is one of the biggest camping holidays of the year. If you're thinking about camping during the July 4th weekend, be sure to reserve your campsite well in advance, as they tend to fill up quickly, especially at campgrounds that put on fireworks shows or are near towns with big fireworks displays.
The winter holidays are an especially fun time to go camping. If you're in the northern half of the state, you'll want to check first to make sure that your campground is open year round. If it is, you can look forward to a holiday trip that's full of winter sports like skiing and snowshoeing. Even if there isn't snow in your area, you can still enjoy an invigorating winter hike followed by an evening around the campfire. Be sure to pack and plan for the cold, and bring plenty of treats!
If you're heading to a southern campground for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year's, you can enjoy the sunny weather while you check out the local display of lights or join in the campground's potluck Thanksgiving dinner. Nearly all campgrounds that are open for the holidays put on some kind of a special group meal or event.
To make sure your camping holiday is as fabulous as possible, take a little time to brainstorm ways you can adapt your at-home rituals to the camping environment. If you won't have a Christmas tree, can you bring peanut-buttered pinecones, birdseed, and suet to hang on a living evergreen in your campground? Can you re-create your Thanksgiving dinner with dishes made over the campfire or in a Dutch oven? Maybe this will be the year when you hearken back to old-fashioned traditions, like baking apples, roasting nuts, and decorating with paper chains rather than electric lights. You can sing carols over the glow of your lantern, take a hay ride at Thanksgiving, or visit a farm to meet real rabbits and chicks at Easter.
Holiday camping can be a memorable, bonding event for the whole family. You'll always remember the year you climbed Green Mountain at Easter or snowshoed to that waterfall at Thanksgiving. It's spending time together that makes the holidays special, and there's no better way to do that than by getting back to nature.
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