THERE’S A POWERFUL SENSE of accomplishment that comes with being able
to take your kids camping anywhere and have it feel like home. I recall
six years ago, my family’s first camping trip. We’d taken my then
2-year-old daughter to a campground on the Elwha River on Washington’s
Olympic Peninsula. As is always my camping habit, I awoke at dawn, made
coffee, and then wandered across the road, down toward the river through
a damp forest of Douglas fir.
Suddenly, some movement: Two, now three elk jumped up and then
disappeared in the thick salmonberry. I examined the area and discovered
the matted down places in the forest where they’d slept. Their “camp,”
as it were, was less than 200 yards from where we’d set up for the
night.
I walked back to the tent. Not hearing or seeing any movement, I
looked through the mesh window. My daughter and her mom were still
bundled in their bags, asleep, comfy. We’d passed this first night very
peacefully. I stood for a few minutes then as the sun rose, just taking
the scene in. All around was the temperate rainforest, huge conifers and
big-leaf maple. Standing high above were the snowfields on the West
Peak of Mt. Olympus. There was no wind; everything was silent and still
except for the sound of the Elwha running through a small boulder garden
nearby.
Everyone would soon be up and our day would begin, but I savored this
quiet moment alone — the rare feeling of calling this patch of woods
our home for the weekend.
My family has grown since then, and camping is up there among our
favorite things to do together. Through all that time out in the woods
(or in the desert, or on the beach), I’ve picked up some tips that help
separate a really rewarding camp trip from a mediocre one, at least for
my family. The following are nine things you should avoid when camping
with kids. Take them less as rules and more like signposts leading you
in a certain direction.
1. DON’T bring electronic devices for entertainment.
Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way. The real benefit of
camping is that feeling of stillness, clarity, awareness. You begin to
really hear the river. The birdsong. You begin to notice things — the
patch of moss turned golden in the morning sun. The slow steps of a
great blue heron stalking through a shoal.
You settle into this new rhythm to the degree that you “unplug” from
the overactive mind — part of which comes from constant screen-time.
Games, apps, and electronic devices used as “distractions” — whether for
the car ride or waiting at the restaurant — only detract from the
experience.
And yet, presenting this in a punitive way (“No devices while we’re
camping!”) will backfire. Instead, make it a team-like challenge that
you include yourself in as well (“Dad needs a break from being on the
phone and the computer”), and explain how it will be good for everyone:
“Over the next few days, we’re going to start hearing better, seeing
better — just wait until our night hikes — and part of the reason is
we’re not going to have our eyes on screens.”
At the same time, you may still want to encourage the use of digital
tools such as cameras — as long as the kids are staying creative and
productive (perhaps you have a young filmmaker on your hands). Overall,
it’s about not squandering the precious time you have together in the
woods or beach or mountains.
2. DON’T set up gear for the first time there in the camp.
Setting up gear will inevitably be one of the most fun (and funny)
parts of camping. But don’t miss the opportunity to build up the
anticipation even more: Set up camp in the living room or backyard
beforehand.
As you assemble the tent at home, give the kids certain jobs —
perhaps they clip the tent body to the poles or help run the pole
through the sleeves. Maybe they unroll the sleeping pads or spread out
the bags. This can also be a good moment to go over a few tips, like not
walking on the tent while it’s spread out on the ground or being
careful with the poles.
Once everything is set up, let the kids play in it, use it as their
fort for the day or even a sleeping spot for the night (especially for
smaller children). Then, when you’re doing the real thing in the woods,
there will be a sense of familiarity; the kids may already feel some
ownership of their “tasks,” and most of all they’ll be stoked to get
back to their fort.
3. DON’T carry in gear and set up camp yourself.
Whether you’re just walking a few camping boxes into the site from
the car or backpacking, there’s a feeling of accomplishment hauling in
your gear and getting it all set up. Make sure the whole family
participates in this. It might take longer if you divvy these tasks up
to your elementary-school-age “helpers” than just doing it yourself, but
this is a fundamental part of the experience.
Make preparations beforehand for your kids to at least carry their own packs,
possibly with their sleeping bags and/or sleeping pads. And once
they’re around 7, consider having them be responsible for their own pack
with all of their personal items, including headlamp, toothbrush, etc.
4. DON’T go without a “mission.”
For our family, camping always includes some kind of terrain
“objective.” For example, in one of our favorite campgrounds, Big Creek
in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the objective is to hike up the
trail to Midnight Hole.
Some places have obvious objectives, such as peaks to climb. But
other places you have to use your imagination and be creative. The
“mission,” especially for young kids, can be as simple as “making it
down to the creek for a swim.” The important thing here is — as with the
points above — being proactive in the way you build up anticipation for
your adventure.
5. DON’T overplan or force it.
At the same time, it’s important to leave space in your planning for
“just being out there.” Maybe you wanted to make it down to the creek,
but it rained too much the week before and the banks are super muddy and
the water itself is too dirty to play in. A huge part of camping is
adapting to whatever conditions are at hand, not just forcing whatever
itinerary you had in mind.
6. DON’T have a tent as your only shelter.
Another key aspect of camping is simply being gathered together as a
family in a small space. It’s really important, then, to consider your
“central meeting space.” Oftentimes people focus only on tents and
neglect to construct a central shelter for the group. A simple tarp
setup like the one above can work very well; pre-made tarp shelters like
the REI Alcove Shelter are good too. You don’t want your only dry area to be your tent — that gets cramped fast.
7. DON’T fail to bring (or even create) crafts/toys.
As with deploying the camp itself, part of the joy of camping is
being able to play with toys or ride crafts you don’t typically get to
use. Since our local terrain is Southern Appalachia, we’re typically
camping by rivers. Even though I may not actually be on a kayaking
mission, I’ll often still bring my playboat (there’s usually a fun wave
or eddyline nearby) as well as a small inflatable craft for the kids and
me to play with in the eddies. This becomes a loose part of our
“mission” and yet something we don’t have to force. We break out the
watercraft if the conditions call for it, but there’s no pressure.
And sometimes it doesn’t even take having the crafts or toys;
sometimes it’s just about imagination. Some of our happiest camping
moments have been purely spontaneous. At a small tumbling creek we
suddenly began having “6-inch boater races,” each of us taking turns
breaking up sticks or pieces of driftwood and throwing them in as
“mini-boaters.”
Other games you can invent on the spot: “rock golf” (choose a “hole” —
a nearby stump or boulder — then play “golf” using rocks), hide and
seek, “mini-city” (building shelters for the kids’ dolls).
8. DON’T go small on the food.
Food always tastes better when you’re camping, and meals shared
around the fire have a way of staying in your memory. It might seem like
camping meals take extra effort, but as with everything else it’s
really about imagination. Three fundamental pieces of gear to bring
along are a stove, cutting board(s), and table. Make sure you have a
camp stove that can simmer/cook on low heat, such as the Coleman Dual-Fuel 2 Burner Stove.
This is key for pancakes and cooking rice. An extra cutting board (even
an extra frisbee can work) for passing along to one of your helpers is
also key.
Meal prep is also much easier if you have a table. Most established
campsites will have picnic tables; if you’re taking your crew into the
backcountry, consider bringing something like the REI Camp Roll Table.
Finally, don’t rely too heavily on prepackaged backpacking meals. These
can be great for stormy days when you just need to get food and dishes
done quickly, but in general, take the opportunity of family camping to
involve everyone in the meal prep. Let one of the kids use the extra
cutting board and an appropriate knife and help chop vegetables.
My go-to crowd-pleaser dinner — an old-school classic you can cook
right in the coals of the fire with no messy dishes to clean up — is
what I call the “tin foil veggie bomb.” It’s as simple as laying chopped
potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, peppers (and any other veggies
you like), along with a generous serving of herbed butter, onto a large
sheet of aluminum foil. You then cover all of this up with another sheet
of foil and roll it into a single sealed “ball.” You may have to wrap
more layers of foil around the outside; the key is not to let any juice
escape once it begins cooking. Place in the coals of a hot fire and roll
over / turn with a stick every 5 minutes or so. It’s ready when you
smell sweet roasted veggies. Feel free to experiment with strips of meat
or fish in the ball as well.
9. DON’T forget to research and connect with the place (including local people).
Campsites, particularly those in national forests, national parks, or
state parks, tend have a rich but often overlooked natural history. For
example, many of my favorite campsites along the Chattooga River were
once “fords” (wide, comparatively shallow places where people crossed
the river before there were bridges). And further upriver was the site
of “Cherokee Town,” a once-thriving population of native people. The
lore, the names, and even some of the legends of this area live on
today and help give the place its identity.
When taking your kids camping, don’t limit the experience to just an
“outdoor activity.” Consider it also as another kind of “classroom.”
Research the area with your family before you go, and most importantly,
speak to local rangers or environmental educators — and encourage your
kids to ask questions. On a week-long camping trip to Hunting Island
State Park, South Carolina, the local rangers let my kids play for hours
with “Buddy,” a diamondback terrapin they’d rescued years earlier when
he was nearly eaten alive by crabs. Through their time with Buddy, my
kids learned more about the salt marsh than they ever could have in a
book.
This is always my goal when camping with the family. It’s not just a
vacation or an “escape” from our everyday routines — it’s about dialing
into a particular place and learning how to be at home there.
