What Is Camping?

Broadly speaking, camping is spending a night outdoors away from the creature comforts of your home. There are nearly endless variations, each with their own rules, gear, challenges, and perks.

Camping can be understood in two parts: how you can camp, and where you can camp.

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Why Try Camping?

• Connection: Get outside to be more in touch with nature, your loved ones, yourself, or in spirit.
• Challenge: Even with all the right gear, weather, and luck, camping is a challenging endeavor, but well-worth pursuing.
• You Only Live Once: Why not?

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Who Should Go Camping?

If you are able, you should try camping at least once in whatever way is possible to you. In your backyard, at a museum sleep over, or a 20 mile backpacking trip. Just one night can be a profound and humbling experience.

• Individuals who want to explore the outdoors, from beginners to experts
• Families or friends looking for a great bonding experience
• Anyone living or visiting the United States is welcome and encouraged to explore our public lands

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Public Lands Where You Can Camp

Our public land system is enormous and holds some of the best opportunities to connect with the outdoors.

Camping on Federal public lands

Most federal public land is managed by one of four agencies — the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service. Each area is typically called a “unit” and has slightly different rules and purposes, but all of them offer camping opportunities.

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Basic Gear For Camping

Start with the basics, and don’t overdo it on the camping gear. Even if you’re a seasoned camper, you’ll eventually find much of the market is saturated with unnecessary items solving less critical problems.

This is not a comprehensive list. But it is a great place to start:

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Essential Skills And Safety

Knowing the essential skills and safety protocols is critical for any camper, new or experienced. Below are some of the core things to familiarize yourself with and practice when you go camping:

• Bring the 10 essentials
• Wildlife awareness
• Weather awareness
• Fire safety
• First aid skills
• How to identify and select a proper campsite

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Stewardship and Etiquette

We can’t enjoy camping unless we all care to keep these places clean, safe, and accessible to all who use them. Like riding a bus, you’re in the public arena when camping and your presence always makes an impact. What kind of impact is up to you.

• Understand the Leave No Trace principles.
• Keep light levels reasonable and respectful, especially floodlights.
• Keep noise levels reasonable and respectful, especially music.
• Do not ever feed, approach, or disturb any wildlife.
• Pack everything out, including trash.
• Do not book extra campgrounds that you don’t need.
• Leave the place better than you found it.

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What To Expect When Camping

Camping is not always as glamorous as Instagram makes it out to be. And it shouldn’t be. A couple of key things to understand when you’re camping:

• It’s up to you to have fun.
• It requires some hard work.
• There will be bugs.
• There will be bad weather.
• You will get dirty and smell.
• You will forget something.
• It can feel a little scary at first.
• Weather exposure and falling tree branches are way more of a threat than animal encounters.

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How to Plan A Camping Trip

General step-by-step plan:

• Pick a destination (NPS, USFS, BLM, State Park)
• Determine how you want to camp:
  • Car camping
  • Backpacking
  • Other
• Confirm how and where you will camp:
  • Developed campground
  • Primitive campground
  • Dispersed camping
• Check local fire restrictions
• Check local roads and access to your destination
• Check the weather (snow, rain, wildfire watch)
• Confirm any trail(s) or routes if necessary
• Complete any permits or reservations needed
• Plan out your meals
• Test out your gear
• Learn rules/etiquette of where you are camping
• Let people know where you’re going
• Enjoy the journey

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Camping Tips for Beginners

• Keep first trip short (1–2 nights).
• Borrow or rent gear before buying.
• Practice setting up tent and gear at home.
• Expect the first time to be a challenge and learning experience.

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Resources

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Glossary

Click to expand

• Car camping – Driving up to a camping area and packing your gear in a car. This can be at a designated campground, primitive campground, or on your own as “dispersed camping” (see below). Ultimately, anywhere you camp with your car is “car camping.”
• Developed campgrounds – A designated campground with basic amenities and facilities including fire rings, vault toilets, tent platforms, potable water spigots, firewood for sale, and picnic tables. Oftentimes a campground host will be present to answer questions and collect fees. Amenities and facilities will vary depending on the campground. Many times these campgrounds will have electric sites and hookups for RV’s and trailers.
• Primitive campgrounds – A designated camping area with little to no amenities or facilities, usually just a place to set up your tent. You may get lucky with a fire ring, but these campgrounds are mainly to provide safe areas for people to camp in less accessible areas, and to help protect the landscape by preventing excessive dispersed camping.
• The Bureau of Land Management (BLM): The BLM oversees the largest portion of public land with about 250 million access. BLM lands are very accessible, and typically have fewer restrictions than you’d find on other public lands, which attracts a large variety of adventure seekers and campers. This includes (but is not limited) to places like Wilderness Areas and National Conservation Lands.
• The U.S. Forest Service: The USFS manages almost 200 million acres of land and provides some of the best places to camp among majestic forests, mountains, and a great way to escape the crowds. This includes (but is not limited) to places like National Forests and National Grasslands.
• The National Park Service: The NPS manages 85 million acres and over 425+ units, including some of the most scenic parts of the country like Olympic National Park and Zion National Park, as well as National Monuments and other gems. Everything from designated camping, backpacking, and car camping can be had in public lands managed by the National Park Service. This includes (but is not limited) to places like National Parks, National Rivers, and Wilderness Areas.
• Wilderness Areas: Each agency manages Federal Wilderness Areas with over 111 million acres and 806+ units, Wilderness Areas are the highest level of protection and designation public land can receive. Only accessible by foot traffic (no cars, bikes, or pets) it certainly offers the chance to see some of the most remote and pristine wilderness in the country, and is excellent for wildlife and natural ecosystems. However, the subject of management and the notion of “untouched” wilderness has received some criticism over the years as potentially not the healthiest way to manage wild lands.
• The US Fish and Wildlife Service: The US Fish and Wildlife Service manages 95 million acres on land, and over 755 million acres on water across all 50 US States, which is mostly composed of units called National Wildlife Refuges. The agency’s main goal is to protect and restore wildlife species and ecosystems. Everything from developed campgrounds, backpacking, and car camping can be found in National Wildlife Refuge Units and Wilderness Areas managed by the USFWS.