Your camping experience can be made or broken by choosing the right campground. Even with an appropriate shelter and sleeping setup, sleeping soundly at a low-quality campsite is tough. Flooded tents, falling trees, and obnoxious neighbors can all ruin a trip, but they can all be prevented with a little forethought and preparation.
You may find it difficult to relax on the hard-packed ground, to tune out a chronic snorer 15 feet away, or to feel comfy if heavy winds are swaying your shelter. A nice campsite is essential for a good night’s sleep, so choose your sleeping spot carefully.
Use these tips from Christian retreat center Wisconsin to locate a suitable location and enjoy a good night’s sleep while exploring the outdoors.
Seek out the flat ground.
While this may not be a concern for those in a hammock, everyone else will want to set up their shelter in a fairly level area. If you can’t find a completely level spot, consider how you’d sleep if you were sleeping on a slant. After a long day of trekking, some people find that elevating their feet helps to reduce swelling. Others may find that sleeping with their head up relieves nighttime stuffiness (particularly if allergies are present). This appears to be a no-brainer—until you don’t do it. Check for rocks and roots while you’re at it.
Examine the drainage at your campsite
This isn’t as vital if you’re in a van or bed, but draining is critical when you’re in a tent camping. Is the terrain around your campsite sloping in your direction? It’s a good idea to make a ditch or waterway away from your campsite if it’s going to rain.
Decide which Orientation you want your door to open.
It’s a matter of paying heed to the orientation your tent doors, if you’re in a neighborhood with other people who are on camping. When you go on tent camping with just the kids, you must keep your tent door facing the kids’ tent door so you can keep an eye on them. When you are in your campervan in a dispersed park with other campers, must try to position it such that your campervan door faces away from their campsite or hides behind a tree.
Take Benefit of the Sun
In the cooler months, assess where sun comes up and attempt to position your tent to get the most sun as feasible early in the day to help warmed up. Look for more trees and mossy rocks that will create shade and shadows as the sun sets earlier in the summer.
Look for a Kids Activity site near your chosen location
Make sure you pick a campsite with easy access to exciting attractions like rocks, trees, and creeks. Many well-known campgrounds have images or reviews available online to assist you. Alternatively, check the maps of the locations to see if there is any water nearby that could be a bonus to your visit.
Take care of Widowmakers
Keep an eye on the condition of the trees in the neighbourhood. This is something that Christian camps in Wisconsin always tell their campers to take care of because it can put you in big trouble if you ignore it. To hang your hammock on, you’ll need healthy trees or anything else solid.
Looking down for the greatest tent position is vital, but looking up is perhaps even more so. Widowmakers earned their name from the fact that they kill people. When choosing a location, make sure to check not only the area directly adjacent to your tent but also a big enough perimeter so that if a dead lodgepole pine or other huge tree falls, it won’t crush you as you sleep.
Stay away from bugs
Whether it’s horseflies, deer flies, mosquitoes, or white socks, you’ll find at least one type of irritating biting insect wherever you go camping. Choose a location farthest away from mosquito-breeding standing water if you’re in a bug-prone area. You may also have to choose between being more exposed to the elements and dealing with the wind or staying in the woods and fighting bugs. Cooking and eating in a windier place and leaving the buggy, covered spots for while you’re in your tent is one possibility.
Care Your Safety from animals
Don’t pitch your tent in the middle of a game route. While a deer going through is pleasant, the grizzly or black bear that follows it is not. Also, keep in mind that in bear country, conventional food storage and cooking restrictions apply. Look for suitable trees to hang food from, and keep any edibles out of and away from your tent. Bears aren’t the only reason to keep a clean camp. Many chipmunks and squirrels have grown accustomed to people dropping food or feeding them directly that they would boldly chew through your food bag or slide through an open vehicle door.
Always remember to “Leave No Trace” when traveling.
To conserve the environment, reduce your influence and leave no trace. When possible, camp in an existing camp place, and at the very least, camp on a durable surface rather than in vulnerable areas. Remember to pick up your waste, avoid cutting the vegetation, and leave whatever you find.
These ten pointers should assist you in finding a suitable campsite to call home in the vast outdoors. Remember to always heed the advice of local rangers and wildlife professionals when it comes to wildlife safety. Get out there and enjoy yourself.
Just because rearranging the rocks, logs, and other characteristics could make a campsite great doesn’t mean you should. “Good campsites are discovered, not built,” Johnson explains. If you’re in a campground, only use permitted fire rings and wash up after on your own immediately. If you’re in the woods, look for spots that have already been used. Keep a close eye on fire prohibited areas, however, if you make a campfire, make sure to take it down before you leave.
