Musings about US Camping

The picture above is at Tawas Point State Park in Michigan, a huge campground; i.e. 250-300 spaces tightly clustered around several loops on a sandy spit sticking out into Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay. On this trip we have stayed at lots of different campsites, from commercial sites to state and national park sites. I find that in these packed sites I don't feel like I am getting away from it all. When we were at the campsite in Yoho National Park, what I heard was the river and what I saw was the huge peaks and even though there were RVs relatively nearby, I didn't feel like I was living in a city. When we stay at these other sites, I feel like I'm living in a city. I can hear my neighbors and I can see into their lives. I remember something I heard at a ranger talk about the long houses the First Nation people lived in in Canada. Many families shared these huge houses and there was an understanding that you didn't look into other people's space. I find myself both drawn to and feeling like a voyeur when I do so in a campsite.

Other than people with small canvas-sided pop-ups and tenters, we are a very small camper and we draw a lot of curiousity everywhere but the far west (in Fort Flagler WA there were three A-frame pop-ups). Many of these campsites have accessible sites for those with disabilities, a wonderful addition. At Tawas Point and at Pancake Bay there were boardwalks out over the sand so that people in wheelchairs could go out on the beach. Many people come with the most amazing number of toys: swimming pools, lights, signs listing their names (and the names of their dogs and children), boats, ATVs, tents, awnings, mosquito enclosures, games (Monkey Claw - the game I described that Bill Schuckel built involving the throwing of golf balls tied together towards a ladder [or in some cases a ladder with a paddle wheel on top]), a bean bag game that we found out was called "Potty" because the target looks like the top of a toilet seat in a latrine), chairs, radios, etc. They also have RVs of various sizes and congregate in family compounds and multiple cars. As a result, it doesn't feel much like wilderness to me. In addition, many people are listening to radios or watching TV inside their RVs.

I know I am probably from a different socio-economic class and have a different level of education from many of these people. I also know that the kids are having a fabulous time. It's like the 50's; they are running around on their bikes, playing in the playgrounds and at other sites and having fun. People are out jogging and walking their dogs. It is a community created at the campground. For many people, this is their vacation, and a cheap one at that.

However, I still wish for more quiet and wilderness (though I do appreciate a warm shower occasionally).