Finding Quiet Locations in Crowded Campgrounds

Unfortunately, not all campers regard camping as a chance to a have a quiet commune with nature. Too often, after too much beer, neighboring campers can get noisier than is tolerable. Campground rules often stipulate quiet time between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., but there is no guarantee that campers will stick to this rule (or any other rules, for that matter).

Other inconveniences include the arrival of other campers after official gate-closing hours. The flash of a car's headlight beams in the night just as you're touching down in dreamland is not only annoying, but can also be angering. In consideration of others, you might want to plan your arrival at a campsite before others start heading off for bed.

This article provides suggestions for finding a campsite that enables you to have the relaxing experience you're seeking, and gives you more guidance about being a polite neighbor.

Hiking for 20 Minutes Gives You an Advantage

One good thing about camping is that it's not that hard to get away from the crowds. A recent survey of visitors to U.S. National Parks discovered that a majority of car campers (including those arriving in RVs) never ventured far from their vehicles. This means that if you're prepared to hike a little—say, about 20 minutes away from the main parking and camping area—you can probably find a campsite where you'd avoid most of the other people who've migrated to the same campground. (Assuming, of course, that the campground offers more remote campsites.)

Some campgrounds also offer sites even farther away—spots you can only reach by taking a short canoe ride. Such steps help minimize the chances of being stuck next to a camping party that invades your space with noise, or by the very presence of others in an adjacent lot.

Strategies for Minimizing Disruption

Most car campers carry a reasonable amount of equipment with them. There are others who carry too much. Try not to disrupt your campground neighbors with your activities.

Plug-in air mattress pumps, extremely bright lights, and a full compliment of camping “toys” seem almost a nuisance in the outdoors and often diminish the reason for being close to nature—getting away from it all.

In one of my early camping excursions, neighboring campers on the right had invaded a rather small camping plot and filled it with two minivans, two family-size tents, and a giant gazebo. The gazebo was used as a form of shelter, but was erected primarily for late-night and early morning prayer sessions. To the left, a large family busied themselves for close to three hours unpacking and setting up folding tables and chairs, a portable dishwashing and sink setup, and what could have been an apartment-size stove and oven. Besides the obvious theater it afforded us, the family had plugged a noisy air compressor into a power source somewhere in one of the vans. They spent several hours blowing up air mattresses.

Undoubtedly everyone slept comfortably next door, but the noise from the compressor polluted our space the whole time before we settled to sleep ourselves.

Later we were awakened by the family in the lot on the other side.

Such are the downsides of car camping. But there is a lesson to be learned from this story: Seek out the most secluded spot you can, and try to select a site that doesn't put you between two other campsites.