If you camp with an ATV or a side-by-side ORV, take care not to run the vehicles through or even near other campsites.
Using a generator? If others are camping nearby, don’t run it all night long - recharge your batteries during the day, and run your equipment off of house power once the sun goes down. Remember that when, say, you’re gathered around the campfire after midnight enjoying some cocktails or playing music.
In a lot of instances, dispersed camping doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be completely isolated-you might have neighbors within both earshot and eyeshot. In a perfect world, the next visitor shouldn’t be able to tell you were there before them. Clean up after your dogs or stock (or yourselves!). When you leave, no matter how long you stay, the site should be cleaner and in better shape than when you found it. If you find any garbage left behind by the last visitor, for God’s sake pick it up. When you visit your chosen campsite or parking area, take care to clean up after yourself. This one’s simple and should be top-of-mind for anyone visiting public lands, whether it be for an afternoon, a long weekend or a couple of weeks at a time. While it might be heartening to learn that the great outdoors is enjoying a renaissance of late, those of us who visit the outdoors to camp, fish, hike or ride are rightfully skeptical that there’s enough room for everyone who wants to be outside, and even more convinced that folks new to our chosen outdoor pursuits don’t understand the unspoken rules and etiquette surrounding them.Īfter witnessing some of the damage inflicted on public lands - our shared national resource - by campers last year who were either ignorant of their responsibilities or purposely misbehaving, I’m wary that a continued influx of visitors will result in even more damage, and, frankly, the reduction of camping opportunity for those of us who have enjoyed the activity long before COVID-19 inspired a host of new participants to buy that first tent or that first travel trailer. Experts in the camping and RV fields are quick to point out that RV sales were up markedly in 2020, and that the trend is continuing in 2021. And anyone who visited public lands last summer, particularly in the West, can testify, anecdotally of course, that more people were out and about in 2020 than in years past, thanks largely to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the desire to find safe recreation alternatives away from crowds. By all counts, there will be more of us outdoors this coming summer.
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