Biking is a great camping activity for the entire family.
Go for a hike
Hiking is a great and healthy activity that leads to a lot of the other outdoor activities talked about here, like photography, fishing, treasure, geocaching and treasure hunting. You don’t need a lot of money to get into hiking; a decent pair of tennis shoes and a water bottle will serve you just fine.
Take the bikes out for a ride
Bicycling is a great way to extend your sightseeing range over hiking, although you may be relegated to the road system, or trails specific to bikes and horses. Don’t think that everyone has to have a fancy mountain bike, either. My daughter’s first trail ride was on her Barbie® bike and it worked just fine.
Chronicle your experience in pictures
Photography is a great way to record memories of your camping trip and share them with others.
The backcountry is a great place for astronomy.
Look at some stars
There is no better place to gaze at the stars through a telescope, than out in the middle of nowhere, unencumbered by light pollution from civilization.
Catch a fish
Fishing is one of those classic outdoor activities that goes with camping like marshmallows go with graham crackers and chocolate. Fishing can be fun and challenging for the entire family.
Play games
Because we have three young children, we always take a lot of games with us on camping trips. These usually consist of Uno® cards, a ring toss set and a Frisbee® golf set.
Geocaching / Scavenger hunt
Geocaching, using GPS to locate a “cache” that someone has hidden, is a new and popular pastime that can be a lot of fun. If you are camping with young children, you can setup your own little scavenger hunt around the campsite. Plastic Easter Eggs are great for this, just be sure you don’t forget where you stashed them!
Want to find treasure? First locate an old CCC camp.
Hunt for treasure
Finding gold has never been easy, despite our romanticized historical view of the gold rush in the western U.S. That doesn’t mean that it’s not fun to try, though! A more lucrative way to hunt for treasure is to scout for old trash dumps. Many of our state and federal parks began life as Civilian Conservation Corps projects in the 1930’s and, using old maps and a metal detector, you can sometimes locate the old trash dumps from these CCC camps. One man’s trash is another’s treasure and vintage tin cans, and other objects, can be worth some money.
Make s’mores
Graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate – a campfire marriage made in heaven!
Practice survival skills
The recent popularity of the TV shows Man vs. Wild and Survivorman has reignited an interest in survival skills and it can be a lot of fun to practice these on camping trips. Learning and practicing survival skills builds confidence in children (and adults!) and teaches them the importance of using available resources, instead of relying on technology, to solve problems.
See also…
- Camping Activities for Kids
- Camping Activities to Keep the Kids Busy
- Hiking is a Great Family Activity
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Great list… here’s #11: Tell stories! A fun way to get everyone involved is to start with just a sentence or two, and then “pass” the story to someone else. Keep going until you reach a good ending, or (as usually happens) the story just gets too weird to possibly continue
-mike
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http://mudsweatbeers.blogspot.com/
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Mike’s last blog post..I have an idea…
Great list! There’s a lot of history at the parks that were built by the CCC, I never thought of looking for dump sites though. I’ll have to take along my metal detector next time!
Nice post Roy. If I had an 11th it would be is to look for animals/bird watching. A set of binoculars is on my wish list for 2009.
Eric
Eric’s last blog post..Who needs the fountain of youth.. There are transformers
Good article. Like Kevin, I like the idea of looking for CCC dump sites. The CCC built “Skyline Drive” through Shenandoah N.P. and I bet there is all kinds of cool stuff buried in the hills. Most of the CCC crews were mountain folk from the Appalachia area.
I’ve also stumbled across some interesting finds while out sauntering in the mountains of Colorado.
How cool would it be to find John Muirs hard-tack pan, or Henry David Thoreau pen squib?
Happy new year,
Adam
Adam Shake’s last blog post..The Word “Green” Tops the List of 2008 Banned Words.
Great article. Happy New Year!
I’m wondering if a metal detector would be something that the kids could get into - not sure. I think they would, if they could find stuff with some regularity.
A nice list of activities. But, unfortunately, I have to contradict two comments.
First, on short nature paths or highly groomed trails, tennis shoes might be ok. And I stress the “might.” But tennis shoes do not provide enough foot support on any kind of rough surface. Even kids would benefit from hiking boots. Adults almost always should opt for books on hiking trails.
Second, while it’s true that dumps can be treasure troves, on most Federal and State lands, sites like that are declared archeology sites, and it’s against the law to remove anything from them. So always check with local authorities before even disturbing such a location, let alone removing anything.
Brook’s last blog post..Dec 27, Catfishing. Catfish fishing for the Big Fish.
Brook - nothing wrong with contradicting me! That’s an excellent point about potential conflicts with the antiquities act (I think that is the correct legislation).
The antiquities act (actually it has an even longer name) is the controlling legislation on the national level, Roy. But many states have also enacted similar rules for their own lands.
And then there are other potential problems. For instance, it is illegal to disturb a Native American burial or sacred site, no matter where it is located. Charges could range from grave robbing to violating the national antiquities act.
So, while it’s fun to explore sites like old mining camps, and CCC dumps, and even Indian Mounds, it’s best to follow the backbacker’s credo: Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints.
Brook’s last blog post..Dec 27, Catfishing. Catfish fishing for the Big Fish.
This is a very useful blog, thank you for sharing……
Geocaching is next on my list, thanks! The one thing I’d add to the list apart from the excellent other suggestions in the comments is midnight swimming… clothing optional!
Big Hank’s last blog post..Camp with the Camping Guru!
Ha, ha! I’m thinking you might get some hard-to-explain mosquito bites from that activity