Maste

My wife and I are looking into going camping and making it a regular thing. I loved doing it in England and we also figured it'd be great for our dog too. Does anyone have good recommendations of where is good to camp? National parks? Forests? Anywhere. We are in the Midwest (St Louis), but don't mind travelling at all to get to somewhere that will be worth a long drive and has great hikes and scenery.

Also, does anyone know any good websites/stores online that we could buy tents and camping gear from? Preferably somewhere that's a discount place/old season stock, so we can get started for cheap.

Asides from the usual camping stuff like a tent, camp stove, sleeping bags, etc is there anything you would highly recommend ensuring we purchase/bring with us when camping in the USA? As camping here is obviously going to be different than camping in England was.

GeoffM

I know you said online but I'd recommend going to somewhere like Bass Pro even if only for a look. When we bought ours we were able to see several already erected so could get a much better feel for their size. BTW take the alleged number of persons it sleeps and halve it for a more comfortable and realistic body count.

Apart from the weather and the wildlife, I don't think camping in the US is that much different from the UK. We've been to extremely rustic campsites with little more than a hut as a toilet, and we've been to ones with hot showers, shops, restaurants, etc. If anything, virtually all sites we've used in the US have really hard earth (rarely grass) so decent tent pegs and a heavy mallet are a must - but that might be the drought in California having an effect.

Pretty standard I suppose but here goes: Flashlights, aforementioned tent pegs and mallet, table, chairs, sleeping bags, cooking stuff, heavy duty phone chargers, food, cooler, water carrier, bug spray, sun spray, towels, clothes, dishwashing detergent, sponge/cloth for washing up, tea towels, pots and pans, kettle, plates, bowels, cutlery, sharp knife, cutting board, bog roll, kitchen roll, plastic wrap, foil, beer, cooking stove, propane, charcoal for BBQ, lighter. GPS and dump half that stuff if you're hiking and carrying it.

Toilet tent and potty thing if you're feeling inclined. Never fun to stumble to the distant washroom at 3am for a wee. Folding kitchen/pantry thing maybe. Gazebo perhaps.

Probably the wrong season to buy cheap equipment. Do army surplus stores exist here? Charity shops might occasionally have something useful. Might get lucky at an estate sale, yard sale, garage sale, or on Craigslist etc.

Make sure you read the instructions about fires. Some places are very twitchy about where and when you can use open fires because of the high risk of setting the entire forest ablaze. Even using non-local firewood can be frowned upon (diseases, I think).

Rete

We camped a lot when I was in my early 30's. It was myself, my two kids and my SO. We started with a tent and enjoyed it but when we finally graduated to a popup trailer we found it ideal for us. We would use private campgrounds and state forests for the luxury of having bathing facilities and toilets. State forests were great because there was more a sense of privacy then in private campgrounds. Daughter camps locally in lower New York State at two of the County's camping sites. Both offer raised sites if you want to get the tent on a raised platform but one in particular is particularly lovely and it is on the banks of the Hudson at Croton-on-Hudson.

We had the pre-requisite camping gear, battery and oil lamps, camp stove, etc. Our wanderings took us all over the northeastern states, MA, ME,VT, NH, PA.

I give camping two thumbs up if you are the outdoor type.

ddsrph

Maste

Cheers for the info so far guys! Will look into all those. Liking the sound of National Forests. Would I be right to assume dogs are allowed in national forests so long as leashed, well behaved, not a nuisance and we clean up after her?

Anian

I find that Amazon is one of the cheapest places to get camping gear and they have a good selection. If space in the car is an issue, sleeping pads are better than inflatable air mattress and despite being thin they really do feel comfy. As Geoff said, if a tent states that it sleeps 6 then it really only sleeps 3ish unless you really like touching everyone else and feeling every movement.

Most of the campsites near me have a fixed 10x10' tent pad (packed dirt), so a tent larger than that won't fit. I had to downgrade to a smaller tent for those places, but I still use the larger one at sites I know can handle it. Most places come with a picnic table and a fire pit. Not really found any difference between private campsites and campsites owned by the forest service or state parks - any of them could have anything from proper plumbing with showers to nothing at all.

Rete

The private ones we used had electricity and running water at each campsite, i.e. Wells, Maine, Conway, New Hampshire and a small town in MA. The State Forest doesn't have electricity and you have to walk to get water for cooking. We brought the dog to both types of campgrounds. Always on a leash.

BenK91

A lot of the camping sites here in CO seem to be fairly useless as they're managed by the Colorado parks and wildlife idiots who seem to be a collective bunch of morons. Which is a shame, considering you could argue it's one of the most beautiful states with a million places to camp.

Usually better camping off the grid here as the facilities at a posted campground are all usually out of action. Cabela's and Bass Pro would be your best bet for new gear, can usually find a coupon online too.

Rete

What are they suppose to be doing that they aren't or that you feel that they should be doing but aren't. It is their responsibility to make sure the sites are clean and free of broken limbs, etc. They are to patrol them at least once per night and day and be available to help in an emergency situation. Other than that, can't imagine what responsibility they are not doing.

GeoffM

I forgot to say about our tent - advertised as a 10 person but you can only get two double airbeds in the sleeping area, and that's a squeeze. The graphic showing the sleeping arrangement has 5 people in the non-sleeping area. Sigh.

Agreed, although ones that don't have specific "sites" for camping just seem to scatter them randomly so it's whoever gets there first.

Only been to 1 or 2 sites that had electrical hookups - but then we haven't been actively looking for them so perhaps a misleading statistic. One took a regular 3-pin plug; another took a round plug thing (RV people would probably know what I'm talking about. I don't ).

A bit far for OP but Lake Hemet near us has a set of inflatables on the water, like a mild form of (Total) Wipeout (but no big balls ). Great fun and incredibly tiring. Their pictures don't do it justice as there are more inflatables than that shown. Maybe they bought more.

BenK91

It is their responsibility to make sure the sites are clean - which they aren't, they're usually pretty grim.
They are to patrol them at least once per night and day - never, ever seen a campsite being patrolled.

Most of the campsites they list on their website are closed, I assume for maintenance and other reasons which is understandable. However, you'd assume they'd be capable of doing the bare minimum on the select few sites they currently have open but obviously that isn't the case. I work with a guy who camps an awful lot more than me and he's echoed the same thing. CO Parks and Wildlife suck. It's a shame.

excpomea

We have done quite a bit of camping here in N Florida.
Mostly at State parks, they are wonderfuly run. Including Showers, bathroom facilities ect.
Online booking and volenteers to keep things in order.

Biggest problem here is the bugs and the high heat of summer, we usually camp Fall and Spring.

As mentioned, Craigslist is a great place to pick up cheap equipment.

GeoffM

Also look into the National Park passes, and/or state equivalents. Could save some money if you go often enough.

https://www.recreation.gov/marketing...%20Series.html

kimilseung

The main difference between UK and US camping is there are no cheap farm sites that squeeze them in. Lots are more expensive in the US even with basic facilities. Often booking is necessary, although some are first come first served, so late arrival is not recommend
Even wild camping in national parks might need booking and may run out of space.
Bear spray and bear proof food containers and water filters might be things needed in the US that are not needed in the UK.

kimilseung

If you have any UK brands, you like, you might want to bring them with you. Eg, tents by UK manufacturer Terra Nova are hard to find and expensive in the US. Also, Trangia stoves only have limited availability in the US.
On the other hand MSR stoves are a lot cheaper here in the USA
Coleman make the cheap as chips gear, REI are good for mid priced equipment.