Camping works best when everyone shares the space with a little respect. Official rules are often posted on the bulletin board; this is the unwritten campground etiquette seasoned campers live by. If you’re new to camping, this will help you fit right in. If you’ve been at it for years, consider it a quick refresher before your next trip.
Don’t walk through other campsites
Treat each campsite like a private yard. Cutting through feels intrusive and can startle people or pets and result in confrontations. It’s always a good idea to give other campsites plenty of space and respect their boundaries. Afterall, we are just a bunch of strangers primitively living next to each other in the woods. Use the campground roads and marked paths, even if it adds a little extra time to get to where you are going.
Leave no trace
Groups like the Boy Scouts have been practicing leave no trace one since their inception. Pack it in, pack it out – then do a sweep before you leave. I remember camping in scouts and before our troop would leave a campground, we would all line up arm’s length apart and do a full sweep of the site we had been in picking up trash even if it wasn’t ours. Micro-trash, food scraps, rubber bands, lost tent poles and loose zip ties all add up. Following Leave No Trace keeps campgrounds clean and wildlife alive and also keeps the places we love looking that way we want them.
Never toss trash in the fire ring
This is my pet peeve. There is nothing worse than showing up to a campsite and finding someone else’s trash in the fire ring. Beer cans, bottles, tinfoil, chip bags, etc. – none of these things burn entirely and always leave remnants for someone else to clean up. Fire rings are for firewood only. Want to burn carboard, paper plates or newspaper? That’s fine. But anything other than that and wood causes problems and makes you a bad camper. Trash smells awful when burned, releases toxins, and leaves a mess for the next camper. Don’t be a lazy camper: bag it up and take it to the dumpster.
Keep dishes out of fresh water spigots and bathrooms
Spigots are for filling containers, not washing. Do dishes at your site in a basin, strain out food bits, and scatter gray water where allowed or dispose of it per campground rules. Most campground will have a gray water dump receptacle between every few sites – be sure to look for those. The problem with doing dishes at the water fill spigots is that it leaves behind bits of food which attracts animals and disease. Not something you want to have where you fill up your drinking water.
Respect quiet hours
Most places set quiet hours around 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., but courtesy goes beyond the posted times. One of the must frustrating things is getting woken up early by other campers. Even if quiet hours are over in the morning it is a best practice to keep the noise down very low until at least 9am. Just because you don’t sleep in doesn’t mean your neighbors aren’t trying to. Keep voices, radios, vehicle doors and children quiet late at night and early in the morning.
Be smart with generators
Generators are obnoxious. Full stop. However, they are very much a necessity for trailer and RV campers and even some tent campers (think of those who may need to charge up a CPAP battery for example). I personally use a generator nearly every time we camp without shore power. My rule of thumb is to never run a generator at night and always be aware of other camp noise throughout the campground.
Most people are out enjoying daytime activities between the hours of 11am and 4pm which makes this an ideal time to charge up those batteries and run your generator. And lastly, if you don’t have a quiet generator – don’t bring it. These days there is no excuse for running a loud, barely muffled generator in a campground. Harbor Freight and Honda both make fantastic quite generators that are perfect for camping.
Manage your lights
Light travels farther than you think. Keep flashlight beams on the ground and away from neighboring tents and if you’re in an RV or trailer, switch off exterior lights at bedtime. Just because you want your campsite lit up all night doesnt mean the people next to you do. Solar string lights are super cool – we get it – but turn them off when you go to bed.
Arriving late or leaving early? Use minimal lighting and move quietly. I can recall a time when we were leaving a campsite at 5am and I had to hook up our trailer. I ensured the trailer was connected to the truck the night before and raised all our stabilizers right before bedtime (those things can be loud). Ensuring we did not turn on the truck until the exact time we were about to leave was critical because our headlights were aimed right at a neighboring tent. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, and it is important to be as respectful as is reasonably possible.
Keep dogs leashed and quiet
Dogs: most of us love them but unfortunately there are also cat people that like to camp too. Nothing can spoil a camping trip quite like dogs that won’t stop barking (here’s looking at you camping boomer couple with the little Westies in your giant portable kennel outside your massive motorhome). Jokes aside – your precious Lassy may not be so precious to other people. Keep them on a leash, pick up their poop and if you can’t stop them from constant barking, you should consider dispersed camping and not campground camping.
Share public spaces fairly
This one is no-brainer: common-area picnic tables, grills, docks, and day-use fire rings are for everyone. Enjoy them, then make room for the next group. Don’t stash gear to “hold” a public spot all day. If you aren’t using it, your stuff shouldn’t be there.
Respect nature and wildlife
Don’t feed animals, don’t cut branches for firewood, and don’t carve your name into trees. Leave things as they are so future campers can enjoy the same experience. Nothing is worse than going out to enjoy nature and seeing that Billy and Loretta were so much in love back in 2008 that they decided to carve their names with a heart around them into the picnic table. Your future wife not named Loretta will thank you when you visit the same site with her later and don’t have to explain that one.
Mind your fires
Keep fires small, in designated rings, and never leave them unattended. Douse them completely with water before heading to bed or leaving camp. Want to make your camp host happy? Have a bucket of water nearby to show that you are prepared to properly manage your fire. And always check local regulations as nowadays half the camping season usually has a fire ban in place.
Keep music and speakers low
For me, music is a part of camping. It just sets the tone and gets the vibes flowing. However, I also know that the people next to me may not feel the same way. Even when it is not quiet hours it is important to keep the Bluetooth speaker at a respectable level so other campers can enjoy the sounds of nature – not the sounds of Naughty by Nature.
Like music while camping? Checkout our curated Muddy Camper playlist.
Supervise kids
Campgrounds are meant for families, and kids should absolutely have fun and be able to run free. But running through others’ sites, yelling late into the night, or biking unsafely around cars is a recipe for problems. Let the kids explore, ride bikes and have fun but also keep an eye on them and explain basic camping etiquette and road safety so they understand it.
It’s not the job of other campers to keep your kids safe and it certainly is there job to parent them. Our kids are a bit older now and we give them a longer leash in the campgrounds but also require them to check in from time to time. Walkie talkies have also been a huge help and they love using them.
Did we Miss Campground Etiquette Tips?
At the end of the day, camping is about enjoying the outdoors and giving others the chance to do the same. A little respect for your neighbors, some care for the land, and a bit of common sense go a long way. If everyone follows these unwritten rules, campgrounds stay peaceful, nature stays healthy, and we all get to keep coming back to places we love.
What other camping etiquette rules do you follow? Let us know in the comments below.
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