Booking a site
Car camping means you park beside your site, which comes with a picnic table, a fire ring and usually toilets and drinking water nearby. Sites on federal land are booked through the federal recreation reservation site, and state parks use their own systems. Popular national park campgrounds open reservations about six months ahead and sell out within minutes for summer weekends. Arrive with at least two hours of daylight left.
The sleep system
Borrow or buy a tent rated for one more person than will sleep in it, since capacity ratings assume you lie shoulder to shoulder. Warmth comes from below as much as from above. The sleeping pad insulates you from the ground, and its R-value tells you how well: about 2 suits summer, and 4 or more suits cold weather. A sleeping bag's temperature rating is closer to a limit than to comfort, so choose one rated 10 to 15 degrees below the coldest night you expect. Sleep in dry clothes and a hat, and leave cotton at home in favor of wool or synthetic layers.
Choosing your ground
Pick a flat spot slightly higher than its surroundings, so rain drains away from you. Look up before you look down, because dead branches and leaning dead trees come down in wind.
Food, fire and fumes
- Store all food, trash and scented items such as toothpaste in the closed car or the campground's metal locker, never in the tent. In bear country, follow the park's storage rules exactly.
- Check for fire restrictions on the day, since bans are common in dry months. Use the existing ring, keep the fire small and never leave it unattended.
- Put the fire out by drowning it with water, stirring the ashes and repeating until they are cool to the touch.
- Buy firewood near the campground, because moving wood spreads tree-killing insects and many states prohibit it.
- Never run a stove, lantern or heater inside a tent, because carbon monoxide kills campers every year.
- Treat water from streams and lakes by filtering it or by holding a rolling boil for one minute, or three minutes above about 6,500 feet.
Pack out every scrap of trash, wash dishes well away from any stream or lake and respect the posted quiet hours.
Tip Bring a headlamp for each person rather than one shared lantern, and keep it in the same tent pocket every night.
