Hello Fellow Campers! Hope everyone is doing fine as the busier camping season heats up. As a freelance journalist, I write for several publications (inlcuding PUT) on outdoor travel and adventuring subjects, especially camping. My question(s) is this: With fuel prices continuing to rise, how far are you willing to travel on camping excursions this season? Will you stay closer to home? Cancel trips completely? If not traveling far, what activities are attractive and would encourage you to choose one destination over another? What are you doing, if anything, to combat high fuel prices so you may continue to pursue our shared passion for camping?
I would love to hear from fellow PUT readers on these questions when you have a second, or whenever you come back in from polishing and tinkering with your RV. Hope to meet any of you on the road or at the campground as I travel on assignments. If you need any advice on a campground in Ohio, simply send me an email. I recently completed a camping guidebook titled, [/I]Camping Ohio, to be published later this year by FalconGuides Publishing.
Thanks for your time,
Robert (Bob) Loewendick
//www.robertloewendick.com
Our camping will be contained to the VA, NC, SC area for most of the year, but that is not different from normal. We may even take a trip to the Gulf Coast this summer if we don't go to the Caribean. Fuel prices will make for cheaper food choices and probably not as much restaurant food while camping out. We can cover our fuel increase with an extra meal at the popie instead of in town.
We are going to the Grand Canyon at the end of next month and were thinking of taking a second trip to CA with stops in Northern and Southern CA but have cut out the CA trip. We continue to do weekend trips close to home.
As fuel prices have increased, and my paycheck has not., I've had to reduce expenses to make up the difference. (Gotta remember that it's not just gas prices increasing, but anything - goods/services - dependent upon gasoline to get to the consumer).
I increased my HO and Auto insurance deductibles to lower the premiums.
Eliminated the excess on the telephone plan (caller id, call waiting, etc.) so that I just have basic phone service.
Reduced/eliminated cable/satellite service
Went back to 'dial up' for the computer
Using the clothesline vs. electric dryer (whenever possible).
Shopping - one day a week,combined with appointments so as not to use as much gasoline. Allowing 10 days to pass before mowing the lawn.
There's other stuff, but this frees up almost $100/month or more.
As to planned trips - they may not be quite as frequent, and once there, might not do as much eating out/joy riding/sight seeing. Have at least one trip a month planned within a 300 mile radius at present.
Ever since I got our popup in 2001, I've kept a journal of our travels, and we average 1,000 miles a year on camping trips.
At 10 mpg when towing, that's 100 gallons of gas a year.
If gas goes up by $1.00 a gallon, that will cost me an extra $100 a year, which when you add up all the other costs of camping, fees, insurance, depreciation, repairs, trips to camping World, drinks, food, drinks, firewood, drinks... it is a small price to pay for the enjoyment that we, and our children get from our camping experiences and the quality time we get to spend as a family when camping.
Compared to what any other type of vacation or weekend would cost, staying at a hotel or a resort, Camping is far more economical option and the extra cost of fuel is not going to put a damper on our camping.
We will still do our 1 big trip with the PU this summer. I guess gas will be at least $4.00 / gal by then. We will travel to the gulf coast of FL from here in Central IL. Distance about 750 miles. We are going for 2 weeks.
During that trip we will not be spending as much $$ doing touristy things as we might normally do.
The remainder of the camping season yes, we will cut back on the miles travelled. We have 3 or so SP's within 40 miles and those will be the most of the trips. Won't visit some other IL SP's that are further away.
Things to save $$ during all this:
1. I've stopped eating lunch out at work almost completely. Brown bag lunch.
2. Cut out small trips. ie. 1 trip to the grocery store now per week.
3. Check out our van and SUV. tires properly inflated, clean air filter, etc.
4. We've cut back on eating out meals as a family.
Happy Camping Season despite the hi Gas prices :U
We cancelled our trip out west. I figured a rough estimate of $4,000 for gas for the 10,000 mile trip.
Going down to Fl in Jan it cost us $487 for gas for 1421 miles. Coming back, we drove about 100 miles more and it cost us about $100 more so it was about 1100 for approximately 3000 miles of towing. Gas ranged from $3.32 to $3.11. If and when it hits $4.00, this would be a very expensive trip. Estimate that I would have to add about $250 more for the round trip.
We do have three trips planned that we will still take but these were planned last year. Longest one will be about 400 miles round trip.
Any other trips, will be close to home.
With food, clothing, fuel oil and gas all going up, adjustments have to be made on a fixed income. The needs will take precedence over the wants.
We are planning to go to Yellowstone this June. I think it'll be about 4000 miles on the two week trip. Spending $1,600 on fuel certainly hurts, but we will find a way to make it work. The kids are getting older, and we will soon be out of opportunities to take long camping trips like this with them. That is the most important reason we will still go. Family adventure!
It's also still less than flying out there, renting a car and staying in lodges without all our own outdoor gear. I did a quick query on Travelocity, and it would minimally cost us $4000 for airfare, car, and hotel. I think we still come out ahead pulling our pop-up and having our own beds to sleep in!
The rest of the summer we'll likely camp within Michigan and northern Ohio.
Gotta Camp! :D
Quote from: 6QuigsEver since I got our popup in 2001, I've kept a journal of our travels, and we average 1,000 miles a year on camping trips.
At 10 mpg when towing, that's 100 gallons of gas a year.
If gas goes up by $1.00 a gallon, that will cost me an extra $100 a year, which when you add up all the other costs of camping, fees, insurance, depreciation, repairs, trips to camping World, drinks, food, drinks, firewood, drinks... it is a small price to pay for the enjoyment that we, and our children get from our camping experiences and the quality time we get to spend as a family when camping.
Compared to what any other type of vacation or weekend would cost, staying at a hotel or a resort, Camping is far more economical option and the extra cost of fuel is not going to put a damper on our camping.
this is true. That is why we are combining college tours, camping & sightseeing..and scheduling that in junction with a rally.
where can you get a (decent) hotel for $50/night plus have a full kitchen and the kids aren't couped up in a 15X15 room :eyecrazy:
It doesn't get dark until 9 pm so we figure college tour in the morning, sightseeing in the afternoon and evening. make breakfast, pack lunch stuff..
I never seem to figure the cost of gas in our trips, maybe that's why we are always broke!!! :yikes:
when I do errands I tend to do them all in one day and plan it out as to save as much gas as possible.
I have one 250 mile trip planned in September. The reservation was made last year. Last year we did more camping in Privately owned Campgrounds. This year we'll be camping more in State Parks locally to offset the price of the fuel. I'm fortunate to have at least 4 SPs within 30 miles of my house. If I get a site with electric that's fine but if I don't that's fine also. It's all about gettin away. :)
We plan on a typical summer of camping. A few weekend trips to a few state park and state forest campgrounds within 2 hours of home, a 5 day trip Florida which is a 5 hr drive and possibly a trip up to Arkansas an 8 hr drive.
When we were young and broke we learned how to camp on the cheap or we couldn't go. Now a days we make a lot more money, but still enjoy the fact that we can enjoy a nice weekend camping trip for what many folks spend on one night in a nice hotel and dinner at a nice restaurant.
CajunCamper
Nothing wrong going on the cheap. It is more fun when you do that and plus, hot dogs do not take much to cook and the kiddo's love em! About a couple hundred miles would be about as far as I would attempt with little ones.
We had planned a trip to the Pacific Northwest to do some serious fishing but now it looks like at least two trips from Arizona to Virginia, one to pick up the grand daughter so she can see the western national parks and another trip back to take her home. We are in Yosemite now, gas is $4.65 for the cheapest stuff, but the park is jammed in spite of the road construction and bridge detours.
Looking at the price of fuel v/s the amount of memories i can share with my children..... I'll take the opportunity to share the memories any day of the week. I lost my father at a young age and the memories we had camping together can never be replaced. But on the other hand I look at the prices of gas and and i am glad i can still get 19 mpg @ 3.25 per gal v/s my buddy with his 5th wheel gettin 7 mpg @ 4.15 per gal , lets do the math...... i win. LETS GO CAMPING!!!!!
Yep, I too will be cutting back some. Since I live in the mountains of North Carolina, there are plenty of places to camp nearby. I'll probably state within the state this camping season.
We plan on camping a few times, but we'll probably stay more local (we have 2 state parks with 5 campgrounds within a 35 min. drive). We suffer a double whammy....my DW became a stay-at-home mom last fall, so our income has been drastically cut, and then the gas prices.
But we'll still be camping!
Plans now are for one 9-day trip to Arkansas which will be about 1200 miles round trip, a camping trip to Northern Kentucky which will be about 450 miles and a trip to Northern Illinois at Wisconsin border which will be about 500 round-trip miles. All other weekend camping is planned within a 70 mile radius at several state and county parks. With gasoline hitting $3.43 locally today, we will have to review plans as the year goes along.
I have already made one trip this summer, to Arches National Park, Utah. This is about 350 miles one way from here in Northern New Mexico. Gas for the trip was an average of $3.29 gallon (second week of April). I remember spending about $210.00 For Gas RT. I plan to take every opportunity to visit local SP(s) and we have another trip planned in the fall to Oklahoma to visit. We've been carpooling and riding our motorcycle to church to make up the gas money to travel. Since this trip gas here locally now is $3.46. I'll have to draw a line some where but I'm not there yet.
I'm glad to see that we're not the only ones giving up our plans.
Even though we are fortunate to live in Michigan and have many great camping opportunities relatively nearby (within 2 hours), and even have a decent county campground less than 20 miles away, we also want to see the country.
I would much rather pay to bring the popup and stay in there than get a hotel room.
This year, we are going to Washington DC, taking our normal trip to Nebraska to see relatives, and of course going all over the Lower and Upper Penninsulas. I'm not thrilled that we could be paying $4.00 a gallon, but at the same time, I look forward to these things, and I'm not going to give them up.
Next year will be the "big" trip, in terms of distance and gas money. We are going to do our West trip, driving south to Louisiana, going west through Texas and the Southwest, north up the Pacific coast, back east near the Canadian border, and finally back home. We may need to start saving gas money as soon as we finish this year! :-()
I forgot to mention the trip I talked about on pg one is about 800 miles round trip. not counting the trips to colleges and back to the campgound.
we will be based outside of Santa Cruz and will be seeing UC Davis, Berkely, Stanford.. I'm sure I'll put a few hundred miles doing that and sightseeing over the course of the week.
ouch ...maybe I should be figuring gas in my trips :yikes: naaaa too much math ;) :p
The price won't really change our camping that much. We are still going to make 1 long trip of about 500 miles one way. But our other trips will most likely be to local parks instead of parks 100 miles away.
But the thing that is going to put a damper on our camping is that we are most likely moving this year. Just not enough time to keep things show ready, let alone camping. We will do a couple trips, but not as many as previous years.
We're definitely camping closer to home this year ~ but we'd been heading that way the last couple of years. Seems as the kids get older there are more summer activities to plan around!
We'll probably head over to Teddy Roosevelt NP for a long weekend. That will be the longest distance we drive to camp ~570 one way. AND we'll get a sticker on the camping map this year ~ our 18th. We have no plans to cancel the big family trip to Montana ~ 1100 miles one way. All 18 members of my immediate family will be traveling together ... can't pass up something like that. It isn't often my kids can hang out with all their cousins for a week. We aren't camping that trip, though. (... best part? all our lodging is FREE! I love my family. ;) ) Should save a dollar or two not hauling the PU.
I think the rest of the trips will be within 200 miles of home. We live pretty frugally the rest of the year so we can spend time camping in the summer.
As a west coast father of a 12 year old & a ten year old, this is the year for the cross country trip to DC. We are planning on a 6200 mile journey (I-40 east & I-80 west). Our stops will include Smokey Mountains, Colonial Williamsburg, Washington, Gettysburg, WPAFB Air Force Museum, Rushmore, Custer State Park & Grand Teton NP.
Am I happy with gas prices? No way, but the kids are rapidly approaching the age where this kind of trip will have lost its magic. Its THE trip I want them to remember. Plus I expect gas prices will continue to rise. Pushing this off a year or two will only cost more.
We are camping the whole way using cheap quick set up & sleep sites for a single night & nicer destination sites for multiple days. Even with gas at $4/gallon we will have a more economical vacation with the PUP than flights & hotels. The country is a lot more fun at ground level than at 32,000 feet.
I hear there's free ice water at Wall Drug, SD.
we use our camper for two things - weekend getaways, doesn't really matter where, and visiting family.
The family is in the same locations, so we will still be traveling the same distances to see them, but we probably won't drive around much once we get there. That's OK, the step-grandkids are little, and enjoy just hanging around the campground anyway - riding bikes, playing at the beach, having waterfights and making s'mores.
The weekend getaways will probably be closer - I grew up in Wisconsin and love the Wisconsin state park system campgrounds, but we plan on checking out some closer Illinois sites this summer.
Gas here hit $3.76 for reg unleaded today - it took $75 to 'almost' fill my tank on a 10 yr old Chevy Astro Van. Good news is that the van is in great shape, a recent road trip (without the camper) showed me getting almost 20 MPG on the highway. I normally get about 13 MPG around town and try to do all errands on the way home from work to save gas and milage on the van.
Laura
We've got several short trips(less than 75 miles) already reserved, plus our big trip to Lake of the Ozarks in July, which we have planned for a year now.:D
Quote from: pricerjAs a west coast father of a 12 year old & a ten year old, this is the year for the cross country trip to DC. We are planning on a 6200 mile journey (I-40 east & I-80 west). Our stops will include Smokey Mountains, Colonial Williamsburg, Washington, Gettysburg, WPAFB Air Force Museum, Rushmore, Custer State Park & Grand Teton NP.
Am I happy with gas prices? No way, but the kids are rapidly approaching the age where this kind of trip will have lost its magic. Its THE trip I want them to remember. Plus I expect gas prices will continue to rise. Pushing this off a year or two will only cost more.
We are camping the whole way using cheap quick set up & sleep sites for a single night & nicer destination sites for multiple days. Even with gas at $4/gallon we will have a more economical vacation with the PUP than flights & hotels. The country is a lot more fun at ground level than at 32,000 feet.
I hear there's free ice water at Wall Drug, SD.
Camping in Wall SD was the worst. However, if you do get there and skip over Bad Lands National Park, you would be missing a true gem. The scenery is beautiful and the Bison and Prairie Dogs are really cool.
Oh, My scheduled trips this year are a couple 25 mile trips into the mountains and a 1200 mile round trip to Disney's Fort Wilderness. It is more resort style camping than I like but we always go with a large group of people in November.
Our one "long" -if you can call it that- trip this summer is going to be <300 miles, but that is due more to scheduling conflicts than gas prices. As others have said, we will economize elsewhere though -hot dogs instead of steak- but it won't really have much of an impact on our plans. We're fortunate enough to have more than a dozen State Parks within about an hour drive from here, and we've only camped at a few of them so there's still plenty of places for us to explore that are close to home. Can't wait to get started.
oops sorry made a mistake...trying to post on another thread.