What distance to travel this summer?

[fallsrider]

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!

[sacrawf]

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.

[EZ10Z]

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.

[wcdaniels]

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!  :-()

[Dee4j]

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

[fritz_monroe]

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.

[Kelly]

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.

[pricerj]

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.

[ScouterMom]

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

[Miller Tyme]

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.

[MomboTN]

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.

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.

[MomboTN]

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.

[campdaddy]

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.

[outdoors5]

oops sorry made a mistake...trying to post on another thread.