Attention Campers! What is your favorite place to camp?

Looking for some suggestions for new places to experience the great outdoors.

So far, my favorite places to camp are all in Maryland, but we are looking to travel in the next few years to some places further away.

We tent camp and don't generally get sites with power and water because we are pretty well equipped, but are open to pretty much anything but being stuck next to some big honkin RV with the genny running.

My favorites are...

Janes Island State Park near Crisfield, MD - lower eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay- miles and miles of some of the best flat and open water canoe trails around, waterfront camp sites - you can crab/fish right from your site, but NO privacy or seclusion.

Swallow Falls State Park near Deep Creek Lake - Western MD mountains on the Youghiogheny (the yock) River- the tallest waterfall in MD (not really saying much @ 50 some-odd feet high, but it is stunning) two rivers converge and the swimming is very nice, there is a big beautiful protected hemlock forest and a small lake not far away. there is also a sub arctic swamp to explore.
again, it's a state park, so the campsites are right on top of one another.

Greenridge State Forest is nice and secluded, some of the sites have the most amazing views of the upper Potomac river, C&O canal towpath and the surrounding mountains, TONS of history (we've actually camped on a spot that George Washington used to survey the surrounding land), fossils, etc. but we've been there done that.

To top it off, MD state parks no longer allow alcohol so the drinkie poos have to be on the DL.
We drank wine out of the kid's transformers cups the last time we went.

It seems that all of the campgrounds in our area are either KOAs (not what we are looking for) or the sites are so close you could kiss your neighbor.

Where is your favorite place to camp and why?

Well the only camping I have done recently has been at fiddle festivals and the like...in my youth, I did a fair bit and can suggest anywhere along the coast of Maine..a bit of a provincial attitude, I reckon, but not without merit...

I am with you on the campgrounds putting people practically on top of each other That stinks!

We have a few places here in SW Florida that you can do more rural camping but it's pack in & pack out so you have to walk all your crap in.... The one my son likes to go is about a 6 mile hike into the middle of nothing. http://www.myakkariver.org/

My absolute favorite camping has been the island trips. We take gear by boat and camp on little islands in the bay. No electric or water but - PRIVACY!! This was tons of fun for many years but over the last few years the teenagers started using the islands for massive spring break parties....leaving broken glass & trash behind so now they have changed the rules so many of the islands we can no longer camp on....but we do know the loopholes

Limkiln in Big Sur.

Lo said:

I am with you on the campgrounds putting people practically on top of each other That stinks!

We have a few places here in SW Florida that you can do more rural camping but it's pack in & pack out so you have to walk all your crap in.... The one my son likes to go is about a 6 mile hike into the middle of nothing. http://www.myakkariver.org/

My absolute favorite camping has been the island trips. We take gear by boat and camp on little islands in the bay. No electric or water but - PRIVACY!! This was tons of fun for many years but over the last few years the teenagers started using the islands for massive spring break parties....leaving broken glass & trash behind so now they have changed the rules so many of the islands we can no longer camp on....but we do know the loopholes

Click to expand...

Myakka looks pretty nice!

I've been camping on St. George island right on the Gulf. The best way to do it is primitive style where you have to take your stuff out to the site a few miles away from where the regular apartment campers do their electricity thing. Like you said, privacy is the best! Me and my buddy had a blast gathering firewood, cooking crappy canned food, and playing with the tiny crabs that hatched on the beach. It was hot as hell because it was in summer, but since our camp was on the tip of an island right where the breeze was coming in, we had nature's AC working for us haha. I live in north fl on the panhandle in the capitol and I've been looking for another island to camp at, got any suggestions? The only thing we didn't like about st george was the 4mile sandy trail we had to walk to get to the camp site, taking a boat out to an island sounds awesome, I guess you schedule them to come back and pick you up when you're done?

Lo, i just remembered that Baltimore County has an island called Hart Miller in the middle of the bay made from all the dredge from the inner harbor downtown. only accessable by boat.
Hubby has been talking about taking off from the house and paddling the 8 or so miles up the river and across a bit of the bay to get there.
You used to be able to boat out to camp there. I wonder if all our camping crap would sink our canoe lol? a canoe would look mighty funny amidst all the pleasure crafts and sailboats docked there though. that's ok, they can't go back and explore the marshes like we can...

Ive always wanted to do Assateague island too, but i understand that the mosquitos are as big as the wild horses! and more aggressive!

The state campground has sites on the beach where the ocean is just over the dunes. but again the sites are on top of each other.

lol, I think I'd sink a canoe with the stuff I take camping I'm OCD!! I PACK a LOT

We always ate very well though. I'd plan meals ahead of time, make meat/veggie foil packets ready to cook on grill and have other grill friendly stuff ready to go - yeah I think I'd sink a canoe just with the coolers alone.

We have a boat so we'd pack stuff in the boat and park boat at the island. Then we can do boating or fishing stuff too but now we can't use some of the islands as you can't exactly hide a boat very well

haha Lo, i need to borrow my dad's motorcycle trailer to haul all of our crap to camp - especially with the kids along. i like to be comfy and eat well as well. air mattress, camp stove, solar shower, big ass tent, etc.

definitely would sink the canoe if we tried to load all that shit on it. eventually we'll pare it down because we would like to take a bike/camp trip on the C&O canal at some point in the future. we can only haul so much in the bike trailer without busting an axle or something!

we can't afford real vacations now that i'm staying home with the kids, plus my one son has severe food allergies so no eating out for us. makes traveling very tricky (and heavy because we have to take all of his food) So i've been accumulating decent camping gear for a few years now. it allows us to be elsewhere and i can cook all the meals myself so i know they're safe. hardly a relaxing vacation, but meh, that's what you get when you have little ones!
hell i'm meal planning for an anniversary camp/canoe trip (Jane's Island) now that isn't until Oct 1st. But my parents are taking the kids so we will be feasting like, well, like people who don't have kids! no chicken nuggets or applesauce for a whole 4 days!
and the special brownies I am currently water curing some ABV to throw into - i think they will be bad ass. i am fantasizing about just chillin on the water with my hubby, and our friends who share the same anniversary, crabbin' and eating some very funny brownies. i am counting the seconds...

montana, idaho and utah are my favorite places to camp.

streamside east/maine

I'm one of these people with an RV. I don't like crowded camping (and we've had some pretty crappy places this summer), and much prefer isolated or secluded areas. We've pretty much used provincial parks in Manitoba/Ontario, but next year plan on hitting a number of ghost towns in the western US. The RV does have a genny, but I don't like to use it (it is loud and I do respect other people), and so prefer an electrical hookup if possible. But electricity is pretty close to a 'must' for me. And yeah it's not really camping is it?

But it is fun taking along an Extreme and SSV when camping

We do plan on hitting northern California assuming proposition 19 wins.

Tom

My fav place...
Mountain Biokovo located just above Split, Croatia.

Few photos
One, Two, Three, Four,
Marjan as seen from Biokovo - (Hill on the peninsula of the city of Split)
In distance you can see coast of Italy - only on a very clear day
Italy - so close you could trow a rock at it
One random shot - Canadair CL-415
[I didnt took these shots (: my camera is too shitty to properly capture such beauty]

EDIT: oh, just realised you wanted suggestions mea culpa

Best camping spots,... Mill Creek Farm in East Texas,..Enchanted Rock in Central Texas,.. ok I like Texas...
Rainbow Farm Campground formerly Vandalia Michigan....

If you're looking for a week-long experience I just got out of the Big Horn Mountains. Its not as isolated as I like, but there's plenty of freedom to hit that launch box on the trails out in the open. Beautiful views, especially of the lakes and you can easily do under 8 miles a day with equipment. Mosquitoes were pretty bad, which was the only (but still a sizable) problem, but the rangers said they were particularly bad at the time of year.

Estes Park always blows my mind too, that's just gorgeous and the wildlife you see there is awe inspiring.

i really want to go further west than Western MD so thanks for all the suggestions.

Maybe next year... or next decade when the kids are not with us

and wow He- Man - pix are cool. that place looks so surreal! Mother Nature at her finest.

fall is coming to the east, bears are feeding, fish are getting ready to mud up for the winter, new tent today and camping remote small stream tomorrow!! yippeee

He-Man said:

My fav place...
Mountain Biokovo located just above Split, Croatia.

Few photos
One, Two, Three, Four,
Marjan as seen from Biokovo - (Hill on the peninsula of the city of Split)
In distance you can see coast of Italy - only on a very clear day
Italy - so close you could trow a rock at it
One random shot - Canadair CL-415
[I didnt took these shots (: my camera is too shitty to properly capture such beauty]

EDIT: oh, just realised you wanted suggestions mea culpa

Click to expand...

Sounds like a great suggestion, must try to make it to Croatia some day.