Family Camping Tips for Short Trips

We are a comparatively outdoorsy family, but even so, an entire Spring Break away from friends and the fun hang-out activities of home (basketball, sleepovers, movies and electronic games without the usual restrictions) did not appeal to my boys, 14 and 11, so we planned a short 4-day, 3-night getaway.

3 to 6 Hour Driving Radius

Good planning is the key. First of all, don’t go too far. If you are new to camping, go on the internet or look at a state map or state park guidebook and choose any patch of green (state or national parks) within a 3 to 6-hour driving radius of your home. When we planned a longer cross-country trip we used the National Geographic Guide to the State Parks of the United States as a touchstone. Obviously the book can’t list every park for every state, but the ones they have selected for the guide are in there for a reason – superb scenic beauty, cultural and historic sites, or being smaller, or less-visited – giving more of a “wild” feeling. The book also gives the telephone or internet booking information for any given state system.

We knew we wanted to go to First Landing State Park, in Norfolk, near Virginia Beach, a 4 to 5 hour drive from our Central Virginia home (it’s in the book!). My kids are old enough that we could go for longer, but it’s more fun if we can calmly experience the inevitable delays packing the minivan, can stop along the way for a picnic lunch and leg-stretcher, and still arrive with enough daylight to explore a bit before setting up camp and cooking dinner.

Book the Campsite Ahead of Time

Most states have some kind of online booking for campsites, so we booked a non-electric site with shared water (we do tent camping), which is cheaper than the electric/water sites geared for RV hookups. Generally you are not booking a specific site, but a category of site (sites for RVs over 20 feet, for example) and when you arrive you check in and go select a specific site.

Be Flexible

As the date approached we had rainy weather, and in checking the forecast, my partner learned that it was supposed to rain all 3 days we had booked, but clear up the 4th day. So, he called the park and got our reservation switched to the first sunny day forecast for the week of spring break. By not packing the week with activities we couldn’t change or cancel, (and picking a park with a lot of sites) we had the flexibility to make the best of the weather.

Stop Along the Way

On the stretch of I-64 before Williamsburg, between Croaker and Norge, we always seem to want a bathroom break. At the Croaker exit (exit 231-A), what come up first is the James City branch of the Williamsburg Regional Library. The “Friends of the Regional Library” has shelves of books for sale at 50 cents apiece. What a way to stock up on beach reading! We walked out with a bag full of books. Now we were getting hungry for lunch. We have a habit of scouting out a natural area or someplace pretty to eat: a city park, an arboretum, the grounds of a University – anyplace off the highway and green will do. If there’s water, so much the better. We noticed that we could take the Colonial Highway to Yorktown and Colonial National Historic Park, which is on the York River, without going too far out of our way. We didn’t have time to explore the historic site on this trip, but could eat our lunch on the waterfront and let the dog out for a run. The wind was chilly, but it was good to get out of the car for a bit in the pretty riverfront picnic area. Later we found that by walking all the way to the right of the picnic area (East that is) we got to a spot that was less exposed to the wind.

Tasty and Nutritious: Food from Home

We all like camping for different reasons, but my partner likes it because it is a fairly inexpensive way to travel, and even fast food prices make him balk when we can fix better food ourselves. My teenage son watched the documentary “Super Size Me” and won’t go near a fast food restaurant, and I am weight and nutrition-conscious. Even my 11 year old, who would eat junk all day long, admits that our picnic foods taste great. What’s on the menu?

With the help of some advance planning, our lunch on the way down consisted of delicious, low-cost, healthy wraps. The day before our trip I cut a small turkey breast it in half and smoked it in our electric smoker, using soaked chunks of oak for smoke and flavor. You can smoke meats on any charcoal or gas grill too – the instructions that come with the grill will tell you how. And I used our gas grill to prepare zucchini, bell peppers, asparagus and portabella mushrooms. With fat-free tortillas, washed romaine lettuce, sliced cheese, smoked turkey, grilled veggies, and hummus, it was a feast!

Fix-Ahead Ideas for Camping Meals

Other make-ahead ideas for tasty, healthy camping meals:
• Make a favorite soup (we fixed an Indian-spiced red lentil soup which is high in fiber and low in fat), and refrigerate it overnight. Pack it in your ice chest and this can be quickly re-heated for your first night – when you’re tired from a drive and setting up the tent.
• Fix a quick Greek salad by cubing cucumbers, feta cheese and tomatoes, adding kalamata olives, and a light red-wine vinegar and oil dressing.
• Buy a pork roast on sale, cook it for a family dinner and save ½ of it aside. Once it has cooled, dice it, and double-wrap and freeze the dice. Use with tortillas, black beans, shredded part-skim cheese, and salsa for a quick pork burrito meal. In a pan over your Coleman or camp stove, melt shredded cheese on a tortilla, then remove it to fill and roll.

Plan for Lazy Times and Activity

It’s a vacation, right? You don’t want to have every moment scheduled, but you also don’t want to lie around getting cranky or bored – a mix of active pursuits and lazing around makes for happy campers. We pack for activities we enjoy (bikes, helmets, hiking poles and daypacks, maybe a kite or water shoes, depending on where we’re going) and also research the area we’re going, looking for museums, historical sites, and natural areas we might want to explore. But an entire day of lying on the beach reading (or making elaborate sculptural installations, which is what my boys did) is fine too, as long as you have other options up your sleeve if someone gets restless.

At First Landing State Park there are miles of hiking trails, one long bike trail, a replica of a Native American village with full size longhouses, a bird-banding station, and an ecosystem featuring temperate and subtropical plants, trees draped with Spanish-moss, and cedar swamps full of shore birds like egrets and ospreys. If there are rainy days, the Virginia Aquarium and various historic sites await.

These are just a few tips to get you through a brief camping trip – just long enough to make you grateful for your own bed when you get home.

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