If you are staying at a campground there are normally lots of different activities to fill your day. Whether it is sightseeing, photography, exploring the wilderness or games such as petanque or croquet or even just playing catch.You can normally find something to do without getting bored.
However, when the sun goes down it is not so easy to fill in your time with activities so the following section is all about activities to do when its dark.
The Classic Campfire: There is nothing more fun during a camping trip than sitting around a campfire with family and friends at night under the bright shining stars and toasting marshmallows or smores. Building a campfire is actually quite easy but it's absolutely vital to do so responsibly so as not to damage the natural environment or endanger other people.
Location:It is especially important to find an area that is suitable for building a campfire.
If camping in the great outdoors it can be a bit more difficult to find a suitable place as opposed to an actual campsite. It's imperative to follow all the rules as laid out by park rangers and to pick a site which is not too close to forested area, particularly bushes that could easily be ignited, and also not too close to a rocky area. It's also necessary to make use of a fire ring if provided but in the case that it isn't, stones will do the trick to help contain ash.
Firewood: When you've chosen the ideal spot set up your campfire, the next important thing to think about is gathering firewood. You can gather firewood from your natural surroundings and it's ideal to collect twigs and branches as tinder as well as kindling to get the fire started easy. If wood is not readily available in the area where you are camping, it's recommended that you bring firewood with you.
Lighting the campfire: Building a campfire requires the builder to have a little bit of experience in truly getting it right but the whole process is relatively easy.
A fire will burn properly with the aid of several pieces of wood along with air, and fuel. First thing needed is tinder which can be twigs, leaves, paper, wood shavings or pine needles. Followed by that is kindling which is mainly smaller sticks and then ultimately firewood which is larger wood to help maintain the fire. To construct the fire, simply lay the kindling over the tinder in a criss-cross pattern while ensuring not to build too many layers as fire requires air ventilation to burn. There should be a small amount of room at the very bottom (the base) in order to light the tinder.
Once lit, simply adding firewood will help keep the fire burning. Safety is important so it's wise to not leave the fire unattended nor allow inexperienced people or young children to maintain it. Fire should be handled responsibly which means only those who are experienced in creating and maintaining fire should be supervising it. Putting Your Fire Out Making sure a fire is properly extinguished is extremely important. Firstly use water to snuff out the hot kindles and cover it with dirt/earth if need be.
Carelessness could lead to spreading wildfires so make sure your fire has been put out completely. Story-telling If you've ever been camping you will know that one of the main activities at night is storytelling by the campfire, in particular stories about your own camping-activities and retelling everyone what you enjoyed most about the day's experience. What adults seem to enjoy the most are the chances to live their youth again which is what really makes campfire activities and camping in general so much fun. Scary stories Now this is one of the most popular campfire activities known to man! Old stories from folklore handed down through the generations and the majority of these stories still transfix kids even today.
You could even argue that kids would prefer a good scary story above anything else and all it takes is a little imagination. Even though they don't like to admit it, adults love a good ghost story as well but nothing beats a scary story that is set "while camping within the woods".
This is where the story-teller becomes much more involved with the listener by laying out a fictional haunted back-story of the very camping grounds which they are camping in or even taking it to a much more frightening level by referencing the crazed killer or maniacal person who lurks the camping grounds,preying on the innocent.
Obviously some of these stories will not be suitable for kids but for adults, it is still entertaining. As always, everything is only limited by one's creativity and personality.
Star-Gazing :When in the city it is not always easy to see the stars in the sky with all the bright lights around. So when camping there is ample opportunity for friends and family to fully unwind which means spreading out on the ground and staring up at the bright night sky and just soaking up the atmosphere and nature in general. This is an ancient activity almost as popular as story-telling.
Normally people try to make their own observations of the stars in the sky but it's also a very good conversation piece among campers. With a little study up,it can be the perfect time to educate kids on some basic astronomy and teach them about the major constellations.
Board Games :With the ever changing technological world and advancement of things to occupy the mind, board games have steadily declined in use and have taken a backseat to television and video games.
However, no television or video game console is needed in order to pass quality time while camping with family and friends. Board-game entertainment has been in existence for thousands of years in some form or another. There is no shortage of board games to choose from and can be played in any environment and especially night time.
What makes board games so good is that anywhere up to even a dozen players can be involved. In the same vain, card games are popular also and are very easy to transport with you. Journal Writing For some of the more regular campers or ones who like to record their daily-activities in general, keeping a journal is not only a nice way to pass the time at night but it's also great for those who like to look back often years later at their camping experiences and the highlights as well as photos taken along the way.
Making a log of activities can sometimes be helpful to those who like to camp regularly since it's a way of keeping a record of things that might have been good or bad and can be improved upon on a future trip.
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