Where is the worst place you've ever camped?

[hotfishtacos]

So far, the worst place we ever camped was at a big campground with 4oo spaces full and side by side at Pismo Beach, CA last year. The place was so full of smoke from side-by-side camp fires you could hardly breathe and there was no peace and quite ever. It was muddy, cramped, loud, smokey and just terrible. It was also the first camping spot for our Escape 19' . We have since learned to love boon-docking..

[Byron Kinnaman]

Worst place can also be a great place. My worst experience was at Texas Springs in Death Valley during spring break. Over crowded and a smoldering fire pit all night right under the window closest to my head. After two nights we left. It was the end of 90 days of great camping. The change was just too much to handle.
In January the same place was great, all snow birders, all quiet, and not crowded.

[Steve L.]

Worst place I ever camped was the infield of Michigan International Speedway. Tent camping. I don't think I have to say any more.

[Robin G]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

Worst place can also be a great place. My worst experience was at Texas Springs in Death Valley during spring break. Over crowded and a smoldering fire pit all night right under the window closest to my head. After two nights we left. It was the end of 90 days of great camping. The change was just too much to handle.
In January the same place was great, all snow birders, all quiet, and not crowded.

Exactly!



As well as, to each their own! Some people like camping like that. That's what makes life good.............. We have the ability to make choices!


There is a campground here in CO that I camped at once, once was enough! Crazy layout, uneven sites, picnic tables that a contortionist couldn't sit at, etc. But I read comments once in a while by campers on different camping forums that think it's a wonderful place! I think Huh? Instead of getting upset, I just remember, I don't ever have to camp there again!

[Kevin K]

Worst place I ever camped was Deadwood, South Dakota KOA.

[gmw photos]

Some people like close in crowds, and it "can" become a bit of a community. Last fall at the Albuquerque BalloonFest, I was camped in so tight that the guy behind me was literally 3" away. Side to side, we each had about 6 feet on the curb side. The entire place was packed in like that, but it's all part of the atmosphere. Within an hour of all my closest "neighbors" getting all set up we had introduced ourselves to each other, were sitting around together in lawn chairs, and were petting each others dogs.
It's not for everybody, but I have to admit it was fun. Total boondock also....no hookups.
I've camped other places to where I had total privacy and seclusion for days on end. It's all good.

[Terry G]

Last year I was headed down from Denver to Big Bend National Park in Texas with three friends in the car, pulling the Casita. On a previous trip, I had found a beautiful quiet little spot on BLM land along the Pecos River, south of Carlsbad, NM. I figured that would be the perfect place to camp, then head on to the park in the morning.

Well, we pulled in there late, after sunset, and started setting up. It turns out that my little idyllic spot had been taken over by some sort of huge energy conglomerate. There were huge compressors throbbing, pumps sputtering away, and a general cacophony of industrial noises that was hard to ignore. It was dark, so we couldn't find another spot. We survived the evening, but my friends have never let me forget about my "special" camping spot.

[carlkeigley]

I guess it's a bit like recommended restaurants..........
What one thinks is the greatest is a pig trough to others.

There are so many variables. All I can say, "Last time I was there it was great."
Or, "Last time I was there a school bus of brats showed up and ruined the experience."

[Carol H]

Like others I have attended festivals as well as a number of trailer rallies where your only a few feet from the next trailer but I don't really consider those types of events as going camping. I go for the event experience not the camping. I dont go to commercial spots close to an urban areas and expect real camping either, I look at the trailer simple as cheap accommodation while I explore/enjoy the area.

As far as the worse spot I ever picked for what I would call a real camping experience, it was in the middle of December (normally very low volume number of campers around at that time of year) in an undeveloped area in Arizona that I had followed detailed instructions from a friend to find. It was an awesome spot with only room for a few trailers and when I arrived no one else was there. Shortly after setting up, two other rigs set up near me but not real close so that didnt bother me but I soon discovered they had generators on timers. The generators fired up every morning and ran for a couple of hours and again at supper time and ran until after the sun went down..... took a lot away from the enjoyment of sitting outside and enjoy the view and the peace and quiet I had expected to have with my morning coffee or evening glass of wine. Ended up after 2 days moving on as a result.

May not have been the worse spot I have camped overall by a long shot but it turned out to be the most disappointing spot seeing as I had travel more than 1500 miles with the expectation I would love the spot & stay awhile longer than I did.

[stevebaz]

Camping in Big Sur California. Arrived late at night to a campground I had reservations for to find no space for me. Redirected to an overflow camping area many miles away for the night and assured that in the morning all would be corrected. After setting up a pop-up trailer after midnight in the dark and settling down for some sleep about 2 hours before sun up we get a whole bunch of big MOOO's by the windows. The herd of 30 cows or so around the truck and trailer was a little disturbing to say the least not counting the land mines left all over the place. They moved on for their morning milking and so did we. Back at the real campground our reservations were straightened out and we camped for another 3 days but those days were somehow not as memberable as the first.

[David B.]

Although it was many many years ago, our family will never forget Sceney Wildlife Preserve in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It offered free camping with a coin operated electrical hook-up. The Deer Flies & Mosquitos took turns at sucking our life's blood out of us. I think the wildlife all chipped in to make those camp spots so they wouldn't be the only ones on the Flies & Mosquitos menu.

[glamourpets]

Worst place for me was a campground near Gary Indiana. Anyone who knows the area can guess why, as the trailer park fit well with its surroundings. ...gritty, industrial, crime challenged... On this occasion, I might have slept better with a shotgun under my pillow.

[Francesca Knowles]

I've had to overnight in some pretty bad places, but since those were just stopovers I guess they don't count.

For places where I pitched "camp" with the intention of staying awhile, I'd have to single out the only one I was ever actually scared out of....run out in the middle of the night due to what I continue to believe was an Alien Encounter ! That was in my tentcamping days, and I won't go into the details except to say that I abandoned everything in the campsite to its fate and fled down the mountain. I spent the rest of the night in the comforting glare of the lights surrounding a loudly clunking icemaking machine in a supermarket parking lot.

Fortunately for him, my Only Son was asleep in the vehicle, so he got to come along...

Francesca

[Brian M. in NY]

Long ago, in a land faraway, we were backpackers. One weekend we hiked to the summit of Slide Mountain, the highest peak in the Catskill Mountains of NY. About 2:00 AM a thunderstorm rolled in. We laid on bare rock with lightning splatting around us until the sky began to lighten at 5:00. Surprised to still be alive, we stuffed our soggy tent and sleeping bags into our packs and hiked the 21 miles back to our car in the pouring rain. We arrived at about 1 in the afternoon just as the sun started breaking through the clouds. Nothing has ever come close to equaling that experience.

[web3221]

in 1981 coming back from a long weekend in santa fe nm over labor day. we lived in Denver, stopped at a place in Colorado just north of chama nm. god it was the most beautiful place 10 foot waterfall 50 feet from our campsite and nice mountain lake 100 feet below it. until sunset, and all hell broke loose millions of mosquitos everywhere. had to start two fires on different sides of the campsite just to survive the evening before going to bed. however in the morning, the water fall was great to bathe and wake up to the most beautiful day. still do not know where all those damn mosquitos went to.. we did help with some of their demise the previous evening

[Bob Miller]

One "Worst Place" comes to immediate mind:
Death Valley in May, Hotternhell all night long, 3 other people in a 100 site campground, a nearby resort store that was closing for the season in two days and everyone in sight was huddled inside where the only a/c in 100 miles was barely keeping even. We gave up and left at 3 AM.

[Evergreengirl]

It's hard to pick our worst, but a few stand out.

We pulled into Viento State Park along the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon one time. The park is bordered by a busy freeway on one side and the Columbia River on the other. Our spot seemed kind of noisy as it was quite near the freeway so I suggested we move closer down to the river. Bad move! What we didn't realize was that the railroad tracks ran right by our site. All through the night trains rumbled past and blew their horns as they approached an access road crossing. It was so loud that we felt like the trains were literally going to run us over. We didn't get a moment of sleep and groggily moved on the next day. The Columbia Gorge is beautiful, but we've since learned to camp at either Memaloose State Park or Ainsworth State Park which, while not entirely removed from train noise, at least give you a little distance from it.

Another time that stands out was the time we decided to just look for a place to pull over and boondock for the night. We found a small convenience store/gas station and it had a couple of semis parked in its back parking lot so we parked kind of out of the way and settled in for the night. At about 2:00 AM I was awakened by noise and when I parted our curtains and peered out I discovered that we were entirely surrounded by big semis, most of them with their headlights on and engines left idling. No more sleep that night.

But by far the worst was at a county park in California. It should have been a tip off when we pulled in and there was no one at the entrance station and no camp host, but it was the off season and so we didn't think much of it. And I was only a little uneasy when I saw that there were no other campers in the park. DH decides to go for a walk. I'm sitting in our rig, which at that time was a 32' motorhome, when a low rider derelict car with a bunch of lowlifes in it comes cruising through the campground. I make sure the door is locked. They leave and a little later a cop car comes cruising through the campground! Oh great, I think, it's a place where drug deals go down. Next thing, a really drunk guy comes staggering down the nearby railroad tracks. I'm getting pretty freaked out by this time and wondering if DH has been mugged and left bleeding in a ditch somewhere. When DH gets back I convince him that this is one creepy place. We bring in our slide out and pull up our stabilizer jacks because I want to be able to move out fast if we need to. I just keep getting bad vibes about the place though, so eventually I convince DH that we need to leave. I remember passing a casino a few miles back and so we go there. A security guy comes out and asks us if we want to spend the night and when we say yes he tells us where to park. It was safe, quiet, and free! Trust your instincts!

[KevinPete]

We hiked down off Slide Mt. during the flood in 2006, Brian. 8" of rain in 2 days and I'd go back tomorrow, nice area and some cool-looking trails there.

Worst was a rest area in Arkansas, people knocking on the windows and selling various illicit things 3' away. Was really an awful feeling when the state police car just rolled through slow about 2 am and kept on driving. We decided that 4 am was a good time to go find breakfast. Can't say I've had many bad experiences though, and the good far outweigh them.

[Joy A]

Originally Posted by Evergreengirl

We pulled into Viento State Park along the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon one time. The park is bordered by a busy freeway on one side and the Columbia River on the other. Our spot seemed kind of noisy as it was quite near the freeway so I suggested we move closer down to the river. Bad move! What we didn't realize was that the railroad tracks ran right by our site. All through the night trains rumbled past and blew their horns as they approached an access road crossing. It was so loud that we felt like the trains were literally going to run us over. We didn't get a moment of sleep and groggily moved on the next day. The Columbia Gorge is beautiful, but we've since learned to camp at either Memaloose State Park or Ainsworth State Park which, while not entirely removed from train noise, at least give you a little distance from it.

I pulled into Viento SP a couple of years ago and found a nice site. I was just about to unhitch and pay when I saw the train tracks within 10 feet or less behind the site. I moved on to Ainsworth SP and ended up staying an extra day or so there.

[Dick & Joanne]

Paxico, Kansas. Track on one side of small campground. Tent. Freight rains. Every 30 minutes starting about 11 PM. I memorized the whistle code for a railroad crossing.

Dick