Adams® natural Peanut butter is running a contest for a five-day, four-night trip for four to Yosemite National Park, including airfare to Fresno, a rental car and lodging. If you’ve always dreamed of taking your family camping in Yosemite, here is an excellent opportunity to visit the park during the peak season, without a lot of panning and expenses.
Weekend Outdoor Reads for February 12th
Weekend Outdoor Reads highlights some of the most interesting content that I’ve come across, this week, from around the web. This week, I’m reaching back a bit, since I was out of town and missed Ryan Dionne’s post on GearJunkie.com about some of the unconventional outdoor gear that he came across at the Outdoor Retailer show, in Salt Lake City. I’ve got a bunch of good stuff this week, so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy this week’s best outdoor content.
4 Ways to Keep Camping Food Cold
Vintage Coleman cooler (photo by Caffinara on Flickr)
The year I was born, 1965, Coleman® introduced the popular steel-sided ice chest that I imagine many of us grew with, camping with our families. I imagine that it wasn’t all that great, compared to some of today’s high-tech plastic coolers, but it was as much a part of my early camping experience as the smell of kerosene from the camp stove and I kind of miss its retro-simplicity.
Unlike 1965, we have a lot of choices these days, when it comes to keeping our camping food cold. There are coolers of all different shapes and sizes, hard-sided, soft-sided and even refrigerated units. We have the boating industry to thank for a lot of the technology we see in today’s multi-day ice chests and, indeed, some of the best (and most expensive) coolers on the market are aimed primarily at boaters.
Busiest Family Camping Weekends for 2010
Photo by North Cascades National Park on Flickr
2009 was a banner year for many popular family camping destinations. Parks in Maine, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia all set attendance records last year, with big national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite also putting in big numbers.
There is a renewed interest, across the country, in family camping trips that offer more bang for consumer’s vacation buck. Vacation hours and holidays have also been under pressure during the economic recession as companies cut expenses, including employee benefits. All of this is leading up to another banner year for the parks, which means the busiest family camping weekends in 2010 are sure to fill up quickly.
Three Secrets to Camping With Kids
Online travel site Tripbase is putting together a project on “Best Kept Travel Secrets” and has asked me to contribute something from a family camping perspective. This sounds like it’s going to be a really great resource, as I’m just one of over a hundred sources contributing to the effort. I’ll be sure to give everyone a heads-up when they publish the series.
Many parents we have met feel a bit overwhelmed at the thought of spending a weekend in the backcountry with their kids. Camping with kids is a great way for families to spend time together and have fun in a different kind of setting, which helps keep the experience interesting for everyone. Here are three of my secrets to camping with kids.