After the eclipse, more “real” camping was just what the family needed
Take a trio of tween girls out into the woods and you will instantly learn a new definition for the term “dispersed camping.”
Mere minutes after pulling off the road in the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forest, the campsite I would share with my 10-year-old daughter and her two friends was covered with a layer of sparkly, mostly pink items that had explosively dispersed from the hatchback of my SUV. It was if fairies and unicorns had been responsible for laying an early frost.
It was mid-september and I was finally making good on a promise to take my youngest daughter “real” camping. Our camping adventures so far in the season had been more closer to it all than away from it all.
Recent studies showing the benefits of getting children out into nature only backed up what I experienced in my own childhood. My dad took me backpacking into the high lakes of Colorado and Montana in my pre-teens, and it’s a tradition I was eager to continue with my own daughters. But after a short backpack in the Never Summer Range when my daughters were 5 and 7, I realized that type of camping was something we would need to work up to. While Dad and I carried all the necessaries (tents, stove, sleeping bags, pads, food, clothes, everything), the girls’ backpacks were bulging with only their stuffed animals.
Since then, we’ve stuck closer to the car or camper, but pushed farther and farther away from an actual campground.
Dispersed camping means staying at campsites in the National Forest without facilities like an outhouse or trash removal. Life without facilities is right on the edge of half my family’s comfort level. My 13-year-old can go 48 hours max without a shower, and if my husband runs out of ice, he is not a happy camper.
A month before we had camped out in the middle of Wyoming in the zone of totality for the eclipse (which was the coolest thing ever). While usually remote, Fort Fetterman Historic Site was packed rainfly to rainfly during the eclipse. This event/party/woodstock type of camping is what I refer to as drinking in the dirt. Sure enough, after listening to a woman retch at 4 a.m. just inches from our heads, my youngest daughter and I vowed to put some wilderness between us and our fellow campers for our next trip.
I searched out the remote Tom Bennett Campground, up the Poudre Canyon near Pingree Park, after the expedition expanded to include two of my daughter’s friends. The campground itself had two lovely spots right by the South Fork of the Poudre River, but they were also right by other campsites. When I decided to go just a little farther up the road, we quickly found a spot surrounded by dense forest with a wellbuilt fire ring and a soft, grassy spot for the tent. It was a spot where I felt comfortable letting the girls roam the woods, splash in the river and scramble up boulder fields. They made their own decisions and their own fun, which is what makes time in nature so worthwhile for children their age.
There were a few requirements before they headed out. They had to wear layers to be prepared for the fast-changing weather, and because it’s hunting season, the outer layer had to be a bright color. I also instructed them to sing their favorite pop songs so that I could hear where they were — and I figured the bears filling up for winter would be repelled by lame lyrics like, “It’s Everyday Bro” (repeat repeat repeat).
While they were away, I started building a fire. Although it has been drizzling all day, the ashes from the last campers were still warm enough to spark a flame when touched with newspaper. This was a good lesson for the girls on why fires should be completely out before you leave a campsite. It’s also why I stayed up until every last ember was out. If that means having a glass of wine by the fire pit while the girls settled down in our lone tent, so be it.
Of course the No. 1 rule of camping is to leave no trace, which is why my greatest accomplishment was not only bringing the girls home safe, but also every last one of their sparkly belongings.