USA TODAY International Edition
Outdoors a magnet for family fun, adventure
LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES, KY. A middle- aged man wearing khaki cargo shorts, flip- flops and a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap wheeled a golf cart into the parking lot of The Outpost and disappeared inside.
He emerged a few minutes later carrying two bags of ice and a small sack of groceries.
“Glad this place is here,” he yelled from the passing cart without slowing down. “Always seem to need something.”
The Outpost is the camp store that services Hillman Ferry, a 374- site campground that’s scattered along nearly 900 acres of rolling, timbered, postcard- pretty Kentucky Lake/ Tennessee River shoreline. During the Independence Day weekend in July, every site was occupied and the campground took on the look and feel of a self- contained small town, albeit one with an idyllic personality and through- the- looking- glass persona.
On a quiet, post- holiday weekday afternoon about half the campsites were filled. Their occupants were mixed: Families with young children. Apparent longtime retirees. Every age group in between.
Accommodations varied, too. A handful of tents were scattered among the trees, but most of the filled campsites were anchored by travel trailers and RVs, including a few school- bus- size units. Some featured portable satellite dishes. The quiet hum of air conditioning units provided the background noise.
It was a transient city; quiet and clean, largely self- contained yet portable in manicured surroundings. Twilight Zone- ish almost; but in a safe, comfortable, friendly sphere.
“It is like a small city here, especially during holiday weekends,” said Jason Osborne.
Osborne is the assistant manager for Hillman Ferry, one of four fully- developed U. S. Forest Service campgrounds inside the 170,000- acre Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, a popular camping, boating and hiking destination that spills across the Kentucky- Tennessee border. Hillman Ferry is also one of thousands of federally- owned/ managed campgrounds across the country. Thousands more campgrounds are operated by national and state parks and other municipalities.
Many offer creature comforts. Others provide campers the bareboned necessities of chemical toilets, a fire ring. Privately run campgrounds also abound.
Camping is an astonishingly popular summertime activity. On summer holiday weekends — Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day — many if not most campgrounds are filled. Those that accept reservations are booked months in advance. But weekdays are busy, too.
According to the 2014 American Camping Report prepared by The Outdoor Foundation with help from outdoor retail giant The Coleman Company, 41 million Americans went camping in 2013. That’s 14% of the U. S. population.
Other sources have the number closer to 45 million. Either way, it’s a passel of folks. And they’re not limited to specific geographical areas. In Wisconsin, campers filled 5,924 state- owned/ operated public campsites in 2016 equaling 435,100 campsites “number of nights occupied.” The American Camping Report identifies Wisconsin as part of the “East North Central” region that also included Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. It’s a region that reports a 15% participation rate of the population who camped. The Mountain West ( Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico) has the highest percentage of campers, with 21% of the population sleeping under the stars.
Non- camping enthusiasts might, understandably, wonder what’s the attraction.
“For me, I just love being in the campground and seeing all the campfires, hearing the sound of children playing, staring at the stars and, if I’m lucky, perhaps hearing the sound of wildlife,” said Boyd Smith, whose job as a Baptist minister doesn’t keep him from heading to the woods every time he gets the chance. “I just love it.”
Smith became addicted to nights under the stars as a boy in Mississippi, camping with his twin brother. “Many times our tent was vacant because we would rather be lying on our makeshift sleeping bags looking up than be in a small tent filled with the heat of summer.”
Osborne suspects there is another draw, one that might reflect societal anxiety outside the campground.
Campgrounds are generally safe and camping is a familyfriendly pursuit. At Hillman Ferry and most other public sites the entrance is gated or manned, and only registered campers are allowed in after a certain time. Quiet hours are enforced. A supervisor is on site 24 hours.
“We provide a lot of amenities,” Osborne said. “We have basketball courts and volleyball courts and playgrounds and different ( nature) programs. But one of the biggest things is the security we provide. People can bring their kids inside this campground and provide them with a very safe environment in which to recreate.”