Welcome to my series on the joys of family camping. In this series I’ll remember my own camping experiences to help you understand why I think that family camping is a great way to bring your family together. My family discovered camping when I was 13 years old and in the 39 years that followed, I’ve had some great family experiences on camping trips. In the process, I’ll turn you on to some great places to camp and help you make a list of the camping gear you’ll need.

One of my favorite parts of camping is the chance to experience nature up close and personally. The earliest example of this I can remember was on our very first family camping vacation. It was June of 1969 and my father decided that we would try camping for that summer's vacation. Dad decided we were going to visit Ocean City, Maryland and see the wild ponies at Assateague Island National Seashore. Imagine how cool it was for my sister, brother and I (aged 4, 10 and 13 respectively) to see those ponies running around wild. Sure, we could have stayed at a hotel and driven to see the ponies, but it just wouldn’t have been the same as waking up, closing our camping tent, packing our picnic basket and then hiking to where we could see the ponies. It felt to me like we were part of the ponies’ world rather than intruders into their world.

Among the amazing wildlife I’ve seen while camping are wild moose in Maine, a spectacular monarch butterfly migration in Long Island (yes you really can go camping in Long Island), dozens of hawks and bald eagles near Harrisburg, PA, a migration of tiny frogs in South Carolina and hundreds of deer in one day on Virginia's Skyline Drive. All of these trips have etched memories for a lifetime into my mind. I only wish the quality of cameras was better when I was young. That reminds me, don’t forget to take your camera on your next camping trip and when you go, please, please take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints.

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