Thrifty Travel Strategy- Camping

This post was supposed to be about the camping trip we went on this weekend. However the weather didn't cooperate and we had to cancel our plans. Didn't want our first camping trip with our four-month-old to be a wash-out! Camping is a great way to get away from it all. It can be a very thrifty vacation if you don't go overboard on gear.

Upper Sioux Agency State Park, Minnesota- May 2009

Basic Gear
You don't need a ton of fancy gear, ours is from a combination of garage sales, Target, friends and family, and Menard's. A rundown of some of the key pieces of equipment:

• Sleeping tent: we have a four-man dome tent that we got at an end of season sale at Target
• Screen tent: a more recent purchase to put over the picnic table and avoid bugs and rain, we got it at an end of season sale at Menard's
• Cook stove: We bought a Coleman 2 burner stove for $5 at a garage sale and the guy even threw in a whole gallon of the fuel it uses
• Sleeping bags: We received our current ones as a gift, but before that we each had one from our families who no longer camp
• Air mattress and pump: Another Target purchase
• Pots and pans: You can often find these things very cheap at garage sales, ours were my husband's family's set
• Folding chairs: Can be found very cheap on Craigslist, garage sales, or aren't too expensive new

Where to Stay:
State parks are a great place to camp. Most states have online reservation systems that allow you to reserve a specific campsite ahead of time. We have also camped in and near national parks including Sequoia, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Acadia. Those were also a wonderful experience and we were able to book those online as well. When we went to Acadia, in Maine, we flew with all of our camping gear, now that was an adventure!

Some Links:
MN State Park Reservations
WI State Park Reservations
National Park Reservations

Joshua Tree National Park, California- May 2007