State park camping is fun and affordable

By Evelyn Gendron
NH Mirror Contributor

You’re conjuring ideas to float by the family for this summer’s getaway. Something the kids will remember as cool, adventuresome and brag-worthy, even when it’s back-to-school shopping time. Something to motivate your summer 2008 scrapbook pages.

Your wallet, however, is limping behind your bleeding savings account. Both were emptied this winter to pay a king’s ransom for home heating fuel, gas for the car and credit card interest rates for holiday gifts.

Why not explore the affordable nooks and crannies of Mother Nature in living color right here in New Hampshire, camping under the stars in a state park?

Within an hour or two of your home, acres and acres are beckoning you to unplug, dine fireside with marshmallows at the end of a perfect stick, marvel at random fireflies and weave stories about the big fish that got away, all while bathing suits drip-dry on tree branches.

As little as one day’s notice can hold a campsite for your tent, pop-up camper or RV as locally as Pawtuckaway State Park in Nottingham, or venture a temporary claim in a state park near a favorite New Hampshire historical attraction such as the Flume, Mount Washington, Storyland and quieter points north.

Let the photos and descriptions at newhampshirestateparks.reserveamerica.com persuade you into a stress-free, great outdoors getaway in the Granite State. You’ll find quick links of interest arranged by region, or you can scroll through the alphabetical list of the Granite State park system.

Imagine the spontaneous adventures kids crave. Couldn’t your family get used to day after day without an itinerary, alarm clock, microwave oven or vacuum?

Your wake-up call might be the kids asking if it’s OK to cast the line, rent a canoe or sprint to the restrooms. You’ll roll the Yahtzee or backgammon dice at the breakfast picnic table, set the small trash bag out for the park rangers, hike a trail with a healthy backpack lunch and take a refreshing dip in the lake.

Prove that an adult in sunglasses and sunscreen is, in fact, able to start and finish a library book during a vacation if allowed to stake out a 6-by-3 foot plot of sand as a “no-whining zone” for a few days.

While the moon rises and “quiet hours” rule, you’ll zip the tent closed behind you and slip into sleeping bag slumber thinking: The mail is being held, no bills! No daily de-cluttering of tables and counters. Since unloading the car, you won’t need to pack again until it’s time to go home.

Ponytails will do; your teenage daughter doesn’t need her hair straightener. Away from the routine and lures of suburbia and peer pressure, your kids will instinctively step into an imaginary, exploratory persona of old. Outdoors, everything is new.

The woods are never boring. Kids can see and hear other kids with their families, so they’ll step up more readily to a new brand of outdoor chores. While kids are camping, safety and respect are the only boundaries. Newfound freedom is the unspoken groove.

At $24 a day for regular tent sites, and $32 for water sites, you just might find yourself reflecting on the beauty of New Hampshire’s great outdoors and how much the family surprisingly found ways to entertain themselves while exercising their bodies and minds.