Campgrounds and RV Parks: On-line Lesson

An important part of any outdoor recreation experience and the most popular family vacation in the U.S. is camping. As with other recreation facilities, the recreation experience will be determined in a large part by the design of the facility or area. Is it crowded and noisy or is it planned to provide for a variety of experiences?

A well designed campground, according to Hutsman, Cordell, & Hutlstman (1998), will include the following design considerations:

Campground Design Don'ts

1. Don't use too much road. Many private and public campgrounds have far more roads than are needed.
2. Don't mix day use and carping use. It's OK to design recreation areas with day- and overnight-use areas but don't mix them.
3. Don't put amenities (such as beaches, shelters and tot lots) or toilets/showers inside of camp loops.
4. Don't locate amenities in or on the edges of camp loops.
5. Don't move traffic from one camp loop into another and another.
6. Don't mix family campsites and seasonal campsites on the same camp loop.
7. Don't call your loops A or B, or 1 or 2- name them.
8. Don't assume engineers or landscape architects or planners or foresters or consulting firms or college professors or other rascals know how to design campgrounds. It is quite likely they don't!
9. Don't locate your primary road between camp loops and the main attraction (lake or stream).
10. Don't (if at all possible) utilize many existing roads and facilities in a major renovation of a campground.
11. Don't make "third-class citizens" of campers by keeping them away from the lake or stream attraction, or by (unless shoreline acreage is quite limited) having them cross or move through day users to get to the attraction.
12. Don't design "overuse" impact potential into your campground.
13. Don't waste your land base by designing big fat loops.
14. Don't (if you are a designer) ask others (managers, maintenance folks or programmers) how they want you to design something; ask them how they want the design to function for them and users.

Campground Design Dos

1. Do seek input from managers, maintenance personnel, planners, engineers, users, persons with disabilities, and other available specialists.
2. Do decide early on who you want to beckon to your family campground then design for those users.
3. Do think big, plan big, and build big.
4. Do consider (if this is a public area) the possibility of public-private cooperation.
5. Do design your campground so construction can be phased logically.
6. Do build the amenities with the first phase.
7. Do spend considerable time on site before you draw two or three alternative designs. Then, when a master plan is acceptable, field design your camping units and roads.
8. Do (in area rehabilitation) use sections of existing roads, toilet/shower structures (if they are in good condition) and other existing features if-and that's a big if-they enhance your design.

*reference: Hultsman, J., Cottrell, R. L., and Hultsman, W. Z. (1998).Planning Parks for People (2nd ed.) State College, PA: Venture Publishing

Basic Loop Design

Peanuts or Hot Dog Designs

Both the peanut and hot dog loop designs conserve space. They also move people down the roadways instead of through the camp areas. Loops can be varied in size depending on the space available and the mixture of camp unit types.

Site Dimensions (suggested)

Hardening A Camp & RV Site

Hardening a camp site means to replace the existing soil with a surface that will withstand heavy use and erosion. Common materials used to harden a site are marble dust, small gravel, or concrete. Areas around picnic tables, grills, ramadas, amphitheaters, or tent sites should be hardened.

RV Park Surfacing

RV Park Amenities

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