My Favorite Season for Camping

Well, here it is the end of another summer. This brings to mind many things…kids are returning to school, the pools have closed, the scorching summer heat is gone until next year, and it is a great time to go camping! In fact, it’s my favorite time of the year to camp!

There are many reasons why I love to camp in the fall. The weather is as perfect as it gets in the Midwest. The temperature is very comfortable, the humidity is gone, the afternoons are warm, and the evenings are cool and you can actually get a good night's sleep. The mosquitoes are pretty much gone until next summer, and the wildlife has been rejuvenated with the cooler temperatures. Don’t get me wrong, I will camp just about anytime and thoroughly enjoy it, but fall is just my preferred season for camping. Here in Missouri I look forward to the fall camping season because you can actually walk around and not sweat your backside off, plus the bugs aren’t quite as bad.

The scenery is fantastic in the fall. When the leaves start changing colors, and the sun shines on them with a clear blue sky as a background, there is hardly a more beautiful sight. Even as it starts to get cooler, and the leaves begin to fall from the trees, it is beautiful. The sound of leaves rustling while you are hiking just makes being in the outdoors seems so much more rustic. It doesn’t get any better than that. I love to get up early and go for a hike to check out the wildlife in the area, we see deer, turkey, coyotes, bobcats and lots of birds.

When camping, you always need a campfire, but you really appreciate it on a cool fall evening and on a cool fall morning. When you throw a coffee pot on the fire and you can smell the coffee brewing, it warms your inners just knowing that the coffee will be ready in a few minutes. There’s nothing like cooking breakfeast on a camping stove or better yet an open fire, it makes me think about how life use to be before all the moderen conveniences came along and how hard it was to survive.

The smell of the campfire when it is cool outside just seems to smell better than when the temperatures are in the 80’s and 90’s and sitting around the campfire is another one of my favorite things to do, we shoot our sling shots into the river, we tell stories, we make s'mores, sometimes we just sit there and do nothing. That’s what so nice about camping it gives you a chance to slow down and appreciate life. It just doesn’t get any better than that. I love to camp.

My camping gear changes a little bit when I switch from summer camping to fall camping. I usually bring a little heavier sleeping bag, some long pants, long sleeve t-shirts, a good camping tent with a good rain fly and maybe a Coleman heater for the cool mornings, that’s about it really.

If you haven’t been camping in the fall, you have to try it. If you like camping in the summer, you’ll like camping in the fall. Send me your thoughts about your favorite time of the year for camping, or just any camping thoughts or ideas you would like to share, and I will post them on the website. Send your camping stories and pictures to stories@backwoodscampingsupplies.com. Thanks for visiting our blog!