Watch Where You Camp

This story was relayed to me and I have changed the names to protect the campers.

  Last summer Bill took his family out for a weekend camping trip to the mountains of Arizona. The drive was long and tiring. Upon arriving at a campground Bill and his family discovered that all the camping sites were taken. So they drove around to try and find a spot to camp outside of the grounds. This is not an easy task in the dark and in unfamiliar territory.  They drove around for about an hour before they came upon a small area that looked like someone had camped there before. Perfect… or so they thought.

 They got the tent set up and the camp somewhat organized and turned in for the night. Man they thought this was great. They laid in their sleeping bags and listened to the wind blow gently all night long. The next morning Bill got up to cook breakfast and get the camp more organized while his family slept in for a while. We can only imagine the surprised look on Bill’s face when he climbed out of the tent. Everything was covered in ashes, the truck, the tent, the gear, and even his family inside the tent. Bill and his family had decided to camp in an area where the forest service had done a controlled burn a couple of week earlier.

R L Gray

Camping Editor

Team AZOD