Sorry, lady - we're full!

I can chalk up one more Ohio experience this weekend from the urban-girl-goes-country category. I have relatives coming to visit over 4th of July week. They include my niece and nephew, who I've enjoyed taking camping in the past. So, we want to do it again when they visit. Simple, yes?

Not really.
I took a Sunday drive to two of the closest "State Parks", down toward Columbus - in almost rolling hill country with lakes. And there, I learned that there is not a spare spot on the ground over 4th of July weekend. When at the first location I was told "we're full", I figured they were referring to RV spots. Even this weekend, there must have been hundreds flitting by the area and filling all the privately owned campground en route. I specified that we'd be "camping", not "RVing", ...you know...pitching tents and sleeping on the ground. Still no luck.

So I went to the second park, about 40 miles from the first, and the same scenario played out. This time, however, the entry "guard" told me that I'd be lucky to find a campsite in all Ohio on 4th of July week.

How on earth can that be?!? It's incredibly frustrating - but, I suppose I should be glad that so many people want to camp/RV in their state. They must be residents, because I can't think of any reason that someone would come to Ohio from another state to camp out.

Maybe my viewpoint is skewed, because I began my camping life in Texas. Well, really in the Netherlands, but was (kind of) living in Texas at the time, where the passion fully bloomed. On any given weekend, I would rather sleep under the stars than indoors, and was able to camp in any number of State Parks within weekend driving range, even with the frustration of having to get in and out of Houston traffic to do so. Never had I encountered a fully-full campground. There were always walk-in sites, that RVing families and car campers are just too lazy to pursue. Not so, apparently, in Ohio.

So, a natural conclusion to jump to is that, as our population grows, so should our set-aside, public land base. There are hundreds of naturalists who have written this sentiment better than I can over hundreds of years, but it seems no one is listening. And so, today, we have full campgrounds, with no apparent decrease in RV or regular camping desires to use them. In contrast, there are several efforts afoot nationally to privatize and/or develop existing public lands, and resolutions to declare several areas as "wildnerness" that have been stalled for years. I can't even get started on describing the current administration's public land (mis) management - my head would explode. But you can read more on that here. And, if you're interested in saving existing public lands, or (please) creating new ones, support your favorite public land office, or you can apply a shot-gun approach at the Trust for Public Land. Minor soapbox moment over.