Creating Shade And Privacy At Campsite

Through the years we’ve stayed at a lot of campgrounds, most were either Provincial Parks or Canadian Parks. Every park and every site was completely different. The online booking site often has some pictures and a bit of a description but you never really know what to expect until you pull in. We now have a 21-foot trailer, which includes the tongue length, and so when we book online we have to choose the “Trailer or RV up to 25-foot” equipment option. This means that as far as the park is concerned, we should be able to fit our trailer on one of those sites. This is a little misleading at times. Do they mean the length of the trailer will fit but that you can also manoeuvre that length of trailer with your vehicle into that space? How about the tree limbs? Are they going to imped your parking ability, or are they going to scratch the side of your trailer? And if you think having a pull-through site alleviates any of those issues? Well, you’d sometimes be incorrect.

One year were camping at the Bruce Peninsula National Park and we almost didn’t fit into a pull-through spot because of the trees and tree limbs. Luckily we had some help from another camper and his son so that we could have eyes on all sides of both the truck and the trailer. In the end, we did get it parked but we had several scratches on the trailer and we couldn’t put the awning out because of a tree in the way.

Nature-Lover-20180730-164024-1 Creating Shade And Privacy At Campsite

When we showed up to the small park of Rideau River, we didn’t have any problem with getting the trailer onto the site, although it would have been easier if the sites across from us didn’t have extra vehicles parked along the narrow road. We did have an issue with the soft sand and sloping edges of the site, so we ended up parking the trailer straight back and in the middle. The first issue I had was the sun was baking us while we were setting up and then the fact that our site was completely open to the road and the nosy neighbours. So, we decided to rig up a tarp to give us some shade and some privacy.

Using a small 10 by 10 foot tarp, awning clips, velcro straps and rope, we rigged up privacy and shade, all in one. This was the first time we have done it this way, but I’m sure we will elaborate on this setup in the future.