Stolen Campsites

One of the challenges of camping in a car has been dealing with stolen campsites. Since I'm camping in a vehicle and the vehicle leaves during the day, some people come in looking for a site and think that mine's free (since there's nothing left behind). Some of these have been honest mistakes, but other situations have been quite intentional and brazen. The problem is even worse in campgrounds that aren't managed too well.

Thankfully, I've learned a bit over the years concerning how to prevent campsite theft, and I'm hoping that some of this might be helpful to those of you who find yourselves in similar situations. Years ago, when I first camped at Douglas Dam Headwater Campground (a TVA campground near the Smoky Mountains in east Tennessee), all campsites were only available on a first-come, first-serve basis. You fill out an envelope, put the payment in a steel tube, and put a slip in a clip on your site. The fine print explains that you need to leave some kind of a "dwelling unit" at your site during the day to show that it's occupied (a tent or an RV of some kind). Since I was camping in the car and needed to be away from the site all day, I brought what I referred to as a "sacrificial tent," a small tent I bought in high school many years ago. It took some wasted time and effort to set up a tent I wouldn't actually sleeping in, but it helped to show that the site was occupied. This worked the first year, but the second year at the same campground, I came back one night to find my tent literally ripped up in a pile by the side of the road and a drunken party going on at my site. The whole campground was completely full, so I couldn't just move, so I approached the group and said, "Hey, I think you're in my site." It didn't go too well, and the sheriff ended up getting involved. They claimed that there was no slip in the clip and that my tent was by the side of the road when they got there, but the deputy didn't believe a word of it and kicked them out.

The Sacrificial Tent (before)

The Sacrificial Tent (after)

Thankfully, this campground now has a reservation system and is well-managed by a private contractor, and I haven't had any trouble since then.

But, similar things have happened elsewhere. Earlier this year I was camping at Heart o' the Hills in Olympic National Park, and I was the only camper in the entire campground (I was there in that narrow window between avalanche season and tourist season, in late April/early May). I got back one night to find a French-speaking couple from Quebec in my site. They had the whole campground to choose from, but chose my site, even though I had left a clothesline with a sheet on it as a marker, and even though I had self-registered, properly leaving my slip in the display board. They hadn't paid at all and were just trying to abuse the system and camp for free. I could have had them evicted, I suppose, but they had just used their last firewood and were in the middle of cooking. They promised to leave the next morning, so I had them pay for a new site for me for that night, and I would move back to that site the next day. No problem. But, the next day (still just me in the whole campground), a ranger must have come by during the day. Thinking my site was abandoned, the ranger mistakenly took down my clothesline and sheet, and cleared out the reservation board. Before I got back, a young family came in and got my site. This was on a Saturday night, and the campground had suddenly filled up since it was the weekend. I got back and had nowhere to stay for the night. I had a receipt showing that my site was paid for, but this family was already settled in for the night, so I didn't press it and ended up sleeping in a parking lot at a nearby trailhead (illegal, but it was my only option, and I would be leaving before sunrise the next morning). There must be a better way.

Reservation Board at Heart o' the Hills in Olympic National Park

I put a note in my window while sleeping at the trailhead

To try to keep this from happening again, I needed some way to mark my site as being occupied, something that's portable, secure, informative, and obvious. So, later on that trip, I found a square cast iron skillet at a thrift store, and when I got home I sanded it, gave it a coat of bright red paint, and spelled out "CAMPSITE OCCUPIED" in reflective lettering.

My goal was to lock this on something at the campsite along with some contact info. For the contact info, I needed a waterproof pouch that could be attached to the lock, so I found a pack of cruise ship luggage tags on Amazon that worked perfectly.

For the info part of this, I typed up a fill-in-the-blank type note with the relevant info (and made several copies to carry along on future trips or to change from site to site).

I then used a cable and lock from home, and found a perfectly-sized case at a local thrift store.

Everything fits in the case, and it takes up almost no room at all in the car. It's also quick and easy to deploy. I know it's not foolproof, but I used it on a recent trip, and I think it serves to inform honest people (fellow campers as well as rangers). It is also incredibly visible from the road - if somebody is driving by looking for a site, it's now obvious: This one's taken. On this last trip, I locked it directly on the fire ring. I might use the cable if there's no fire ring and I need to lock it to a tree or a picnic table.

I want low-drama camping as much as possible, and this seems to be helping.

Something else that's helped: Whenever I check in, I always take a quick pic of the site and my tag. With the Heart o' the Hills incident, it helped get a refund from the park, and it helped with the training of rangers, since they are the ones who wrongly cleared the reservation board, thinking my site was abandoned. Without the pic, there is no way they would have believed me.