Camping Books

The priniciples of how this stuff works never ages, and this resource does a good job of explaining how it works, and how to set it up. A must read for any one interested in setting up their own system.

This book covers the basics very nicely for someone getting started in Solar Power for their RV. I haven't found any newer texts that cover this subject as thoroughly as the Kirkby's have. Other 12 Volt Boat/RV texts I've found barely touch on the subject of solar charging systems for deep cycle batteries.

This book was first published in 1987, and updated in 1993. Much of the info included is badly out-of-date.

Looking through the Book, I will keep it with me while on road trips and when planning camping trips. I bought the book to see if I could learn anything more about my area central & northern New Hampshire. It only dedicates about 10 pages to Northern NH and everything that is listed on central NH I already knew.

Actually, I would normally rate this book a 4 but I thought the previous rating showing a 2 was too low. I found the book to be very helpful. Not being familar with Maine, VT, or NH, I was able to quicky determine not just where to fish but where not to fish. The book is targeted more toward fly fishermen (I am one of those) and it lists what hatches are on the stream. A familar fly fisherman knows roughly what month such hatches are around. I would highly recommend this book over a Maine Gazette map which will not give you the detailed directions to some popular fishing spots.

A nice collection of maps and general info, however, this title doesn't supply much more information than the NH Gazetteer. Can't speak as specifically to the VT and ME sections. Little info on when to fish, just general descriptions of how to get there and what may or may not be stocked. Really just a surface survey.

We used this book extensively for a Utah car camping trip last month. While it does offer a lot of useful information, we found that we could not rely on the ratings given the campgrounds in deciding where to camp.

In the other foghorn guides, a 9 or 10 rating is relatively rare and usually well deserved. In this guide, however, they are dished out quite often in campgrounds other than private ones.

For example, if you look at the campgrounds along the Colorado outside of Moab, almost all are 9s. Yet these are located right by the road, have little shade, and very little privacy. Yes, the view in front of you is very nice but the road noise is very disturbing.

Also, in Capitol Reef, they awarded the Fruita campground a 10. This might be a 7 or even 8 but it's not a 10.

As far as not including Navajo National Monument as another reviewer complained, I believe NNM is located in Arizona and not Utah.

Other than the generous ratings, it's a fairly informative guide.

I BOUGHT A PRIOR EDITION OF THIS BOOK AND FOUND THAT IT DOES NOT LIST ALL THE C.G'S. MAYBE IT'S ME BUT, I COULDN'T FIND ANYTHING ON NAVAJO NAT'L MONUMENT! AGAIN, THE SAME CAMP GROUND HAS BEEN LEFT OUT. MAYBE IT'S A WELL KEPT SECRET. A WELL MADE EFFORT TO DUPLICATE "TOM STIENSTRA". NOW I SEE WHY TOM STIENSTRA GETS AWARDED "OUTDOOR WRITER OF THE YEAR"!!!! COM'ON GUYS, GET OFF THE ARM CHAIR AND DO SOME EXPLORING. GET OUT THERE!!! LEAD ME TO SOMEPLACE THAT I'VE NEVER BEEN TO BEFORE. SOMEPLACE WHERE I CAN SAY, WOW! I LOVE THIS BOOK!!

The Foghorn series of campground guides is not without flaws. Even so, we know of no directories which do a better job of addressing campground aesthetics than these wonderful guides. In our experience, the look and feel of a campground is often the single greatest factor influencing the quality of a camping experience . . . and the factor totally ignored by nearly all other campground guides.

There are a number of directories which rate facilities, provide directions, tell you how to make reservations and give you an idea of the cost for a night's stay in a specific campground. This series gives similar basic information and then goes beyond that. The Foghorn guides actually give you a feel of what it is like to stay in a specific campground - a bit of a narrative description and a "scenic beauty rating" for each campground plus information about nearby recreation opportunities. We like that a lot.

Have we found instances where we liked a campground more or less than the book's author? Of course. Tastes differ and things change over time. Even so, we would rather have an admittedly subjective rating of a campground's intangibles than to have nothing to go on but a recitation of facts and figures.

Are the Foghorn Outdoors guides the only ones we use? No. But they are ALWAYS the first place we turn when selecting a destination campground.

"Where Time ends" is an excellent book. The plot was very interesting. The book was very well written also and had some great ideas in it. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys realistic-fiction.

"Where Time Ends" was an interesting story. Although it was fiction, the scenario seems like it could really take place, I think that is part of what made it so interesting. I would recomend this book to poeple who enjoy realistic fiction.

This book was not what I expected it to be. I saw the title and expected it to be very good. Instead, I finished the book dissapointed and wouldn't recomend it to anyone else. It wasn't very well written and the plot was too real and left nothing to the imagination.

I must say I respectfully disagree with the previous reviewer's comment that the information here is all available on the Internet and isn't specific enough to be really helpful. If you actually read the couple of pages devoted to each campground, you'll find details that definitely are NOT covered on the DNR Website or in any other readily available source.

On every camping trip, I take notes and annotate my map in preparation for our next trip. But each trip, I like to try a new place, so my notes don't always help! The info in this book is exactly the kind of information I would like to have before I go: what amenities are there, best loops, advantages and disadvantages of each area, and--most useful--the exact site numbers of sites that are especially good or especially avoidable (and why). I've found a number of very precise tidbits that have, IMO, been worth the purchase price.

Unfortunately, the author does little more than compile data that is otherwise easily available on the internet into one centralized place. While that does have some utility (hence the two stars instead of one), he does very little more than that; thus, the book offers little in the way of orginality or direction.

The book's title suggests that he's going to pare down all of Maryland's camping options into, gee, "the best" ones. But there are 50 listed in the book (ok, conveniently by region) and he doesn't go much further to opinionate (it's OK to have an opinion!) what the best choices are. For example, which would be, say, the top five for families with young children? For avid hikers? For sheer beauty, scenery, history, or isolation? While he uses a "star-rating" system that covers five sub-categories, it ends up being useless because he awards most of the camping sites either four or five stars in each category, thereby providing little meaningful distinction among them all. Also, does five stars really mean "can't miss" or is that just a level relative to Maryland?

He sometimes recommends a few campgrounds within each site, which is certainly on the right track to helping us out, but offers few concrete details and suggestions on anything else; for example, food options, maps, photos, itineraries, etc.

All in all, a wasted opportunity to cut through the chaffe to write a book that tent campers could really use.

As a backpacker who chooses the comforts of car camping when embarking on WA adventures with my family, this book has become one of my favorites.

This year and last, we used the book as a guide for finding out-of-the-way campsites which bar RVs and towed campers.

In all cases, the author was completely accurate in her descriptions of the campsites, the road conditions leading to the campsites, and the campsite's scenic beauty ratings.

I was looking for a book that my family (we have 2 young children)could use to find cool tent camping spots in WA. We've used the book a few times and have not been impressed.

Her ratings for "scenic", "privacy", spaciousness", etc. seem to be a bit blown out of proportion. I don't think there is a single CG listed that is less than 3 stars. We went to a State park in Eastern WA that was rated 4 stars for beauty, once we got there, I clearly did not agree with her. So I looked up a CG in her book that I have been to before that is obviously beautiful to most people, and she rated that CG a 4 star. Hmmm... it didn't make sense to me.

The organization of the book is not good for cross-referencing. If you are looking for a location of a CG from the map, it is nearly impossible to find that CG listed in the book without having to check in another spot first to find the page number.

Her descriptions are VERY lengthy, going into much detail about the history of the CG and area, but not much detail about the actual CG, it's characteristics, the amenities, bed surface for tents, views, flora/fauna, etc. Bullet points would be nice as well, especially when you are trying to just skim the book for your next adventure.

I have not found the book to be very good yet and am currently looking for a better reference book for WA.

This is a reprint of an old book that gives basic information about the basics of old-time camping and backpacking. It was written around the turn of the last century, so don't expect any information on current materials or techniques. However, it is a good, interesting, source of information on how it was done 100 years ago, without synthetic materials. It also concentrates more on the Eastern U.S., with very little information about the Western U.S., which is to be expected, considering the writer and the time-frame.

This is a fascinating book to read because it describes outdoor techniques that are dated but still quite applicable. I found the section on making skis quite interesting and plan to build a pair.

Whether you are a summer visitor traveling in a Class A motorhome or a weekend tent camper in Utah's backcountry, you shouldn't be without this indispensable resource guide. Camping Utah is a reference guide that to the best of my knowledge covers all of Utah's three hundred and seven public campgrounds. Included in the book are the campgrounds that are managed by the National Park Service, the National Forest, the Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Parks and Recreation, and local counties and city-owned parks. The guide is packed full of information on the campgrounds and their surrounding areas. There is detailed information on road conditions and driving directions, any recreation vehicle restrictions, the number of campsites, the elevation, the setting, the amenities, a reservation source, best season to visit, and activities in the area. The details in the book describes the types of toilets you'll find, whether or not there's a horseshoe pit, and if a trailhead is located near a particular site. The book is organized in regions that match the Utah's Department of Tourism literature. You will find that the book is more accurate than the literature put out by the managing agencies. The author was able to visit all the campgrounds listed in the book except four, due to either the campground being under construction or because of road closure. This book will simplify your task in searching out where to stay so that more time can be spent enjoying Utah's great outdoors.

This guide provides reasonable information on campgrounds. I found it hard to use for trip planning purposes and there is no index.

This book has it all! Written by a couple who have been "living the life" for many years, every word has the feel of authenticity and experience-based knowledge. A lot of the material might be found in other sources but we needed a guidebook to read AND have on the shelf for reference. My wife and I have been "fulltimers" for 11 years, but have spent little time dry-camping, or "boondocking." We wanted more information on solar panels and water maintenance and we found it all here. I found no negatives about this book.

This is a well written book, but geared toward people with large RVs. There is an extended section on Boondocking electricity, monitoring batteries and engine alternators. Then a chapter on solar and wind power, which is all very nice, but not what we were looking for and not what a large majority of people can afford. We have an 18 foot super light-weight trailer and use a Honda generator. I guess we thought this book would be more about places to go that were interesting. The list of "Selected" Boondocking sites was very limited. If You are looking for a better choice try the FREE Campgrounds book by Don Wright, either the Western or Eastern edition. Lots of great sites listed in this book.
The bottom line is that the Complete Book of Boondocking will go on our next garage sale.

This is a book of narrow scope. It has some good info if you are interested in one specific kind of camp (wall tents). This is akin to writing a book about cars and only mentioning station wagons. I was expecting more of a camp life kind of thing.
I would also have liked to see some color photos and more of them.

Well written, enjoyable and practical for anyone wishing to use a tent for hunting or other types of outdoor recreation.