Why Do Some Campers Leave Campsites trashed?

[Firstime RVer]

The only thing I can add is that we have rarely had to deal with unruly kids, bright lights or loud music. While not happy to find trash in the fire pit, We can deal with it. In fact in over 9 years of RVing, I can only think of two occasions where we had to ask our neighbors to turn down the music volume. We've never had spotlights pointed at us and I don't think we have had a person or two over the years cut thru our site.
We have generally found most campers to be considerate and normally experienced reasonably well behaved kids.
Guess we must be really lucky...
Safe travels and all the best.

 

[Edd505]

The only thing I can add is that we have rarely had to deal with unruly kids, bright lights or loud music. While not happy to find trash in the fire pit, We can deal with it. In fact in over 9 years of RVing, I can only think of two occasions where we had to ask our neighbors to turn down the music volume. We've never had spotlights pointed at us and I don't think we have had a person or two over the years cut thru our site.
We have generally found most campers to be considerate and normally experienced reasonably well behaved kids.
Guess we must be really lucky...
Safe travels and all the best.

Unruly kids = KOA I avoid them after my grandson left the house. Like you said MOST are very reasonable like anything it's the few that are the issue. Woke once to a swat team surrounding a trailer down the way, armed domestic resolved with no gun fire.

 

[Kirk]

Woke once to a swat team surrounding a trailer down the way,

We once spent several nights in a combination RV park and mobile home park that was near US99 in Fresno, CA because it was cheap and handy. One night as we were returning to the RV at 9:30 pm, a police officer stepped out of the dark and directed us to go to our site via a very roundabout route. Once at the RV I could see down the dimly lit street that there were LEO's of various departments in the bushes and behind ever obstruction of view from the mobile home on the corner. The next morning the local news give the story of a meth house raid in the park,

 

[UTTransplant]

I was a summer “park ranger” aka park tech GS 4 for the COE the summer before my senior year in college. I cleaned out some fire pits, but the thing that really made me mad was people going off and leaving a fire burning. I carried a 5 gallon container of water in the truck at all times, and I knew how to put that fire OUT! No one was going to quickly light another fire in that firepit with 3” of standing water! Sadly I had to do that multiple times every Sunday as campers left their site for home. I went through a lot of water.

 

[nibroc]

leaving a fire burning is not good

 

[gwinger]

Some people should not camp. Kinda like some people should not have children.... Usually the same people.

Typical weekend warriors. Pull in, trash the site and leave a mess.
Probably had a drunken party the night before.
Beer and Rum and Coke.

 

[Firstime RVer]

"I'd like to get the world to sing in perfect harmonieeeee"

 

[Kirk]

Typical weekend warriors. Pull in, trash the site and leave a mess.

I wonder why the younger RV owners don't seem to stay active on these forums?

 

[Boat Bum]

I think he meant camp sites not this forum.

 

[gwinger]

I think he meant camp sites not this forum.

Yes. Campsite, not website.

 

[Wasillaguy]

Leave campsite cleaner than you found it.
Could replace campsite with website and it's still good policy.

 

[Vanbrat]

I've still got a set of Jarts at home. Should bring them to the campground and see how many people let their kids wander over.

You might be surprised at how many DO show up and not just the kids

 

[UTTransplant]

In my experience, age has very little to do with trashiness. 50 years ago I saw as many middle aged and older folks trashing sites and leaving fires burning as I did younger folks. That comparison still seems to be true. I remember my 8 year old daughter listening intently to the ranger at her first Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness pre-trip to learn the rules (we had gone over the with her and the other kids earlier). We were on our first day, maybe 2 hours from our put-in, and she saw a middle aged group washing their dishes with soap at the lake’s edge. She said just as loudly as she could, “Mom, those people are doing bad things! They are washing their dishes in the lake!” Nothing like an 8 year ol scolding you from 200+ yards away!

 

[Boat Bum]

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.

 

[highspeedintellect]

Uplifting comments...good exercise to tidy up! We reap what we sow and hopefully our actions will set a good example. My first post! Our camper is in Amsterdam for 18 years now.

 

[TheBar]

I wonder why the younger RV owners don't seem to stay active on these forums?

They have jobs.

 

[gwinger]

They have jobs.

Are you saying everyone here is old and retired?

 

[Kirk]

I think he meant camp sites not this forum.

They have jobs.

Absolutely true that they have jobs but calling the still working RV folks, Weekend Warriors and claiming that most of them are messy campers is very unfriendly. My son is now 58 years old, his children are grown, he retired from the Army after 24 years and now works at a different job. He started RVing with a popup when the kids were small, then moved to a hybrid, then to a fully self-contained trailer and a couple of years ago to a much larger trailer and with 6 weeks of vacation per year he does do more than weekends. When we were family camping and when camping with the Boy Scouts, the rule was always leave a site cleaner than you found it. He has raised his two children to camp in the same manner. The indicating that only retired people are clean and courteous campers is outrageous and offensive.

 

[Boat Bum]

I wasn't calling anyone anything, I was just clearing up some confusion.

 

[gwinger]

I wasn't calling anyone anything, I was just clearing up some confusion.

And I wasn't calling all weekend campers bad. Most just want to have a nice weekend away from home.
But there are those that seem to party, hearty.