Camping photo found on Flickr (009):

Campground in the redwoods near the Oregon coast, March 8, 2010

Creative commons license, Some rights reserved by tibchris

Camping photo found on Flickr (008):

Squaw Flat Campground, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, loop A from above.

Creative commons license, Some rights reserved by °Florian

Camping photo found on Flickr (007):

Airstream, Atlantic Oaks campground Eastham, Massachusetts., October 17, 2008

Creative commons license, Some rights reserved by madtho

Camping photo found on Flickr (006):

Lone Pine Campground, near Owens Valley, California, February 19, 2007

Creative commons license, Some rights reserved by tobo

Camping photo found on Flickr (005):

Making tea at the campground in Boltenhagen; August 12, 2007 in Nordwestmecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, DE

Creative commons license, Some rights reserved by the contented

Camping photo found on Flickr (004):

Hole-in-the-Wall Backcountry Campground; Backpacking in Glacier wild interior. Photo: David Restivo, NPS, August 23, 2005

Creative commons license, Some rights reserved by glaciernps

El Capitan State Beach, California, June 3, 2010

Camping photo found on Flickr (003) ;

Creative commons license, Some rights reserved by danhuse

Camping photo found on Flickr (002):

Kirk Creek Campground, Big Sur, California, April 9, 2011

(99 [big sur] by eblaser, via Flickr); Creative commons license, Some rights reserved by eblaser

We haven’t camped here, yet, but we did check the campground out for future reference.

Camping photo found on Flickr (001); creative commons license,  Some rights reserved by Beneath_B1ue_Skies (Zach Taylor) (Camping at the Colorado National Monument; 34 degrees, raining and windy; views were amazing.)

Scene in an auto trailer camp near Dania, Florida, where 200 cars are encamped. This is one of the better trailer camps in Florida. The rates are $5.00 a week, including electricity.

The photo was taken by Resettlement Administration staff photographer Arthur Rothstein in January 1937. It is in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives collection at the Library of Congress.

This photo and additional information may be found here at the Library of Congress.

Images are from Bureau of Reclamation, New Melones camping page.

Tent camping, Ironhorse Campground

RV and Tent Campers, Ironhorse Campground.

New Melones Dam and Reservoir Website

Note:  We have not visited New Malones Lake.

Russell Lee, a staff photographer for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, took this photograph of a radiator cap in Laurel, Mississippi in November 1938.

Bookmark This Record:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997025265/PP/

Camping scene at auto trailer camp at Dennis Port, Massachusetts, by Carl Mydans, September 1936.

Part of Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

More information about this item (Library of Congress)

Camping traditions have wide and varied origins.

Southfields, New York. Interracial activities at camp Nathan Hale, where children are aided by the Methodist Camp Service. Campers of the Methodist Camp Service and other organizations, singing around the camp fire.

The campfire photo is by Gordon Parks, working as a trainee photographer  for the Farm Security Administration in Aug 1943.

• ‘Life’ Photographer And ‘Shaft’ Director Broke Color Barriers (Washington Post)

Part of Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

More information about this item (Library of Congress)

“Cabins imitating the Indian teepee for tourists along highway south of Bardstown, Kentucky.”  Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division

Photographed by Farm Security Administration staff photographer Marion Post Wolcott in July 1940.  The photo is of Wigwam City #2, Cave City, Kentucky.

“The Wigwam Motels, also known as the “Wigwam Villages”, is a motel chain in the United States in which the rooms are built in the form of teepees, hence the name “wigwam”. It originally had seven different locations: two locations in Kentucky, a location in Alabama, another location in Florida, one in Arizona, one in Louisiana, and another one in California. They are very distinctive historic landmarks. Two of the three surviving motels are located on historic U.S. Route 66, in Holbrook, Arizona and on the city boundary between Rialto and San Bernardino, California. Wigwam Motel #2, in Cave City, Kentucky was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1988 under the official designation of Wigwam Village #2.

“Wigwam village #2 was built in 1937 a few miles south of the original wigwam village #1, but on US-31W in Cave City. It was built consisting of 15 wigwams used as guest rooms and a much bigger concrete and steel central structure that originally served as a restaurant. The 15 wigwams are arranged in a semi circle around a common area with playground and recreation area. Each wigwam has a paved pad to accommodate one car.

The diameter at the base of each teepee is 14 feet (4.3 m), they are 32 feet (9.8 m) in height. Behind the main room of each unit is a small bathroom with sink, toilet, and shower. In 2008, the rooms contain the original restored hickory furniture, cable TV and a window mounted air conditioner. There are no telephones to maintain the original atmosphere of the motel, though there is internet access. The restaurant is no longer in operation, but the motel is still open and welcoming guests.

“Wigwam village #2 is close to Mammoth Cave National Park … The motel is located on 601 North Dixie Hwy, Cave City, Kentucky. ” –   Wikipedia

Camping in the United States has, at times, been by necessity rather than recreational choice.

This tent is in a blueberry picker camp near Little Fork, Minnesota, August 1937.  It was photographed  by Russell Lee, staff photographer in a U.S. agency called the Resettlement Administration (in operation 1935 – 1937).

Bookmark This Record:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997021856/PP/

October 1, 2011 – A single vehicle accident on US highway 163 in Southern Utah delayed us for a time until the small Class B van camper was loaded on a wrecker. We were nearing the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.

After the Sipapu Natural Bridge hike, we took a drive south on Utah 261 towards Mexican Hat.  A sign not to far from our campground warned “10 % grades – switchbacks – narrow gravel road 23 miles ahead.”  I learned later that part of the route is called the Moki Dugway.

It was actually the shortest route to our next destination when we resumed our drive the next day, so, besides an afternoon excursion, we were also checking the route out to see if we should go the longer route.  The Moki Dugway  is a series of steep switchbacks down a gravel road from the top of Cedar Mesa over less than 3 miles.  It was built in the late ‘50s to for transporting uranium ore from a mine to a processing mill in Mexican Hat.

“The State of Utah recommends that only vehicles less than 28 feet in length and 10,00 pounds in weight attempt to negotiate this steep (10% grade), narrow, and winding road.”

That eliminates us, then, since towing our small car sends us way over that length.  We went the long way round the next day.

We also visited Goosenecks State Park and drove through Mexican Hat that afternoon.

Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah

The sign at the trailhead says:

Trail to bridge: .6 mile (.97 km) – 500 foot (152 m) elevation change.

A strenuous hike rewards the adventurous with a closer view of Sipapu Bridge.  The trail leads to either a viewpoint partway down the canyon wall or to the canyon bottom where you can stand beneath one of the world’s largest natural bridges.

The trail contains two flights of stairs, three ladders, steep switchbacks, exposed bare rock, and stretches requiring the use of handrails.