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Camping on a Budget - 7 Reasons to Try Camping on National Forest Lands

12/21/2016

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Afton Lake - Bridger-Teton National Forest

Looking for a way to travel across the United States without breaking the budget? Read the TOP SEVEN REASONS that the Modern Nomad Family chooses to camp in National Forest Campgrounds whenever possible.  

#1 -  Cost! Cost! Cost!
Many people who travel infrequently never really get a handle on the difference between National Park Lands and National Forest Lands.  There is a big difference though.
The National Parks are more developed, with more amenities, lodges, cabins, developed campsites, etc.  National Parks plan for thousands of visitors each year.  Regulations are usually more more strict, camping is typically only allowed on developed campsites.  Prices can range from about $25-$35 for a no frills tent site/ $45-$95 for an RV site with hook-ups all the way up to $250+ for deluxe cabins. Backcountry permits are limited at National Parks, if permitted at all.
National Forest Campsites on the other hand, range from only $7-$14 for single sites with a tent pad and campfire pit and vault toilets.  You can even back-country camp on most National Forest Lands for FREE! (In general, as long as you camp the specified number of feet away from the road, you can just pick a place in the forest and set up camp). This is one of the ways that we manage to stretch our travel budget so far. I have stayed 7 nights at a National Forest Site for less than $50! Read that last sentence again. We are not millionaires, but we LOVE travel. National Forest Sites help to make travel a reality for us. The secret to traveling on a budget is not to make more money. It is simply to find ways not to NEED as much money, and National Forest Sites are a great way to slash your lodging costs significantly.

#2 - No Reservation Required
This is a big factor for us when we travel. We enjoy the ability to remain flexible and spend as much time as we like in one place. Most national forest sites work on a first-come-first-served honor system. You show up, pick an empty spot and occupy it, and then go back out to the front entrance where you register and drop the money into a locked dropbox. We love not needing reservations. We have found that on the weekends during peak travel season, it is beneficial to get in early and pick a site, as the best campgrounds do tend to fill up on Friday and Saturday nights...

#3 - Ranger Stations
National Forest Lands will frequently have a ranger station associated with them where you can get maps to the best hiking trails and talk to the rangers. Many of them also have Junior Ranger kits, just like the National Parks. The best junior ranger kit I have seen so far was a piece of watercolor paper, brushes, paint and a jar to collect rinse water from the river...the kids were encouraged to find a quiet place in nature where they would be comfortable and paint what they saw. If they brought the painting back and showed it to the ranger (along with their completed packet), they got a badge for their hats. This is still one of my favorite travel memories.

#4 - No Gift Shops
National forests offer a chance to get away from the commercialism of the gift shops, ice cream vendors and resturaunts associated with traditional campgrounds and even some of our National Park Campgrounds. When you are at a National Forest Site, the kids are not asking for ice cream, because there is NO WHERE to buy ice cream. The kids are free to spend the day searching for kindling and firewood around the campsite so that after dark they can relax and unwind with the most coveted of all camping treats...S'MORES! They really are tastier when you scavenge your own wood and learn how to make a fire yourself.

#5 - You Can Pick the Berries and Eat them...Legally!
National Parks have very strict rules and regulations about preservation that prohibit visitors from picking berries, flowers, etc. National Forest Lands are much more flexible about these things. National Forest Lands are there to be used, and so within reason, it is fine for your kids to play in the stream, pick a bouquet for mommy or harvest huckleberries for their morning pancakes. These are all things that can get you into trouble at a National Park, where high volumes of visitors necessitate stricter regulations about these types of activities.​

#6 - Pristine and Peaceful Locations
There is no way to describe the intangible peace that you get when you pull into a quiet National Forest Campground.  Sure, there is no pool and no laundry room, but this can have an upside.  After all--- the kids are happy making a "mud bowl" down by that glacial stream, and if you have no way to do laundry, there is nothing for you to do but take a nap in your hammock!  :)  --OK...so occasionally we wash some critical items out by hand and hang them up to dry...my daughters needed to learn how to hand wash clothes anyway...time for a life lesson!

#7 - Avoid the Crowds

National Forest sites have fewer amenities, so there are less high maintenance campers around.  It is typical to have vault toilets instead of flush toilets, and only one water tap for use by several sites, but these facilities are typically spotless!  Most National Forest Service campground hosts love their jobs, and work really hard to keep the sites and facilities clean and the campers happy.  The national forest sites tend to attract experienced campers seeking quiet commune with nature.

So get out there and enjoy the National Forest Lands! For less than the cost of a dinner out, you can enjoy a weekend of peace and quiet in the woods with your family. Stay tuned for our next post about the best kid friendly meals to cook over an open fire while camping! Don't forget to  like and follow us on Facebook so you don't miss out on our posts!


--The Modern Nomad Family

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Our kids spent most of the evening playing on this natural balance beam they found by the river.
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$7/night for peace like this...it just doesn't get any better! -Cabin City Campground, Lolo National Forest
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Someone else built this little rock tower. We did end up disassembling it before we left as we taught our kids about "Leave No Trace" camping... While it is OK to use the natural resources of the National Forest Lands while you are visiting, you should still respect the land and leave it as you found it.
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A perfect breakfast before heading out to paddleboard on Afton Lake - Bridger-Teton National Forest.
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Blackberry Pancakes made from fresh blackberries we found near Marble Creek Campground.
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Top Five Perks of Running a Family Business

12/18/2016

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Ok folks, here you have it, the top 5 Best Perks of Running a Family Business!  

NUMBER FIVE:  You get to spend EVERY WAKING MINUTE with your spouse!  No really, this is awesome!  We wake up together, eat together, drive together, work together all day, take lunch together, come home together, go to the gym together, go on dates together, coach basketball together, watch TV together and then go to bed together so we can do it all over again tomorrow.  How could this possibly get annoying?  It's a blast, really.  I mean, who doesn't want to discuss pay apps and asbestos sample reports over tacos at lunch?  Isn't it great that our kids pick up words like "chrysotile" and "turn-around-time" by listening to us casually chatting in the car on the way to Tae Kwon Do?  Wouldn't it be awesome if your boss followed you home at night and asked you about that big report that is 2 days late while you are trying to watch The Big Bang Theory and drink a beer?  When there is a stressful situation at work, you get to come home and keep talking about it ALL NIGHT LONG!  Why leave all that stress at the office when you can carry it home and DWELL ON IT!

NUMBER FOUR:  When you call in sick to work, your boss is sitting on the couch next to you.  I have actually done this one.  Picked up the phone in the kitchen and called my husband in the living room to let him know I would not be coming into the office today.  I think I mumbled something about a headache, but really, I just needed a break!  (See number 5 above). 

​NUMBER THREE:  Your kids get to come to the office when they have a day off school.  This is so much fun!  They can rearrange all of your highlighters and staple the bottom of every legal pad together with the report binding stapler!  How fun for the kids!  Those architectural plans layed out on your desk are just calling out to be colored in using the forbidden permanent markers kept hidden in your desk drawer. Besides, who doesn't want every paperclip in the office clipped together in a long chain when you go to grab one?

NUMBER TWO:  If the business is having cash flow issues, it impacts BOTH of your salaries!  This is my personal favorite.  During the first year of running our business we actually started baking our own bread.  A lot of people thought it was because we were some kind of off-grid gluten-free hippees that would only give our kids fresh organic homemade bread, but in reality, we just couldn't afford $5 for a loaf of bread!(Do you know you can make a loaf of bread for only $0.37?)  This is also why we started growing a garden, making our own yogurt and canning our own tomatoes.  It is not that we are awesome parents, (in fact, when I make my own bread I add extra gluten...it's yummy, and makes the bread more delicious), but we are FRUGAL!  You have to be when you run your own business.  Every dollar matters.  Besides, the more we save, the more we get to travel! 

NUMBER ONE:  You have control over your own schedule.  This, as far as we can tell, is really the only benefit to running our own business.  Autonomy.  Freedom.  The ability to choose when we work and how much we work.  Sure, when we don't work, we make less money, but we are in control of that.  When we need more money, we can work harder, take more jobs, hire more people.  If we have some money saved up and we want to downscale the company for awhile, take some time to travel or homeschool the kids for a year or two...we can do that.  

Running a family business can be stressful on the parents, the kids, and the pursestrings, but at the end of the day, it affords us the freedom that we value as a family.  This...this is really ONLY reason that we can see to run a family business.  There is a new term being thrown around lately - FREEDOMPRENEUR - it describes us perfectly.  We run our business in a way that gives us the freedom to make the best choices. We choose our location from year to year and month to month.  We choose each year whether to send the kids to public school or homeschool, based upon what is best for them at each stage.  We choose each day whether we want to go in to the office or work from home.  We choose where and when to travel to next, and for how long.  This flexibility makes the uncertainties worth it.  Sure...we can not always be sure of our next contract, our next job, or even always our next paycheck...but we haven't starved yet.  And besides, bread is really much easier to make than you might think.  And it only costs $0.37.  We'll be ok.  
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