I spent a weekend in a site with a spectacular outlook over the water and barely slept. What I have learned since about wind, privacy, and the difference between a site that photographs well and a site that lives well.
Arriving at four on a Friday with three open sites left taught me to walk the loop before unloading anything. Here is the twenty minute lap I do now, and the site I took anyway despite its obvious flaw.
Setting up in the dark is a skill nobody should have to develop. After a few late arrivals and one very early one, I settled on a three hour rule and a short list of what those hours are actually for.
I have driven four hours to a full campground and I have also been locked into a reserved site during a storm I could have driven away from. Here is how I actually decide between booking ahead and taking my chances.
I picked the flattest, greenest patch in the site and woke up in two inches of standing water. What that night taught me about reading ground, drainage, and the difference between level and safe.
A campground puts you closer to strangers than most of us live to our actual neighbors. After a bad weekend where I was the problem, here is what I have worked out about distance, noise, and the small courtesies that make a loop pleasant.