Weekend at a "dry" campground

[GordonThree]

What a difference it makes staying at a "dry" campground.

P J Hoffmasters park in Muskegon, big NO ALCOHOL signs everywhere, I was kind of impressed. I didn't notice them when I stayed a few years back. They also had Michigan's new for '18 NO FIREWOOD ALLOWED signs up at the entrance, and an armed DNR police checking vehicles and warning people for next year. Hopefully concertina wire and K-9 units will be the next upgrade.

There were still many nightly campfires, but the campers, rather than sit around the fires drinking and whooping it up all night instead went for walks, and mostly went to bed or at least inside a few hours after dark.

It was eerily quiet despite being a sold out campground.

Are dry campgrounds something new, something old, or just something odd?

[ford_truck_guy]

Maybe we are in the wrong business.... selling "Bug FREE Firewood" ? :B

[GordonThree]

ford truck guy wrote:

Bionic Man wrote:
I'd have more issues with the no campfires policy (if that is the policy) than the no alcohol. To me, a campfire is a vital part of the camping experience.

As far as alcohol, we go to a couple places where it is "prohibited". And all Colorado State Parks limit alcohol to 3.2% only. But the only time I have ever seen anything enforced on that was one time when the ranger stoped and asked us to move a bottle of hard alcohol off the top of the picnic table and onto the ground where it "wasn't obvious". Seems more of a tool that they can use to crack down when necessary, than an actual prohibition.

They did not say there was a campfire restriction.... They DID say that there was a policy that prohibited you from bringing your own firewood... Many of the local campgrounds around here have that same rule.. They say it is to stop the bugs... I say it is to make more money

Yep, you can still have campfires, you just buy the junk wood the head ranger's cousin sells inside the park, at $7 a bundle, instead of mom 'n pop up the road selling it for $4, or bringing some of your own supply with you.

The maps of bugs for Michigan show they're spread pretty much state wide already, and even into the UP. I don't see how a campfire-wood prohibition is going to cure that, but it will make money for the ranger's cousin.

[4runnerguy]

When I saw the title containing the word "dry", I originally thought the OP was talking about CG's without water. Pretty common in some places around the west.

We ran into total alcohol bans in the Canadian NP's this year. Applies to their "long weekends" of which Canada Day is one.

Prohibition on firewood is getting quite common all around as too many "bugs" are being transported in infected fire wood.

Having been in and having forest fires burn quite near to my house and cabin in the past, I'm am not at all against fire bans either when conditions aren't appropriate (I know it's not what the OP said, but someone else did bring it up). One time many years ago, we were out mountain biking when a fire (caused by an unattented campfire) blew up and burned 10 square miles in 10 hours. We had to ride 8 miles of trails and then roads back to the camper. We could look out into the forest beside the trail and road and see the fire paralleling us just yards down the hill. Very, very scary. Dying in the fire was not the way we wanted to go. Most of the area where we had been riding was totally burned by the next morning. Mony of those trails and camping areas remain closed today.

I've had to evacuate our cabin twice and had three large (50,000+ acre) fires burn near my former house in the Front Range. Because they were so visible from our street, people who had been evacuated from their homes would park in front of my house and look with binoculars to see if their houses had burned yet. Very traumatic and heart wrenching to watch.

We rarely have a campfire and then it's usually late fall when we've already started to have some precipitation and we're just plain cold. A campfire really isn't "a vital part of the camping experience" considering what the consquences can be.

[ford_truck_guy]

Bionic Man wrote:
I'd have more issues with the no campfires policy (if that is the policy) than the no alcohol. To me, a campfire is a vital part of the camping experience.

As far as alcohol, we go to a couple places where it is "prohibited". And all Colorado State Parks limit alcohol to 3.2% only. But the only time I have ever seen anything enforced on that was one time when the ranger stoped and asked us to move a bottle of hard alcohol off the top of the picnic table and onto the ground where it "wasn't obvious". Seems more of a tool that they can use to crack down when necessary, than an actual prohibition.

They did not say there was a campfire restriction.... They DID say that there was a policy that prohibited you from bringing your own firewood... Many of the local campgrounds around here have that same rule.. They say it is to stop the bugs... I say it is to make more money

[Lwiddis]

I used to really miss a campfire but now I only lite one in ten nights or so. Sign of the times, and with not been able to move wood....

[Latner]

yep, been to plenty of parks where "alcohol is prohibited" and never have had a problem enjoying my beverages. Be discreet and don't act like an a$$bag and you won't have a problem. Some cannot do that and then are removed from the park.

[Bionic_Man]

I'd have more issues with the no campfires policy (if that is the policy) than the no alcohol. To me, a campfire is a vital part of the camping experience.

As far as alcohol, we go to a couple places where it is "prohibited". And all Colorado State Parks limit alcohol to 3.2% only. But the only time I have ever seen anything enforced on that was one time when the ranger stoped and asked us to move a bottle of hard alcohol off the top of the picnic table and onto the ground where it "wasn't obvious". Seems more of a tool that they can use to crack down when necessary, than an actual prohibition.

[toedtoes]

It's a cycle. In a few years when they haven't had any issues, they will ease up on the enforcement. Sometime after that, partyers will start to show up again. After a while, big problems will occur. And then they will crack down again.

[coolmom42]

From the MI state park website:

"It is unlawful to possess or consume alcoholic beverages of any kind within the P.J. Hoffmaster State Park Campground Area from April 15 through Labor Day."

Apparently they have a big problem with drunks. If I were camping there, the rule would be fine with me. There's nothing more annoying than a bunch of drunks when you are sober.

From what I could gather on the same website, the firewood policy is to prevent the spread of invasive species.