13 Ways to Enjoy a Rainy Camping Trip

Photo Credit: OakleyOriginals via Compfight cc

I am looking forward to a week of camping at the beach, but the way this summer has been going I suspect we may not be enjoying perfect beach weather. And so, anticipating a bit of dampness in the forecast, I have been working on a list of ways to enjoy a rainy day, so my camping trip will be fun, no matter what.

1. Read. It’s what I was planning to do at the beach anyway, but instead of sitting under an umbrella, I’m sitting under a tarp.
2. Read out loud. Find a funny story or magazine article and read it to the group. Listening to a story is a great way to overcome the doldrums.
3. Build a sand castle. Sandcastles need damp sand anyway, so a drizzly day may be perfect for creating a masterpiece.
4. Play cards. Never go on vacation without a deck of cards. They hardly take up any room and you never know when you’ll be very glad you brought them. I once spent an entire rainy weekend playing card games with the other bored teenagers. (This was long before smartphones, ipods or Gameboys were invented. We had to make our own fun.)
5. Play board games. Better yet, bring along a few small games like Quiddler. What could be more fun than a word game, right?
6. Make up your own games. Years ago my son invented a campfire game that we still play today. If an eight-year-old can make up a game, so can you. Be inspired. Even a silly game is better than watching raindrops run down the side of the tent.
7. Enjoy the awesome puddles. Lots of rain + a blocked drain = an awesome time. Who has this much fun at home?
8. Create a tarp maze. Devise ways to cover the entire campsite in a motley collection of tarps, plastic sheets, etc . Then spend the rest of the day ducking under ropes and tripping over guy lines while you move from tarp to tarp draining the puddles that collected in the saggy spots.
9. Dig in the mud. Give everyone a trowel and let them channel their inner civil engineer as they create a network of canals that send the runoff away from tents and other regions you hope to keep from flooding.
10. Escape. Take a road trip to your favorite seafood buffet (which is several beach communities away) and return to discover you’ve missed the storm completely. The next morning you can poke through the stuff abandoned by unhappy campers as they fled. We have acquired an entire collection of still-useable chairs that were abandoned by previous campers.

And three more for those times when it gets really bad (as in, the rain is blowing sideways, or your husband looks at the radar and says, “that’s a scary color, and it’s coming right at us.”)

1. Get in the car and go somewhere. Anywhere with four walls and a roof. Preferably somewhere with either food or something interesting to look at.
2. Go shopping. (Not something I would choose, but some may find a rainy day the perfect excuse. Enjoy!)
3. Watch a movie. This option has come up many times during our annual camping trips, but we’ve only broken down and actually done it once—and only after huddling together under a tarp watching our campsite erode at a rather alarming rate. (You will be happy to know the tent and camper were still there when we got back, but the picnic table was close to sliding down a sandbank.)

I hope this list helps you and yours stay happy campers, no matter the weather.