1) Tell a spooky story!
Gathering around the campfire after dark to tell spooky stories is a time-honored camping tradition. The eerie silence of a forest at night awakens your imagination to unseen spooks, frights and scares. Spooky stories are told best in the round, so before you leave for your trip, have everyone in your party learn one tale of terror to share.
After a full day of swimming, hiking and canoeing, huddle up with your family and friends by the crackling fire and cook up some comforting s’mores. Pass around a flashlight, lean in close as the tension builds and get ready for the tingles to run down your spine.
Need some inspiration?
Care.com has complied 22 campfire stories for families and kids.
22 Campfire Stories to Spook and Delight
American Folklore has built a huge database of ghost stories, tall tales, myths and more.
2) Visit a haunted campground!
For those itching for the ultimate spooky camping experience, the US has many campgrounds and national parks with their own history of hauntings and unexplained events. If you believe the tales, our nation is filled with unsettled ghosts, mysterious spirits and visitors from unknown worlds. Take a trip to the Great Sand Dunes and keep your eyes peeled for UFOs, or hang out around Gettysburg as it closes at dusk to see if the Civil War soldiers will rise from their untimely graves.
Want to know where to go?
Do It Yourself RV put together this list of Top 5 Haunted Campgrounds:
5 Haunted Campgrounds For Spooky Halloween Camping Fun
Mental Floss has 10 great tales of haunted national parks.
10 National Parks and the Ghosts and Monsters Who Supposedly Live There
3) Imagine what’s going bump in the night!
Camping often takes you far away from the noise of the city. When you’re out in the woods, any rustle in the underbrush becomes amplified. Is it a bird, a squirrel, a bear…or something more sinister? You never quite know what is waking up as you are going to sleep.
There are countless legends in North America of cryptids and creatures, from Bigfoot to the Jersey Devil. Most of the time, accounts come from brief glimpses of something strange or a blurry photo on a foggy night. Often the explanation is simple: an owl, a man in a costume or a coyote with mange. But the reports keep coming in, and many will swear they saw something unknown and unbelievable.
Do you want to get acquainted with the mysterious beasts that roam our countryside?
Newanimal.org has an in-depth library of cryptids from around the globe.
If you want to know what may be lurking near you, Buzzfeed made a map of North America’s most famous cryptids.
Happy Halloween from Campers Inn RV!
