Every camping trip creates memories.
Some become treasured family stories.
Others become legends…for entirely the wrong reasons.
If you’ve camped long enough, you’ve probably got a few of those.
Here are seven of ours.
- The time we ignored flood warnings, got stranded in our car, and spent two days making what should have been a 45-minute drive home. The wet distributor cap killed the engine every time we hit a dip in the road, and it took two to three hours each time to dry out enough to start.
- The time we traveled to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to stay at a stunning park, just to find we were the only campers because of an Asian fly invasion. We tried to cook one meal with our bodies and faces covered with black insects, then packed in a hurry and left. The ranger gave us a refund.
- The time a rabid forty-pound raccoon attacked our tent and clawed through the nylon. We pushed it over the edge of a tall cliff in the camp. The next night, at our first campfire, he resurfaced at the cliff’s edge. We ran to the car for the rest of the night.
- Once we drove for hours to a winter survivalist camp challenge,armed only with a black plastic bag and a pack of matches. We arrived and realized we had forgotten the matches.
- The night I thought I could down shots of tequila like everyone else and ended up wandering, lost in the woods.
- When we went exploring on unknown trails and hit an immense hole, flipping the car on its side. Lost without a cell phone. Our worried family went looking and found us the next day.
- We planned to cook cheeseburgers and discovered another camper had raided our cooler when we were at the river. They took the cheese. It was the only explanation, as we had latched it and nothing else was missing. Fifteen years later, my husband still rages about who took the cheese.
Kathleen Lynn
Author
July 15, 2026
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Have you ever had something so ridiculous happen while camping that your family still laughs—or argues—about it years later? Pull up a chair and tell us your story.
Kathleen Lynn 