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Camping Tarps...
The use of camping tarps was something I discovered from a friend on a trip a few years ago. A small group of us were camping on an island and due to work commitments, I was the last one to arrive there. My friends already had located the campsite and all I had to do was set up my tent for my son and myself to sleep in.
Upon arriving I saw that my friends had their tents set up and above the tents, lashed to nearby trees was a number of tarps. They were the standard blue tarps you see that people use to cover their utility trailers. Certainly nothing special aand they were cheap too. There were extras as well that had not yet been unpacked. My one friend explained that he had been using tarps for years for a number of reasons. One reason ws that the tarps helped to keep the rain away. You might think that a tent would be able to do that too and they do. What the tarps did was keep the ground dry around the tents so that water and dirt was not tracked all over the inside of the tent and it gave the guys a roomy place to sit to wait out the rain, without being cooped up in their tents.
I actually thought this was one of the greatest ideas I had ever seen for camping and I talk about it elsewhere on this site. For me using camping tarps is a necessity now. You can use the cheap ones and they work very well. They also come in a variety of sizes which makes it better for you to buy exactly what you need. A good example of camping tarps that I would take on the trail with me would be one as pictured below. It's nice and light, easy to pack and not priced ridiculously. Go ahead and click on it for details...
I like to use tarps like the one in the picture above. It may be a little difficult to see it but it is much thinner than your standard utility tarp. The one above is actually made of nylon like your tent fly. If you pack it so that there is no air in it at all it will fold down to a package that's about 3/8 of an inch thick and is maybe 4 inches by about 15 inches. Quite small considering it gives me a coverage of about 9 feet by 12 feet. I ended up buying a couple of them. I use one directly over my tent to help keep the ground dry if it does rain and I use the second one as a shelter for cooking and eating. I don't normally camp where there are picnic tables so the 9 foot by 12 foot tarp really gives me more than enough room to cook and eat. However as you can see by the top picture on this page, It is certainly of sufficient size to adequately cover a picnic table area.
Since the camping tarps that I use can pack down so small I would even consider bringing three of them depending on the trip I'm on. You see they can be tied vertically to the surrounding trees and rocks to serve as a windbreak. I've been on trips where that has come in very handy indeed. If you're camping in the early spring or the fall when the weather is starting to cool down then you can bet that any wind at all will only help make you cold. If you're cold then you're not comfortable and that can suck the fun out of a camping trip very quickly. I've been to family campgrounds before with my kids and have even seen people that sleep in camping trailers using their gigantic blue tarps in a way that covers their whole site.
Along with offering protection from the rain and wind camping tarps can offer you some relief from the sun as well. If you're camping with very small children that are more prone to sunburn then this can be very valuable. If you are camping with your family then perhaps a tarp like the one pictured below may be a good idea for you to use... 
It may seem like a little extra work but it's entirely worth once your site is set up. You're now protected from all the elements and can enjoy a comfortable, dry, wind free camping trip. Once you try using tarps I'm sure you won't wish to camp without one again. I hope I've helped give you some ideas as to how to camp more efficiently and comfortably. Click on the link to return to the top of the camping tarps or go to the previous page to see what other type of accossory caming outdoors could require. Go back to the homepage for more information on camping . Thanks so much for your visit! Happy trails...
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