Any Smoke-free (campfires Banned) Parks?

We're headed home from a 6 week trip to Canada and Maine and have come to absolutely hate campfires because of headaches due to smoke. The weather has been gorgeous, cool night air, but we can't enjoy it due to nasty smell and smoke.

Every campground we go to allows campfires. Tonight takes the cake (in New Hampshire) because we are surrounded by them. Even when we close the windows and turn on the A/C the smoke comes in. The guy next to us keeps putting more wood on and has 4 tiki torches going too. It's 10 pm.

When we were out west last summer it was bliss because state law made fires illegal due to risk of wildfire. In Cape Breton Canada at the national park campfires were not allowed. Heaven. But every other park has been smoke city. Camping is no longer fun and we are thinking of quitting camping just because of this.

Does anyone know of any parks that have gone "Smoke Free"?

 

That's ironic that you want to find campgrounds that do not allow fires, and we get lots of complaints from reviewers who were upset because the campground did not allow fires. Wish there was some way to hook you up with them so you could find out where they stayed. My best advice is to try to stay at places that are “RV parks” style rather than in the woods “campgrounds.” Many places that are the lined up with side by side spaces do not allow fires. Your best bet is to call the park and ask if fires are allowed. I do sympathize with you, though. We both got terrible sinus infections last fall due to campfire smoke coming into our RV.

 

DW and I are also not big campfire fans. We find two kinds of commercial rv parks where fires are rare. Higher end "resorts", especially those catering to older crowds, tend to severely restrict campfires. We also spend a lot of time parking in rv places that cater to mostly long term/semi permanent residents. Campfires tend to be rare in these places because people are generally living and going to work and not vacationing and looking for a "camping" experience. Good luck.

 

I'm with you on that one....When we were "camping", a campfire was a novel treat. After full timing, oh, about a month, I hated them. Even worse...friends would visit us on our travels, and what did they want to do? Yessirree...campfires and sticky smores. Every time. On busy weekends at RV parks, I have learned now that we shut everything up and hide inside because there are 200 campfires going at once and our eyes burn. Even better, we are now in fire-ban territory, so it's been great. Weekend campers also seem to become inspired by fire, thus will burn anything remotely burnable resulting in the strangest off-gassing chem smells.

One thing I've noticed is that the super-spread out parks with wide sites seem to cut down on the level of hanging campfire dread, and the urban rv parks don't have fire pits as the sites are super-close. We avoid being at RV parks during holiday weekends now...simply due to the big party going on...heck, I still have to work!

 

Well thanks everyone for not saying we're crazy to dislike campfires. We've been staying in hotels for the last coupla nites but tomorrow will be at a KOA that does NOT allow fires at individual sites but has a communal fire-ring. What a good idea! (as long as we aren't next to it lol)

 

Be sure to check which way the wind is blowing before they assign you a spot.

 

KOA not so good after all. They don't have fire-rings at sites but they will hand out portable ones upon request. And no they won't guarantee neighbors won't burn a fire. It's 93 degrees here in Savannah but fire-nuts won't care.

So we are staying in a Best Western (reserved Priceline) that will cost $30 more but we will have easy breathing tonight.

 

No campfire would be great!!!!

 

My wife and I dislike campfires. Mainly because we don't like the smell in the trailer. The best thing is to call campgrounds in the area you want to visit and ask if the reviews don't say anything about campfires.

 

I too dislike camp fires especially in the summer. Heck it was 104 degrees and they had a fire. If we have a drought at home and in the valley then there is no fires. There are places that have them banned but they are more urban the more rural it is the more fires you will find. I carry an air cleaner and run that at night especially.

 

What kind of air cleaner do you use?

 

You may have to do some research before any trip to find out any parks you are interested in have individual fire places, a community one, or even better in your case, none. There is no other way around it as I don't know of any directory that would tell you. My DW has severe allergies as well and I am always on the lookout for a smoke free environment. That is one reason why we rarely go to provincial or state park campgrounds anymore as they can be the worst smoke pits around. I find the best bet is to phone the campground directly and find out if they will accommodate your needs. Then there won't be many surprises that way. Also we have a portable air cleaner on our dinette table. It's a Honeywell, but I believe there are other brands. Good luck.

 

Wish we knew of more smoke free campgrounds. None in this area except for a Parks Canada site right beside the TransCanada highway near Field, BC in Yoho Park. A bit noisy with traffic, but it is smoke free.

In some places in The US, land prices are so low a person with a big motorhome could sell the motorhome, buy a piece of land and camp on it with a tent or el cheapo trailer. Not an option here due to the high land prices, otherwise we would have done it many years ago.

We found the forest service randomn camping sites in BC or Alberta are the worst for smoke and rowdies, so we haven't done that for years. Our trailer sits unused after a few bad experiences last year with smoke in supervised patrolled campgrounds, so what is the point ?

Does anyone know of a smoke free campground in northern Montana ?

 

I'm surprised to see so many folks don't love campfires. I guess it's because I still have young kids and we've only been camping a few years, but I look forward to the campfire, and enjoy when I put on my camping hoodie at home and smell the smoke still in the fabric. To each his own though - maybe folks can try to post in their reviews if fires are not allowed, would help those like me to avoid those parks, and folks like the posters above to find them.

 

You know, it’s not the campFIRE I don’t like; it is the SMOKE. Now I know you can’t have one without the other, but if it is your campfire, you can sit on the side away from the smoke or move if the wind shifts. But if that smoke is blowing right at my RV, I cannot do that. I have enjoyed sitting around a number of campfires, but unfortunately now that I am up in years, smoke bothers me physically a lot more that it did when I was younger.

 

Too bad campgrounds don't have "no smoking" sections - that could be campfires and cigarettes. I hate the cigarette smell wafting over also. I don't mind a campfire and we have them ourselves a couple times a week on camping trips but I don't like the smoke too much. It would be nice to have the option of a no smoking/campfire section....

Speaking of campfires, on our last camping trip, at around 11pm, I kept hearing a little kid laughing hysterically as I was getting ready for bed and flashes of light outside my window. I peeked out the shade and saw the child standing in the doorway of the camper and the grandmother squirting lighting fluid into the fire. Every whoosh of fire sent the kid into fits of laughter.

 

QUOTE
Too bad campgrounds don't have "no smoking" sections - that could be campfires and cigarettes.


There is a snowbird rv park in Tampa, Bay Bayou, that has about half the sites designated as non smoking. I do not remember any campfires, either.

 

Well, I do know that Fishing Bridge RV in Yellowstone and Colter Bay RV in Grand Teton do not allow campfires. We just got back from a month long trip & I did miss having campfires when we stayed there. I'm asthmatic & for whatever reason campfires don't bother me, but I certainly can sympathize.

I'll mention that Colter Bay RV seemed to be pretty close to the 'regular' campground, which did have fire rings (it had closed for the season by the time we got there).

IIRC, in Yosemite the campfires must be extinguished at a certain hour (10pm?) in the summer. Not a total ban, but may be a bit better for people who don't want the continual smoke.

 

Have an air cleaner by Oreck. Works great.