I’d spent the day exploring Sequoia National Park when I pulled into the neighboring national forest to set up camp for the night. The scenery in the campground was gorgeous – near the top of a mountain, surrounded by sparkling granite and towering pine trees. After a quick dehydrated dinner, I set up my tripod near some boulders, trying to frame the scene for later, when the Milky Way would roll through late that night. It was perfect, except for one thing.
Further down the mountain, a group of teenagers or college kids were partying hard, their yells and blaring Top 40 tunes echoing throughout the canyon. Had the scene been a fraternity house, I’d have had zero problems with their rowdy behavior, but we were in one of the world’s greatest natural cathedrals. As I continued to prepare for the natural light show that would be occurring later that night, I soothed myself with the knowledge that the campground quiet hours would soon be in effect.
Image courtesy of The Outbound Life
Unfortunately for me and everyone else in the campground, the partying kids paid as much attention to quiet hour rules as they assuredly did with underage drinking laws. When I rolled into my tent in the wee hours of the morning, they were still going at it. What I hoped would be a magical experience in a gorgeous forest was marred by a group of selfish people who didn’t care about anyone else’s enjoyment but their own. Sadly, this is an all-too-common occurrence.
What quiet hours mean when camping
If you’ve ever overnighted at a campground, you’ve likely seen the signs – “Quiet Hours from 10 pm – 7 am” (or thereabouts). But if you’re new to camping, you may have questions. What do camping quiet hours mean? Are we talking no voices above a whisper or turning the Whitesnake down from full blast to merely ear-curling – or just muting it altogether? Outside of quiet hours, are you allowed to be as loud as you want?
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