As you approach Fort Clinch State Park, Florida, put aside the tense memories of traffic lights, strip malls, and fast food joints that lead up to the park gates, and start to relax as you travel down the three winding miles under a majestic canopy of live oaks draped in Spanish moss. If not camping, a six-dollar entry fee buys you a day of coastal swimming, birding, hiking, fishing, off-road biking, shark tooth hunting, and shelling.

Perhaps lesser known than its Outer Banks cousins to the northeast, camping at Carolina Beach State Park, North Carolina, is a welcome end to the summer. Nearby Kure Beach is virtually empty, the crowds have dissipated, the no-see-ums are gone, and the Atlantic coastal waters are still bathtub warm.

Nestled at the base of Mount Mitchell and close to the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, Black Mountain Campground in Pisgah National Forest serves as a great camping base to explore the area with plenty of on-site adventures.

The dramatic landscapes of the secluded South Dakota Badlands National Park serve as a backdrop of one of the most unearthly camping adventures you might ever experience. The prairie region's steep canyons and towering spires, its remoteness and geologic formations, all make this an extremely rewarding – and challenging – terrain to explore.

Looking for the best campground in Custer State Park, South Dakota? Reserve early and pitch your tent in six of the most charming creekside campsites. Not all of the nine campgrounds in the 71,000 acres of Custer State Park are created equal, and the same can be said of the sites in Grace Coolidge Campground.

If you've spent any time camping in North Carolina, you'll eventually find yourself at Croatan National Forest – and your first visit won't be your last. There are a variety of ways you can enjoy this wonder, and most of the time you'll have the place to yourself.

The first inhabitants, the Cherokees, called this mountain paradise "Shaconage" or "The place of the blue smoke." Haze from the abundant trees emitting volumes of water vapor into the air creates this famous smoke for which the Smokies are known and named.

Nestled in the southernmost reaches of the Jefferson National Forest and not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway, Grayson Highlands State Park stands watch over Mount Rogers– Virginia's highest peak– and has access to some of the best camping, hiking, and true wild Virginia treasures.

Looking for pirates, shipwrecks, massive sand dunes, lighthouses, and, oh, by-the-way, just a little bit of history that changed the world? Only a short hop from your beachfront campsite at the Oregon Inlet Campground on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

If the forest moon of Endor has a twin on this side of the galaxy, it may well be the outback of North Carolina's Stone Mountain State Park. Tall, lush, and moist, you'll find enchantment camping and hiking among the silver firs, banks of waving ferns, and mountainsides bursting with rhododendron and blue bells.

Everything you've ever heard about the iconic Blue Ridge Parkway is only made better with the turn of the seasons. October, with its cooler temperatures and lower humidity, ratchets up the vibrance of an already beautiful time of the year for camping and hiking in western North Carolina.

Nestled at the confluence of the Pamlico River and its namesake tributary, the fourteen campsites at Goose Creek State Park, North Carolina, are spread out under a 90-foot canopy of longleaf and loblolly pines. Boasting five riverfront properties and nine generous and secluded inner sites, you'd be hard pressed to find another frontcountry camp that comes this close to a backcountry experience.

Looking for the best camping on tropical Sanibel Island, Florida, to escape your winter blues? The only game in town is the Periwinkle Park & Campground. A city within a city, Periwinkle Park & Campground is loaded with Florida charm and 50's kitsch. Think Main Street, USA meets Disney.

Searching for manatees? You've come to the right place – Blue Spring State Park, one of the jewels of Florida’s state parks. Surrounded by arching live oaks draped in Spanish moss, the constant 72F spring-fed waters are a winter home for up to 500 manatees. Camping under a deep sapphire sky in a Florida winter - even the manatees seem to understand the magic.

When you think of great places in Florida, we'd encourage you to throw camping into the mix at Anastasia State Park. Proximity to Saint Augustine's waterfront, history, and charm might be the first draw, but it’s not the only attraction that makes this Northeast Florida destination a keeper.

As soon as you make the entrance to the Gulf Islands National Seashore Fort Pickens Campground, it is easy to imagine what it must have looked like to the Spanish explorer Tristan de Luna in 1559. Bordered on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and to the north by Pensacola Bay, the gentle Gulf waters still caress the sugar white beaches and wind swept dunes. Only sand scrub oaks and sea grass protect this little quarter mile wide barrier island - just as they did 450 years ago.

There is oh, so much more to a great Florida family vacation than Orlando. Whether you are looking for something on the Gulf Coast, the Panhandle, or Atlantic, we've got the 7 best campground options that will introduce you to the other Florida. History, alligators, birding, beautiful beaches (of course), seashells, fighter jets, and a couple of great old forts just to name a few.

A savvy camper could easily make the case to ease into South Carolina's Edisto Beach State Park, make camp, string up some lights, and a hammock or two and call it a day. The beachfront location is hard to beat and a few days camping on the Atlantic Coast would do a lot to refresh your spirit.

What does a 39-day American road trip of 7,600 miles look like? The call to go to Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park and the Black Hills of South Dakota and everywhere in between was too loud to be denied. I wrote recently about the "how" of the trip, so now I'd like to include you in on the details of Part I - North Carolina to Kansas - where we camped, places we stopped, and things we saw. Hope you enjoy the ride and let it inspire you to make your own road trip adventure!

Surprisingly remote, unexpectedly beautiful, and dripping with southern charm and Spanish moss, a camping trip to Hunting Island State Park will have you rethinking your impression of South Carolina and have you wondering what took you so long to come around.

Camping at Skidaway Island State Park is just the beginning of a great coastal Georgia family getaway. If you can manage to pull yourselves away from camp, Skidaway Island State Park offers convenient access to romantic downtown Savannah, the quaint beach town of Tybee Island, two lovely lighthouses, a historic military fort, easy nature hikes, boating, and fishing.

Nestled in the crook of the far western reach of North Carolina, we stopped at Deep Creek Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as a convenient one-night camping stopover on the way to Cloudland Canyon State Park, Georgia. Even though we only stayed a day, believe us when we say that you could easily make Deep Creek your basecamp and cook up a complete Smoky Mountain holiday without ever having to go any further.

History, architecture, art, and a heaping dose of Southern charm make a day in Savannah an urban adventure everyone in your party will love. Time your day well and you can be on the riverfront in time for a second (or third) cup of coffee, then work up an appetite exploring this very walkable and affordable city.

The crowning jewel on the western rim of Lookout Mountain, Cloudland Canyon State Park, Georgia --- a 3,538-acre natural wonder featuring a spectacular 1,000 foot deep sandstone gorge and two awe inspiring cascading waterfalls – a camping and hiking playground! 

If you are looking for something a little different to do on your next spring break, beat the summer heat, humidity, and bugs, and take a fabulous camping tour along the South Carolina and Georgia coast.

There are multiple parts to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. The two major locations are Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia and Lookout Mountain Battlefield in Tennessee. Each played an important role in the history of the Civil War.

Encompassing 600 acres of barrier beach and salt marsh –and a short two hour hop from Boston– Horseneck Beach State Reservation in Massachusetts offers a breezy two-mile shoreline for a relaxing coastal camping trip. The southwest exposure to Buzzard Bay makes for a rocky waterfront typical of the northeast, while the less common natural sand beach will make southerners feel right at home.

While a few millennia of erosion has leveled the once mighty Sauratown Mountains, time has done little to diminish their awe-inspiring beauty at Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina. Along with the better known and larger Appalachian range to the north and west, the isolated Sauratowns were once 20,000 ft tall, rivaling those found in the Rockies. Now, they are a regional treasure for a whole host of outdoor activities including camping, hiking, and rock climbing.