Summer is the season for camping, and with more than 84 million acres set aside across all U.S. territories as part of the National Parks Service and more than 7,000 state parks spread across the country, the American people are never hurting for choice as to where they’d like to set up camp. There are very few places in the world that allow you to view natural geysers, like those in Yellowstone National Park, and set aside huge swaths of land to preserve waterfalls and woodlands, as in the case of Letchworth State Park in New York, like the United States.
While all of this variety is great, it’s a double-edged blade. If you were to ask any avid camper if there are downsides to the Great American Camping Adventure, they’ll undoubtedly tell you the planning process is absolutely awful. Unlike more mainstream travel experiences — say, a trip to Disney World — there haven’t been any well organized travel booking sites, like Travelocity, etc., to make the process easier — not until now.
Based out of California, the new website Hipcamp is hoping to change all of that. Using the site, campers can choose when they want to go camping and select from a list of criteria the other things they’d like to see and do while they camp. Hipcamp will then match those criteria to availability at popular camping destinations, almost completely removing any work from the planning process.
Hipcamp Improves Upon One of the Quintessential American Experiences
Approximately 43 million Americans went camping in 2013, marking a return of what has long been considered a quintessentially American pastime. Even with Popular Science estimating that 2014 could be the hottest year in recorded history, camping in the U.S. is set to have another banner year. Without a doubt, Hipcamp’s ability to take what many see as the only bad part of camping out of the equation will play a crucial role in its continued popularity.
