How do you keep others from taking your campsite?

[markopolo]

With our small RV, we often leave our campsite to visit a town etc. This past weekend, when we returned to the campground, a family had set up their tent in our site. Turned out that the campground staff made an error and told them we had left and gave them the site.

In this particular instance it worked out fantastic for us because the campground gave us a huge, sunny, very private, double site and three bundles of firewood to make up for their error.

Thank goodness the campground was not full.

I think I should make (or buy) a sign that says "Occupied" and leave it on the campsite table. We were heading to the beach so we didn't want to leave our chairs behind etc.

Has this ever happened to you?

How do you keep others from taking your campsite?

[renrut]

I've seen people pull small trailers and leave them on the site.

What I see mostly is a small tent set up on the site. That way, there is something on the site showing it is taken. Some of these small tents fold down very small for storage.

[Whiskyecho]

I carry a small rubber orange construction-zone cone upon which I've printed large black block letters:

O
C
C
U
P
I
E
D

Seems to work

[WAPITI]

We usually leave a camp table cloth on the table and camp stove with coffee pot, as well as entry mat, to show people it's occupied. We've never had a problem with anything being taken. Most campgrounds are fairly safe that we've visited.

[markopolo]

Originally Posted by Whiskyecho

I carry a small rubber orange construction-zone cone upon which I've printed large black block letters:

O
C
C
U
P
I
E
D

Seems to work

I like that idea - it could serve double duty as a road marker in the event of a flat tire or breakdown.

[markopolo]

Originally Posted by WAPITI

We usually leave a camp table cloth on the table...............

I like that idea also. Maybe I'll put an orange cone on top of the table cloth.

[Whiskyecho]

Or, maybe a simple sign like this would work....

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[Davydd]

We have this.

[Whiskyecho]

me too:

[/img]

[ennajean]

Also do the table cloth on the picnic table and usually leave something laying on the table so they know is occupied. Plus most campgrounds we stay at you have to put a campsticker on a post by the campsite.

[julievojo]

We normally leave something cheap behind as well, like a plastic tablecloth and a jug of water or something like that.

We have only had one problem, in Galvston, when someone took our site when we went out to dinner. We got back late and found a tent and 2 cars in our site. They refuesed to move "because the kids were already in bed". The campground hosts were nowhere to be found so we pulled into our spot and slept there anyway, since we knew it was our vehicle license that was registered.

The intruders did pack up and leave the next morning. I was a little ticked when the park ranger came by later and tried to make us pay up for having 2 unregistered vehicles and 2 tents in our site, but we set him straight and they wound up giving us a refund for what we had paid. They had the license numbers of the 2 cars and were going to send them a bill - with a fine for not having registered or paid on the way out.

That same day we got a "Site Occupied" sign from the local campstore and have not had a problem since.

[Davydd]

BTW, not shown on our pylon is on the opposite side is our name just as prominent. I figure if we did not do that someone would just think the pylon to be a good thing to take.