Campgrounds & Isolophobia

Sometimes camping with cows is more enjoyable than camping with people.

I decided to stay close to Moab for this "weekend" (my weekly two days off).  There are several campgrounds along highway 128 that parallel the Colorado River.  I found a site in the early afternoon and pitched my tent.  I chose the site because it was relatively remote - hidden in a cluster of trees blocking the neighboring campsites.

I happily left my tent and set off for my afternoon hike through Negro Bill Canyon.

Upon returning, I saw cars parked in the neighboring campsites and people setting up.  Of course this was fine, and it was something I was expecting.  I sauntered down to my site ready to eat my maple donut for dessert, when I suddenly notice in horror that a large mammoth-sized house tent has been constructed only twenty feet away from my tent!

Is this real life?!

These people constructed their "tent" (if you can even call it that) right on the border of my site and theirs.

It would have not been such a big deal had they been quiet, nature-loving folks who set out to experience the silence and solitude of the great outdoors.  But no, they are loud and obnoxious with a yapping dog and apparently are too scared to camp in their own space, so they huddle in as close as physically possible for their behemoth tent to fit where another human is already camped.

Again, it would have been fine had they respected their other campers, but throughout the night and into the early morning hours there was shouting, cackling, grunting, barking and who knows what else.

Fortunately there was a storm throughout the night, and the strong winds blocked most of it out.  I was nice and cozy inside my solo tent, daydreaming about their wind-sail-of-a-tent being blown away causing them to float away down the river on their air mattress.

I decided that camping with cows isn't such a bad thing, after all.

Their campsite... plenty of space, no tent.

My campsite... my tent on the left, theirs trying to sneak in.