Last-minute Labor Day camping
CEO of The Dyrt Kevin Long breaks down his best tips if you're looking to head out camping this Labor Day weekend.
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00:00 Labor Day weekend is upon us.
00:02 It all starts now.
00:02 Many campers use this as a chance to say goodbye to summer.
00:06 If you still haven't made those plans, it's not too late.
00:09 - All right, joining us live from Jackson, Wyoming
00:11 is camping expert, Kevin Long.
00:13 He is the CEO of The Dirt.
00:17 Kevin, if folks haven't made camping plans,
00:19 what are your top tips for finding that last minute camping?
00:23 - Well, you guys, as we come into Labor Day,
00:26 my first two big tips are, number one,
00:30 if things look full, don't despair.
00:32 State parks and national parks,
00:34 yeah, they're booked up way in advance and sold out,
00:36 but they're not full.
00:38 People cancel their reservations all the time,
00:41 and you can use The Dirt Pro to find those sites
00:44 that get canceled and open up.
00:46 The second thing is glamping and private camping
00:50 have come a long ways.
00:52 There are so many options,
00:54 thousands of bookable properties on The Dirt.
00:56 You see, you have no excuse to not get out there
00:58 on Labor Day weekend and enjoy the beautiful outdoors.
01:01 - Okay, that sounds incredible, first of all.
01:03 Love to spend a nice weekend outdoors,
01:06 but for folks who maybe haven't done a lot of camping
01:08 or glamping before, can you kind of explain the differences
01:11 in types of camping to people
01:13 who maybe wanna try something new?
01:16 - Sure, sure.
01:17 Everybody knows the classic state parks and national parks
01:20 at government campgrounds that you can go to,
01:22 but here's a couple other things to think about.
01:25 Private camping, when we say private camping,
01:27 we're talking about there are thousands
01:30 of new campgrounds on private land.
01:33 Someone owns a farm,
01:34 someone owns just a big piece of property,
01:37 someone opens up a private RV park,
01:40 and these campgrounds on The Dirt,
01:42 over 80% of them have at least one open spot
01:45 ready for this weekend.
01:46 There's a lot more availability
01:49 to book a campground at private camping
01:51 than the state parks right now during this holiday.
01:53 Another option for people to think about is free camping.
01:57 A lot of people don't know that a great benefit
01:59 of living in the United States is some of this public land
02:03 that you can legally free camp at.
02:06 And we're talking about things
02:07 like the Bureau of Land Management.
02:09 On The Dirt Pro, we give people over 5,000 locations
02:13 that they can camp for absolutely free.
02:15 Some of these are like in the back country with no services,
02:19 you gotta pack everything out yourself.
02:22 Other ones, there's actually some government campgrounds
02:25 that are totally free to camp at.
02:27 You just have to know where they are,
02:28 but there's a lot of different options out there.
02:31 - I did not know that.
02:32 - This is so cool, I'm learning so much today.
02:34 - Camping seems to be more popular than ever.
02:37 Is that what your numbers show?
02:39 And why do you think that is?
02:41 - Yeah, it's a good question.
02:44 I mean, we survey,
02:45 we get over 20 million visits a year at The Dirt,
02:48 and we survey our audience every single year
02:51 to find out what's going on.
02:52 What's amazing is we found out about 13 to 14 million
02:57 first-time campers are going camping every single year.
03:01 So imagine that, there's 80 million Americans that camp.
03:04 And on top of that,
03:06 about 13 to 14 million new people every year
03:09 coming online for the first time.
03:12 And what we kind of attribute this is,
03:14 you know, when people went through the COVID crisis,
03:16 they rethought what's important in their life.
03:19 And they start to get these experiences.
03:22 And I think what a lot of people are starting to understand
03:24 is, hey, you don't always have to get on an airplane
03:27 and go do an expensive vacation
03:29 to create a lifetime memory for yourself or your family
03:32 or your friends and your loved ones.
03:34 The US is a huge country with amazing outdoor experiences.
03:39 And it's right there for you to take and grab.
03:43 And it's not expensive or it's free.
03:47 - Love it.
03:48 Kevin Long, CEO of The Dirt.
03:49 I feel like we just learned so much.
03:51 - Not expensive and free.
03:53 My favorite words.
03:54 - Seriously.
03:55 - Yeah, bye.
03:56 - Kevin, thank you so much
03:57 and have a great Labor Day weekend.