FNR 122
forestry & natural resources
OUTDOOR RECREATION 
Camp Loop Design Guidelines
John T. Hultsman, Assistant Professor of Recreation Studies Department of Physical Education, Health, & Recreation Studies
and
Wendy Z. Hultsman, Assistant Professor of Forest Recreation Department of Forestry & Natural Resources
Campgrounds should be safe and convenient for users; administratively functional for managers; and environmentally sound to protect the resource base. This publication considers a number of planning, design, and construction techniques for developing camp loops. To “fit” a group of camp units onto a specific piece of land, planners should address those three areas of concern: users, management, and the environment.
Since situation specific aspects of individual areas like topography, soils, and vegetation will influence each design differently, there is no single “right” solution to the challenge of loop design. There are, however, several techniques available that speak to the three areas of concern. Generally, you encounter two basic types of resource bases when planning a group of camp units: the narrow site and the broad, generous site. These require different approaches to design and are considered separately below by looking at both poor and functional solutions to loop design.
LOOPS ON NARROW SITES
Often, a piece of land for a camp loop will be long and narrow. One example is a site between the edge of a ridge and a lake or a stream. A similar development site exists along the top of a narrow ridge bordered by steeply sloping land on either side. Figure 1 illustrates a typical “solution” to this design challenge. The basic problem with the design in Figure 1, however, is the excess of road involved.
An excessive amount of road, aside from being expensive, tends to use up the limited unit space on narrow sites. The solution here contains 11 camp units. Figure 2 shows another poor loop design for narrow sites, frequently found in both the public and private sectors.
This solution violates sound design principles from three perspectives. From the manager’s standpoint, it’s poor practice to move traffic through one loop into another one, since this technique makes it difficult (or impossible) to administer loops separately. The design also creates an inconvenient and
Figure 1.
The narrow site: a poor solution with too much space taken up by roads.
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