Economics of a national park vacation

An excerpt from an economics blog: http://www.oftwominds.com/blogsept11/dessert-cart-Titanic-9-11.html

If you go car-camping in a small, high-mileage vehicle, the dessert cart is remarkably low-calorie. We spent a grand total of $225 on gasoline to drive 2,415 miles (40 miles per gallon in a 1998 Honda Civic with 15-year old technology) over nine days, and less than $160 for campground fees, which ran from $12 in some Forest Service campgrounds to $20 for contractor- operated FS campgrounds, and $22 for Washington state parks. The National Park campground in the Northern Cascades Park was $15 a night. (It's generally free to camp on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. Do some web searches to discover the full range of camping options.)

I absolutely agree with the writer about vacationing on the cheap via tents and campers. I think the campers with extra gas costs, insurance, maintenance and such quickly get into the too-expensive-category, but I'm thinking about getting one (gasp..the horror!) because it will make it easier to get the kids out in the woods.

I honestly would rather spend one week in Yellowstone than two weeks at a resort in Mexico or something like that. Not only is Yellowstone more my style of fun, but is significantly cheaper. If I went to the Mexico resort, I would constantly be thinking that it's way too expensive.

My vacationing budget for just me on a fishing trip with friends looks like this:

Three nights backcountry campsite reservation = $20 per trip
Three days of food = $50
Gas to/from YNP = roughly $90 (450 miles at 20 miles/gal at $4/gal)
20 new flies = $30

$190 for four days/three nights. This is exactly what I'll be doing next weekend on a trip to the Bechler River, except we didn't get a campsite reservation (saved $20 there), I'm buying the flies on sale this weekend (saving $10 there), and I'm carpooling a total of 300 miles so only paying for 150 miles or 8 gallons or about $30 (saving $60 there). And I'll be eating some chow I scrounge up in the house and also some leftover MRE's from the recent training activities, so my food costs will be about half at $25 if I really go all out on whatever I end up buying. Total cost for this upcoming trip will be about $50.

If I spent three nights in Salt Lake or Boise, that's easily $150 for hotels (even if sharing) plus probably $100 for an event like a football game or something, for a total of $250 before we even start adding in gas and food.

The economics of backcountry fishing....saving your money, mind, and soul.