Hanging Regulations in State Parks

[canoebie]

Michigan state forests have never been a problem for me to hang, however; if you want to "stealth" camp and not use the fire ring, etc. you must be at least one mile from a designated camp ground. I really try to respect this and understand it, as it would be easy for folks to go a few hundred yards into the woods and camp without paying or appropriately following guidelines.

There are also free permits available for camping on state land and they are posted on the outside of every DNR field office in Michigan. I have found DNR to be very respectful and supportive of me as I venture down the rivers of Michigan alone or with groups. Of course, they realize I do all I can to reduce impact and take out more than I take in.

[adkpiper]

My one recent experience with hammocking in a New York campground (Wilmington Notch, NY) was just fine. I asked for permission, explained that I would be using Tree Huggers to protect the trees, and got permission. The campground staffers were interested to hear about it, and came over to check out my hammock.

Bear in mind: there are different governing bodies in NY depending on where you are. It's different inside the Adirondack park, and different depending on whether you're in a state park campground or on any of the different levels of state-owned land (wilderness area, primitive area, wild forest, etc.)

I don't tend to like campgrounds very much; I used this one because I was meeting friends from out of town, and we needed an easy-to-find location where we could meet after dark.

That said, the staff were courteous and interested. No problems on my end.

[Cannibal]

Good job adkpiper! Those are the kind of interactions that we need more of to eliminate the hammock prejudice.
If a ground dweller beats one of us up, is that a "hate crime"?

[Festus Hagen]

Just wanted to report, I was camping with some buds at Thompsons Lake State Park near Albany NY over the weekend.

I had hung my DD hammock in an out-of-the-way location, I don't think anyone would have seen it unless they were searching for it (maybe even if they were!). One of my buddies showed up late and, despite my suggestion of hanging out-of-sight, hung his HH in direct line-of-sight of the campground road.

This campground has various patrols, on golf carts, vehicles, on foot. At one point a couple of them came to ask for the extra charge for a third vehicle (we had only paid for one night, oops) and were standing right in our campsite. Not a word was said about hammocks or about the tarp we strung between trees to keep the rain off our cooking area.

YMMV!

[plowhorse]

I stayed in Big Trees state park last weekend. I called ahead and asked if there would be a problem hanging in their environmental (semi-improved) campsites. The ranger said that so long as I wasn't nailing anything to the trees, it shouldn't be a problem. Was very glad to here this as it was the first time I had really got to use my hammock in the wild. It was also my two boys first hang.

P.S. Bring plenty of webbing, hte trees ate up my 15 ft straps pretty easily.

[gRaFFiX]

P.S. Bring plenty of webbing, hte trees ate up my 15 ft straps pretty easily.

Haha, always wondered how I would hang in the Redwoods. You would need at least 2, 30' straps to get round the trees

[sir White Wolf]

Id like to get with the parks service here at Unicoi in Ga
talk em into putting up Poles 13 to 14 ft apart at the tent sites

[MedicineMan]

I've been in 311 units of the national park system and in the NPs and NMs I've never ever had a problem hanging a hammock--well you know how it is in the state parks. Like some here I've stealthed it in state parks, waited until dark to set up the hammock and taken it down before much daylight activity, even set up a tent as a decoy with the hammock hidden in the trees.
With the walmart hammock stand (green tubular metal one with the push button lock pins) its easy to have a stand always with you on these trips.

[Darkstar214]

I was camping with my son last weekend at Little Buffalo St. Park here in Pa. There was a Park Ranger walking around the campground and he was very friendly. He was checking out my hammock set up and told me it was "cool" before leaving...

[VaFish]

VA state parks say not to hang lanterns on trees, but no mention of clothes lines, tarps or hammocks.

http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/faq.shtml