Is it feasible to use a shovel to even out a camping spot?

Question

While car camping (reaching a campsite by car vs backpacking), it’s not uncommon to encounter camping sites where all the spots are slightly uneven, making it a little uncomfortable to sleep. There are various solutions to this problem (such as cots with adjustable feet) but what if you take it a step further? Bring in a couple of big shovels and a long level, then move some dirt around and make a few flat spots for your group. As a bonus future campers will thank you as their stay will be a bit more enjoyable.

Is this a crazy idea or something that can actually work? I do understand it will involve a bit of manual labor but I dig holes/even out land all the time in my garden and I enjoy this type of activity.

I’m talking about spots that are on dirt rather than on grass or other vegetation

Answer 1

Not only is a bad idea, it wouldn't work anyway. Think about what happens when you've just turned over your garden and then you step out into it.

The first time you stepped onto your newly leveled tent pad you would immediately leave a gigantic footprint. If you don't want that, then you would have to compact it to level which is really, really hard to do. Even assuming you were crazy enough to take along all the tools to properly compact it (which is heavy equipment), you can't just level it uncompacted and then compact it and expect it to still be level in the end--the parts where the dirt is fluffier will compact more, so you need to make those parts higher originally so they are even after compacting. It is some kind of crazy magic to do this.

And on top of that, even if you do make it wonderfully flat and compacted evenly and just perfect, the first time it rains hard the water will make it lumpy again anyway, so it's not going to help many future campers.

If you're working with a non-compacting surface (like pea gravel or some kinds of sand) then even trying to compact it wouldn't help, it's always going to be squishy--although it's also easier to rake it to level temporarily, so there's that.

As a side note, you don't really want level anyway--you want a very slight slope so that water doesn't pool under your tent (see: completely level pool deck leading to horrible water problems, do not do this).

Answer 2

No, it's not your place to do this. The legal authority over the land belongs to someone else, such as a state park, a private land owner, or the US Forest Service. Doing this kind of digging may also be counterproductive in terms of making drainage worse. The simplest solution to this issue is usually just to orient yourself with your head uphill.

Answer 3

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency constitution specifically forbids (translated from Swedish)

digging, excavating, filling in, drilling, chiseling, dredging, painting, blasting or otherwise damaging land and blocks

pull out ground

At least in Sweden your idea will be mostly impractical as the ground is usually very rocky

Answer 4

In general, no

Most campsites are owned by someone, whether it's a private owner or some organisation. You can't just randomly dig up someone else's property without explicit permission from them.

Many campsites also are on grassed fields, especially in Europe. Covering grass with soil basically destroys the grass, leaving an area of bare soil which will be taken over by weeds. Future campers certainly will not thank you for turning a camping field into a thistle patch.

Yes I know top-dressing is a thing for lawns, but levelling a site is well past this. In any case, top-dressing normally uses a mix of sand and soil to improve drainage; you can only use plain soil if the soil is sandy or very light loam. Were you thinking of testing the soil structure before doing this levelling? I would seriously doubt it.

Competent gardeners who need to carry out levelling of a grassed site will cut away the turf, scrape off the topsoil, level the subsoil, then replace the topsoil (in an even layer), and finally replace the turf on top. This certainly is not a quick process. It also requires you to stay off the turf for some time after levelling, so that the grass can recover. It should be clear that this is not something you can do during a camping trip.

Maybe if you can guarantee no ill effects

If the ground is entirely bare (maybe in woods or in desert conditions), and you are camping informally on somewhere in the wilderness which does not have obvious owners/users, and you know that no-one else is likely to be camping there after you, then maybe you can get away with it. In that case, whatever you do is not going to adversely affect the area or other people.

But this is pretty unlikely. And even on bare ground (as @Yakk says in comments) you may find that you're hitting roots when you dig out soil for levelling.

Answer 5

From a mechanical standpoint, it should certainly work. But, its not your camp site, so you probably shouldn't make changes to it without permission.

So you just need to ask whoever is in charge of the site for permission to move the dirt yourself.

And if they won't let you do it yourself, then try asking if they would have it done at some point for the benefit of the campers. In that case it may not happen during your stay, but it can still benefit anyone who uses the site in the future.

If they refuse both requests, or its not practical to make a request (due to the site being remote or other reasons) then I am afraid you will have to leave the site as is.

Answer 6

Even if it is allowed (other answers suggest it is not in a lot of places, but I am not aware of any general ban on digging in my native Bulgaria), it is QUITE inefficient. And it can be quite messy as well.

If the terrain is strong enough to support a car, it would be hard to dig.

On the other hand, 2 or 3 wedges made of wood or plastic can fix the inclination for you. Search for "campervan levelling wedge" if you want factory-made ones.

Answer 7

I think this really boils down to: How much? Re-arranging a few stones or fallen branches so they don’t poke through your tent floor and sleeping mat won’t bother anyone. On loose ground like dirt or sand, shuffling a bit of it around will be fine too. I guess it’s also fine to fill in depressions with leaves and small branches.

However, doing some serious grading, pulling out grass and so on is probably forbidden, regardless of location. I mean … you wouldn’t cut down grown trees to create a camping spot either, right?

On private property (like a campground) the owners won’t like it. In countries where you are allowed to camp in the wild, camping is usually only allowed if you leave no trace.

In the wild, don’t do anything which will be obvious and/or obviously man-made. On private property, ask the owners.

Answer 8

Maybe if you use a tamper instead? Or your car / vehicle, or your feet? Or even a shovel, if you're wedded to it.

Anything works so long as you can hit the ground hard with it, enough to even it out, instead of digging...

Less disturbance to the area this way, no creation of loose dirt, etc...

This is assuming that the dirt is not hard enough to resist tamping with however much force you can apply....

Answer 9

The exception, I would say, is camping at a non-wild site on very sandy soil (or I suppose gravel but I've never seen that). I've done this a few times, and if you can drive the car right to the pitch it will leave ruts that are annoying for subsequent users who may want to pitch in a slightly different spot. Even footprints may be visible. The surface material in this case moves around anyway, and a little more won't make a difference. Deeper would still be a bad idea.

The loose material on the surface can easily be smoothed down; I used my foot. Hopefully you've got pegs long enough to reach the more solid soil underneath.

In a very few cases on normal soil, you may be able (probably with permission) to repair damage caused by vehicles when it was muddy. In general though you can avoid sleeping or cooking on top of those, and I wouldn't carry any tools to deal with that, except in winter I have a folding shovel in my van.