SOMETIMES a person just needs to sleep outside. Drift off to sleep with the slowness of the movement of the stars. Wake up with a cold nose. Notice how most food, even the goofy camp variety, tastes better al fresco.

Within the confines of Westchester County, there are several fine county campgrounds, where old hands can introduce new generations to camping without the fear of a long drive home if the experiment goes terribly awry -- if the bags in the back of the van turn out to hold sleeping bags instead of tents, if the ghost stories around the campfire work too well, or if the weather turns suddenly uncooperative. And a quick hop up the Taconic State Parkway beyond the county line will take you to a state park with some of the prettiest campsites on the East Coast.

The county's offerings include lakeside lean-tos, backpacker sites requiring a hike in, lean-tos with views of Bear Mountain, various ways to sleep above and along the Hudson River, and even a cabin with a washer/dryer, which depending on how much of a purist one is, may or may not count as camping. (''It does to my wife; I haven't gotten her into a tent in 20 years,'' said Mark Tabor, the site supervisor of Mountain Lakes Park.)

The prices for outdoor overnight accommodations are very reasonable compared with the cost of hotels, motels, inns and bed and breakfasts, (though of course the cable reception stinks). And the campout's potential for generating memorable stories cheerful and otherwise certainly can't be beat. It's more fun to talk about, if not live through, the visiting skunk or mosquito migration than the motel room that smelled of mildew and Band-Aids.