Campfire Tips

Our favorite part of camping is making a campfire. But a lot of people don’t know how to make one in this day and age. Before you go camping, learn to make a good campfire.

1. Lighters – Be sure to pack several ways to start a fire. Matches can get wet, and lighters can be finicky, so bring a few backup options of both.
2. Firewood – Make sure you buy dry wood. We’ve had fires smolder and fizzle because the wood was damp or waterlogged. When purchasing firewood, make sure it’s nice and dry.
3. Tinder/Firestarter – You’ll want something that ignites quickly like dry leaves or pine needles. Newspaper is great for this as well. But you can simply buy a firestarter when you get your wood.
4. Kindling – When purchasing firewood, make sure you get small strips of wood known as kindling. This will help ignite your larger logs. A hatchet or an axe can make short work of making your own kindling too.
5. Placing the logs – When building a fire, it’s important to place your firestarter, kindling and logs in the proper configuration to ignite properly. You can build a teepee starting with the tinder in the middle, then create a teepee shape with your kindling. Another approach is the Log cabin style. This one is our favorite. Place your firestarter in the middle, then create a log cabin shape by placing kindling intertwined, similar to how a log cabin is built. Once its lit and going strong, slowly add the logs to the fire. Both of these methods are sure fire (pun intended) ways for making a fire.

We also recommend having some kind of poker on hand to move the logs. If you plan on using it for cooking, then a cooking rack is a great idea. We pack leather work gloves for the campsite. When you are ready for bed or leaving the campsite, be sure to put the campfire out completely with water. Tip: