Camping Must Haves

Generally, in non-quarantine times, we camp one to two times per summer, tops. I have slowly been building up my camping gear because we don't camp that much. Fast forward to now and I feel like we finally have all the camping gear that we need. This was sped up a little due to quarantine and camping being one of the easier and safer activities that we can do this summer. We've learned the hard way what camping gear really works for us. The links are included below if you want to do some research of your own.

A pop up tent! We have a Coleman six-person pop up tent (pictured above). First of all, because it is so easy to set up. I can do it myself and it takes less than one minute. Second of all, because it fits a queen sized air mattress and also has space for our things and potentially 1-2 more people sleeping in there if necessary. The downside to this tent is that it is less compact and it definitely takes up more space in the car, but it is so worth it to me. I can't stand putting poles together and putting a tent up. I also really needed a tent that had room to stand up in so that I would be able to change easier. I got this for Christmas so this our first summer being able to use this tent and I was so excited about it! https://amzn.to/2C836PA

Yeti cooler! This is a no-brainer. We've had this since last summer and it has been a life changer. We took it on a road trip to Minnesota and back for a four day festival and it held ice the whole time. It can be a little heavy when full and you do have to pack it pretty strategically, but it's so worth it.

https://amzn.to/3io4BZB

Camping chairs with coolers in them! We just these this summer as well and they are amazing! They hold four cans right in your chair so they're very convenient and they save precious cooler space. When you're camping in the heat your cooler space fills up pretty quickly with all the food and beverages so removing 8-12 drinks and being able to keep them in a cold an convenient space was the best. We bought ours at Target for $20.

https://amzn.to/2XG8nFI

Bug candles: I get these through Grove (this website is so amazing it could be a whole separate post), they're around $10 and they're great! Especially in Colorado where there may or may not be a fire ban. There aren't a lot of bugs in Colorado unless you're camping by water, which we usually are. It keeps the bugs away and provides light if you're not allowed to have a fire. They also last forever I bought two just in case and I'm still on my first one. I've used it for two camping trips and it is still going strong. I did bring it through the airport for a camping trip in Minnesota and it will get flagged by TSA every time, but they still let you have it so way worth it. Bugs in Minnesota can ruin your whole camping trip.

https://amzn.to/2PMaxPT

Long dog leash: We hook ours to our Yeti cooler and it's about 20 feet. We always bring our dog camping and she does very well on a long leash. Make sure you're watching them to clean up any dog waste and try to hook this up near the shade.

Air Pump: We have one that cost about $30 at Target and it's so nice to have! It doesn't take batteries it just charges from the wall and it holds a charge for days. We use this to blow up our air mattress and our inner tubes when we bring them with to float on the reservoir or down the river. We used to have one that hooked into the cigarette lighter in our car and we had to pull the car very close to the tent to inflate the air mattress. It was a pain.

https://amzn.to/3gEApJb

Portable Battery Charger: Mine was a gift so I don't really know how much these cost, but I know I love mine! I usually put my phone on airplane or low power mode when we're camping and it can sometimes last the whole weekend, but it is so nice to have the security of a back up charger. We're all a little more attached to our phones than we probably should be so it's kind of stressful just watching the battery die over the weekend.

If it wasn't obvious to you in the beginning, we're obviously car camping and we definitely use camping as more of an excuse to drink in the woods. I also usually book campsites that at least have vault toilets. I'm not super into digging holes and this is what works for us. We're obviously not experts and we don't go all the time, but these are the things that work well for us and were worth investing some money into. When we're home I keep all of these things together in a tote so they don't get lost for the next trip.