Finding Great Camping Gear For Your Trip

Camping can be a great activity, allowing you to get away from the noise of urban living and spend some time enjoying the beauty of nature while you’re roughing it. However, if planned out badly, a camping trip can leave you sour on the whole idea of spending time outdoors. And the secret to planning a good camping trip is making sure you’ve brought along great camping gear to keep you comfortable while in camp. To help you find some great camping gear, let’s go over a few pieces of common equipment so you know what to look for.

Sleeping Bags

Whether you’re sleeping under the stars or in a tent, a sleeping bag is what will keep you warm and comfortable throughout the night. It’s easy to have the wrong sleeping bag, though, but the fault isn’t always with the bag, since one sleeping bag might be a great piece of camping gear in the summertime but awful if you’re high in the mountains or camping in December.

When you purchase a sleeping bag, think about the temperatures you’ll be having at night, then buy something that is rated for something about 10 or 20 degrees colder. And if you plan to camp in the winter, buy a separate sleeping bag for subzero temperatures.

Tents

A tent is certainly great camping gear to have around, but as with sleeping bags, you need to purchase for the season; tents will also have ratings based on temperature. But tents have other features to consider, such as weight. For instance, while a large, heavy tent might be easily packed in the trunk of your car for a car camping trip, there’s no way you will be able to comfortably carry it on a backpacking trip. You must also consider the size of a tent when on your camping trips, since a 2-man tent might be a great piece of camping gear when you’re camping alone, but much too cramped if you have others along.

Camp Stoves

While cooking over an open fire is fun, sometimes you want to have something that allows you to create better meals, and that’s what makes a camp stove such great camping gear. However, just as with tents and sleeping bags, the wrong stove can ruin your experience. Many camp stoves run off butane canisters, but don’t perform well in very cold weather, and that’s when you should use propane stoves. Also, choose the size of your camp stove’s burners carefully; if you use large pots, a small burner will heat unevenly, which is certainly not what you want.

So, in this case and with the other camping gear we’ve discussed, great camping gear is more a matter of purchasing gear that is appropriate for the time of year you’re camping, who you’re bringing along, and what other equipment you’ll be using. As long as you keep that in mind, you should be able to shop for some great camping gear.