Green Camping Tips & Ideas

Camping may already be a low-impact vacation compared to what a hotel stay might consume. But is your camping style up to par with your at-home green lifestyle?

Here are some tips to make sure we are only leaving footprints and taking nothing but pictures.

1. Ditch paper plates and pack up some melamine dishes. They are super durable and reusable.

2. Forget the plastic ware and stop by the thrift store for some fancy silverware to eat with while dining in the world’s finest campground.

3. Complete your tableware with some reusable cups. We recommend plastic because they pack and store easy.

4. Leave the paper towels at home and toss in cloth hand towels. This will help reduce waste and you’ll need them for drying dishes anyway.

5. Spend at least one morning picking up all of the bottle caps and cigarette butts around your site. We believe in leaving a place better than how we found it.

6. Do dishes away from any natural water sources. Even if you are using earth-friendly dish soap, those little bubble still need the soil to make it bio-degrade.

7. Don’t burn plastic trash and certainly don’t leave your fire pit smoldering. Just a handful of campsites with smoldering pits can make for a bad air day…let’s be the good guy and just put out the stink.

8. Even if you aren’t camping in bear country, put your food up so the other little creatures don’t get it. Human food just isn’t good for those little guys.

9. If you think it might rain make sure you bring a tarp big enough to fit just under your tent and a full rain fly. When you set your tent up check out the lay of the land and don’t put it close to what looks like a small, dry creek bed. This will help you avoid the work of digging a trench and will ensure that we leave a small footprint.

10. If there aren’t showers available pick up a solar shower. These are wonderful since you can have a heated shower rather than dipping in the cold river or lake. You can even make it private by putting a tarp up around trees. This once again keeps that earth-friendly soap moving through the soil so it has the opportunity to bio-degrade.

There are a ton of ways to green up our camping experience, the most obvious is to reduce the usage of products. Hopefully these ideas will help the campsites you visit be even greener when you leave.

Looking for more adventure than just camping? Head for the river and experience white water rafting with green companies.