A not-timely post with some tips for camping with kids

I know it’s not camping season. But in the PNW, we are actually at the tail-end of camping planning season, as reservations for campsites open six months in advance and the competitive process of snagging one is up there with kids’ summer camps and cheap swim lessons. Last month, just short of a coven of girlfriends sat at our respective computers at 5:59 a.m., campsites in cart, attempting to reserve a group of sites at a popular lake campground when they were released at six a.m., for a trip starting on a random Wednesday in August.

At 6:01:

“Sh*t.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“Anyone?”

“Bots??”

Not one of us got a site. I did manage, by shifting dates and pivoting to less popular campgrounds, to plan for a handful of trips this summer. With my kids now four and seven, last summer was the first year that things felt… easy is too strong a word, but manageable, at least. So I thought I’d share a few of the things that I rely on to make tent camping with young kids worth the squeeze.

1. Bins. Bins, bins, bins. Besides the big things like our tent, mattresses, and camp chairs, we keep almost all of our camping supplies in big plastic bins. We have one for the camp kitchen (trash bags, dishware, etc.) one for “miscellaneous” which includes things like flashlights, first aid, bug spray, a hatchet etc., one for snacks/dry food, and one for toys/art/craft supplies.

A bit about the toy bin. Arguably the point of going camping with kids is that they can occupy themselves purely through the wonders of nature. And this does happen eventually, the toy bin typically disregarded by the second half of the trip. The point of the toy bin is to give your kids something new and exciting for that first half-hour after arriving, when the adults want to set up camp and need the kids quietly occupied for that to happen.

The toys in the toy bin don’t exist at home. They are just for camping, so the kids are excited to see them each time. Before our first trip of the summer, I’ll re-stock with a few new markers, workbooks, etc. Without fail this buys us a bit of time at the beginning of the trip, when Kris and I both want to get settled and don’t want to start the weekend off yelling at our kids to get out of the neighbors’ campsites or telling them for the hundredth time that we’ll take them bike riding soon if they would just let us set up the [goddamn] tent! These light-up firefly toys have taken the cake for favorite camping toy year after year.

When we get home from each trip, I give the kids showers while Kris unloads the car, and then we put on a movie for the boys while we clean and re-pack the bins. This makes camping prep for the next trip relatively easy, only having to plan for meals and pack clothes, with everything else already done.

2. The right gear. I’m pretty openly anti-consumerism, so I’m probably not going to offer anything here that’s too novel or trendy. Just the basics, with the goal that buying any of these things once is enough to last for many years of camping.

   1. A big enough tent. We’re forever tent campers, both for financial reasons and the fact that I think there’s value (for myself and for my kids) in occasionally depriving ourselves of some creature comforts. When my son was a baby, we had a six person tent, big enough for our double inflatable mattress and a pack n’ play. But once we had both boys, things got pretty cramped, with me climbing over wall-to-wall mattresses for nighttime wakeups and struggling to get anyone dressed. Last year we upgraded to a Coleman (forever the camping OG) 10 person skydome, and while it sometimes feels excessive, it has made our tent time so much easier. We almost exclusively use Out and Back or Facebook Marketplace for getting deals on used camping gear.

   2. Sleep stuff. We swear by these Hiccapop mattresses. They have built-in bumpers, so the boys don’t roll into each other or out of their sleeping bags. And their lifetime guarantee is legit – one of ours was slowly deflating last year and they replaced it with no questions asked.

   3. All the rest. Nothing too special here- Kris and I share a large double sleeping bag and mattress, we have a random assortment of camp chairs collected over the years, and we use an old Coleman camp stove and a newer Blackstone grill (which I never would have bought, but was a Christmas gift that we’ve now put to very good use). For our first camping trip last year (in May) I thought I could pare down our clothing options and just bring one outfit per day for the kids. It poured the entire trip and everyone ran out of dry clothes halfway through – so I now still resort to bringing double the clothes I think we’ll need. We use this camp kitchen organizing caddy. Always extra trash bags, ziplocks, paper towels. I am nostalgic for the enamelware dishset of my childhood, but depending on my energy level for the trip, sometimes we bring paper plates.

3. Food. Meal planning and prep is the bulk of what we do to get ready for a trip. While we most often leave in the afternoon, Kris and I take the whole day off work and prep as much as possible in the morning. Some people are better at winging it, but I prefer to have as little in-camp prep and therefore clean-up as possible.

   1. Breakfast. We’ll try to bring at least one baked good (muffins, banana bread) that we can get the kids immediately when they wake up, to keep them happy while we set up the kitchen to actually cook. We almost always do an easy breakfast burrito (eggs, bacon, cheese and/or refried beans), a bagel/cream cheese situation, pancakes (we mix the batter in a Ziplock bag and cook on the Blackstone), and occasionally bring cereal or make overnight oat jars in advance.

   2. Lunch. We pre-make an assortment of PB&J and turkey sandwiches. We are usually playing, swimming, paddleboarding throughout the day so we don’t take lunch too seriously and often just snack (cheese and crackers, etc.). But it helps to have a sandwich handy in case a kid (or grown-up) starts slipping into the hangry zone.

   3. Dinner. Some favorites include: Flatbread pizza (made on the Blackstone), cast iron skillet nachos (cooked on the campfire), crispy chicken tacos (Blackstone), Havarti chicken wraps (we pre-marinate chicken tenders with seasoning and bring in a Ziplock bag, cook in a cast iron on the camp stove and then wrap in a tortilla with Havarti, bell pepper, lettuce), smash burgers (Blackstone), mac n’ cheese (camp stove), hot dogs and baked beans (camp stove). The goal with most dinners is that they either use only one main cooking dish (or the Blackstone grill), and take less than 20 minutes to get together.

   4. Snacks. We bring a few tupperware containers with cut veggies that we serve with lunch and dinners, as well as cut apples, berries and other fruit that we put out with breakfast or as a snack. And I mentioned bins in the beginning – we fill almost an entire bin with snacks like granola bars, fruit leather, crackers, puffs, and of course, s’mores supplies. We almost never end up eating everything we bring, but what we don’t finish while camping gets eaten in the next week or so at home.

Hope you found something helpful in here. x