Outdoor games to bring if you’re going camping?
by admin on Saturday, May 14th, 2011 | 6 Comments
So I’m going camping next month and I’m taking three friends with me. So far I’ve got a pack of cards and a frisbee, but what other games/activities could you bring to go camping?
Forrest camping 
A lot will depend on your interests and where you’re camping (I would bring a kite for beach camping, but obviously not in the forest). If you mountain bike, check and see if surrounding trails allow bikes before you don’t have one and wish you did or bring one and can’t use it. We like geocaching as a way of exploring new surroundings, so that’s an option if you have GPS. We often print out scavenger hunts for the kids to take along on hikes to keep them occupied and interested. Around the campfire at night, my friends and I like Catch Phrase, which can be passed around and played on teams of two. Personally, I like to pack a good book and just relax in the afternoons listening to the sounds of the outdoors and dangling my feet in a nearby creek/river/lake. My DH prefers fishing gear.
The good news is that you really don’t need to bring a bunch of “stuff” to stay entertained. With a little creativity and healthy sense of adventure, plenty of options open up. If you’re cool with quirky, here are a few suggestions:
- Satellite spotting in the night sky
- Racing to see who can start a fire first without matches
- Test your off-trail navigation skills
- Name that tune (in my case this one helps ward off bears)
- Assemble your tent in the pitch dark with no flashlight
- If near the mountains, do a summit day-hike
- Catch a fish without a fishing pole
- Read to each other
- Wildlife photo hunts
- Cliff jumping – as long as there’s deep water at the bottom of course
- Make up your own fire dance
- Who can build the tallest cairn (rock stacking)?
Bottom line…enjoy your surroundings. That is after all why we go camping, right?
Happy Trails!
Ultimate camp resource has a large exchange of ideas. Also, look over the Kindle books on the topic at Amazon. If you download the free software, Kindle for PC, then you can download camp activity books to your computer. You can carry the books on your laptop or netbook for the camping trip.
Bean bag toss
Ring toss
Horseshoes
Marbles
Knot tying competition
Scavenger hunt using compass coordinates and distance
Fishing Derby
Precision Casting (cast a 2 oz sinker into targets at various distances)
Who can collect the most grasshoppers, lighting bugs, etc…
Weaving functional baskets out of dried grass, vines, etc…
Whittling
We have a game called “murbles” that we take camping every year. It is like croquet almost, but without mallets. It is so much fun. I know that they have in on the website below, but you can probably find it locally if you don’t have time to order online. Other fun games would be horseshoes, washer tossing (sometimes called “corn hole”), badminton, and lawn darts.
Kim’s game is great fun.
banzai(night game, one person is on and the rest hide. if the person who is on shines the light on a person who is off and see them he/she yells banzia..hide and seek in dark)
codes
caving
biving
tree climbing
hiking