Campsite Layout

When to use this

Right after you pick the site, before unpacking everything.

• Arriving at a new site
• Coaching kids on where things go
• Multi-night basecamp

What you need

• Your tent, kitchen kit, chairs, and gear bins

Step by step

1. 1.Stand in the middle of the site. Identify three zones: sleep, kitchen, fire.
2. 2.Sleep zone goes furthest from the fire ring — at least 15 feet away, in the flattest, driest spot.
3. 3.Kitchen zone goes between sleep and fire, on a flat surface (often the picnic table).
4. 4.Fire zone is the existing fire ring, with chairs in a half-circle facing the sleep zone.
5. 5.Place your cooler and food-bin "kitchen" upwind of the fire — smoke ruins food faster than people think.
6. 6.Run a clothesline between two trees on the sleep-zone side for wet towels, swimsuits, and headlamps.

Pro tips

• Headlamps live in one place: a hook on a tent pole or a pocket on the gear bin. "Where’s my headlamp" is the most-asked camp question. End it.
• A 10x10 canopy over the kitchen zone changes everything if rain shows up.

Common mistakes

• Tents downwind of the fire — your sleeping bags will smell like smoke for the rest of the trip.
• Kitchen on the ground next to the fire. Embers travel.