Helping campers since 2011

How To Make A Campfire

How to make a campfire?

If you're going camping, you're going to want to know how to build a campfire. Sitting around the fire roasting marshmallows, singing songs and playing games is one of our family's favorite parts of a camping trip. Cooking over a campfire is an important skill, too.

Fortunately, building a campfire is easy!

A campfire burning with yellow flames at night

How To Make A Campfire

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Getting started

The first step is to gather fuel. Many campgrounds prohibit gathering wood or kindling from the site, so it's always a good idea to bring your own. Here's what you'll need:

Matches or Lighter

I like using matches. My husband prefers a lighter.

My son enjoys the challenge of starting a fire without using either! (That's a whole other skill, though!)

If you're using a lighter, bring along several. And if you're using matches, keep them dry! Here's one way to do that.

A refillable lighter is a good idea. Be sure to bring along extra lighter fuel.

How To Build A Campfire

Kindling

Newspaper

To get the fire started, you'll need something that burns every time. Dry newspaper is ideal. Bring a supply from home, and store it in a plastic bag somewhere where it won't get damp.

Of course, sometimes you're going to forget the newspaper (or at least we are!) especially if you don't use a good camping list. In a pinch, we have used everything from travel brochures to the blank end pages of a novel - but a good supply of newspaper is best!

If you're really stuck, you might like to know that Doritos make excellent kindling! Click here for details.

Cedar - or lots of very small sticks

Cedar burns very easily, and makes excellent kindling. A few small sticks of dry cedar, chopped small, will get your fire blazing.

If you don't have cedar kindling, you'll need a good supply of very small sticks. If you're allowed to gather material at the site, this is a good job for the kids.

Wood

Either bring firewood from home, or purchase it at the campground. Lots of campgrounds sell bundles of wood for campfires. The advantage is that it has been split to the correct size. The disadvantage is that it's probably going to be expensive.

Here's how to make a campfire

Start with a very small amount of kindling, about as much as would fit in a tea cup. Then hold your match or lighter near the finest pieces of kindling, until you see it start to burn.

Then add very small pieces of wood over the burning kindling, one piece at a time. It's important that you don't smother the initial burn - it needs air !

Once the first small sticks start to burn you can slowly stack slightly larger pieces of wood around the fire. Continue to add more wood, bit by bit, and in gradually increasing size.

Now you have built a campfire!

It's blazing beautifully! Now what?

Now that you know how to build a campfire, you're ready to learn about campfire cooking.

Before you can cook, you'll probably want to let the fire burn down to coals. In the meantime,

sing your favorite campfire songs. (Here are our favorite campfire songs.)

Play some campfire games.

Tell some campfire stories.

For more helpful camping information, please visit The Camping Family home page. It will direct you to everything you need to know for planning a successful camping trip.