Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting What do you look for in a Campsite?

Saw this idea on another forum but it went no where because the OP is incoherent. Thought I might give it a whirl.

I look for several things in a campsite when I'm backpacking, such as;
Proximity to Goal
Water
Terrain
Screening
Southern Exposure

Proximity - I want to camp near but not necessarily right at my goal location. When I use to climb, I camped at the base of the mountain or beginning of the climb. Now when I hunt, I camp near but not right in the middle of my hunting grounds. Sometimes I go just to be sightseeing and then proximity to a view is important and sometimes I camp near a favorite fishing hole.

Water - I want to be convenient to clean water. I prefer it to be right next to camp, but I don't mind carrying it a short distance if there's no good place to camp right at the creek.

Terrain - I want a flat place to put the tent so I'm not rolling down hill when sleeping. It's nice if I can find some grass because that makes for a more comfortable bed. I appreciate it when I can avoid cactus patches and rock piles and when I don't have to clear away vegetation to place the tent.

Screening - I like to place my camp in seclusion. I don't want to be disturbed by other hikers and I don't want the game to see my camp, so I look for vegetation or land forms to screen the camp from view. This same screen can provide protection from the wind.

Exposure - Usually I don't want to be in the shade in the mountains. Shade is nice in the desert, but not in the mountains. I want a southern exposure so the sun will warm and dry the tent and melt snow. However, I do want to be near some shade because if I have to hang meat, I want it to be in the shade.

Ready availability of firewood use to be important, but now I use a stove most of the time and if I have a campfire at all, it's generally just for ambience.

I don't always get all that I want but I usually can find a spot that offers most of my criteria.

What do you guys look for in a camp spot?

KC

Since we use llamas, feed is #1. We can make do with the rest once we find that.

Flat and downwind of whatever I'm hunting to start with. Fairly close to water is the next step.

Water first, hate hauling it around. Close enough so I can stay late and arrive early. Flat and cushy is nice too, but doesn't always happen. Out of the wind is a plus. That's about it. Close to the quarry, with water, the rest is luxury.

A place you can hunker down if a blizzard comes in and a place that you can cut footsteps in the ice if it goes winter on you.
Sucks to be up on an upper basin and you get 2 ft of snow on areas with exposure and loose shale underneath.

Everything else besides sleeping next to a rotten grizzly kill is ok.

Sincerely,
Thomas

Flat spot to sleep..

Close to water..(but not in a swampy area with skeeters)

A decent distance from the area(s) I'm hunting so I don't spook the game..

I like to be out of the major wind gusts but I still like a little breeze to keep the skeeters at bay..

I think the OP nailed it. Not much to add.
Water is a biggie for me. Hate packing water even for an overnighter. Flat spot to sleep. Also don't want people passing through my campsite.

I look for nakkid girls camping.

I never thought of that. Well actually I have but never considered it within the realm of possibility. Nice idea though.

Of course there's Rainbow Hot Springs where clothing is optional. It's on the West Fork of the San Juan River not too far from Wolf Creek Pass.

KC

I hate skeeters.

KC

I thought of one more thing and that's the flood plain. Although I like to camp near a creek, I avoid the flood plain for obvious reasons.

KC

My pack trips are pretty much limited to hunting season (just not enough time these days) so my criteria are more specific:

- Proximity to glassing perch, I like to make coffee just before daylight and walk less than 100 yards to my glassing perch, drink my coffee and watch animals move.
- Cover, I don't want the game to see my camp and I like to be as protected from the elements as possible.
- Water, I sacrifice this for glassing so I cache a lot of water before season. Last year we were over 900 vertical feet above the stream.

Stomatador:

That could result in some real work depending on how much water you hauled uphill.

KC

KC, you pretty much nailed it...

Although one of my favorite camp spots is on the tail end of a north face ridgeline, and you never see direct sunlight there. you also never see bears, or other game there. I like being in stealth mode when I'm hunting. I laugh my ass off when you see a wall tent and pack string right smack dab in the middle of a high mountain meadow.

Dan:

I hear you. Last fall when I was hunting coues deer in Arizona, we camped in the hollow of a saddle on a small ridge. The tent was screened by some mesquite trees so you couldn't see it until you were right on it. We were about 50 yards from a good glassing spot in one direction and about 200 yards from another good spot in the other direction. Water was about 1/4 mile away and a couple hundred feet below camp at a spring.

KC

For general backpacking:
- Near Water but not on it, preferably a bench above some water
- Some wind protection
- Some Privacy
- Decent soil / ground


For hunting: I would prefer
- Near glassing spot, but this is the first thing I will give up
- 1/2 mile or more away from where I think the game is
- Preferably a nice approach route to hunting ground that is easy to follow with no light, and has some wind advantages
- Access to a couple hunting areas, in case some one blows out the area I intend to hunt

The hunting sites are much harder to come by. I know where I would like to be this year, but to meet the hunting stuff, it gives up water, or to get water the approach gets trickier. It's also nice to stay out of natural game funnels, as I don't want my presence to change what they do. It's also hard to predict other hunters as well. You might have a perfect spot, but be very committed to one area to have someone else blow everything out.

At 68, I look for a campsite close to where I park.

Came across a whole herd of early twenty-ish of them, not nekkid, but girls, just getting camp ready. They never invited me to stay... saw a legal ram later in the hike. Trade-off....?

most of the Arizona places I hunt the nearest clean water is back in the truck.

Bill_Poole:

I lived in Phoenix for five years and did lots of camping and backpacking in the desert. I appreciate the stark simple beauty of the desert. I use to drive an old VW bug into the desert with my wife as a companion. We would sit around a campfire and listen to the coyotes yelping. I love that wild and free sound.

Many times I carried gallons of water in order to get deep in to desert wilderness. An isolated spring that I found on a map was often my goal. They are great places to hunt and I tried to camp at least half a mile away from the spring to avoid spooking animals.

Last Fall I got a coues deer in southern Arizona. I had just come from hunting elk in Colorado in a foot of snow, so the mild temps in AZ were welcome.

KC