If you’ve studied up on your winter camping tips and feel ready to brave the frigid temperatures, where are some good destinations for winter camping? Thankfully, it’s a big, beautiful world, so you shouldn’t have to struggle to hard to find a great winter camping destination. Here are a few stand-out suggestions:

Big Bend National Park

Big Bend National Park is located just north of the Mexico border in Texas, between San Antonio and El Paso. The park contains the gorgeous Rio Grande river canyon pictured blow.

The nice thing about considering Big Bend National Park as a winter camping destination is that it’s a nice warm-up to more extreme iterations of winter camping. January, the coldest month at Big Bend, still has an average high temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit with an average low of 35. Those temperatures are still extreme and require full winter camping preparation, but it’s quite a bit more pleasant than trying to negotiate a winter camping experience where the high temperature never goes above freezing.

There are four campgrounds in Big Bend, many of them located nearby restaurants and convenience stores. Backpacking and bird-watching are two popular activities in the park.

Mojave Preserve

The Mojave Preserve is a National Park in the southeastern part of California between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. This is one place you wouldn’t want to choose as a summer camping destination; the desert climate is scalding hot with highs regularly above 100. The winter is far more suitable although temperatures can get below freezing at night. One must follow normal winter camping protocol when camping here despite the fact that it is a desert.

Two campgrounds in the park are open year round. The park is known for it’s sand dunes, volcanic cinder cones, mountains, wildflower and Joshua tree fields. Roadside camping is also allowed. A favorite visitor activity is paying a visit to the abandoned mines and military outposts which can be found all over the 1.5 million acre national treasure.

Killarney Provincial Park

For some real winter camping, give Killarney Provincial Park in central Ontario, Canada a try. The park has a designated area for winter campers. They require all campers in winter months to file a trip plan with the park office. Temperatures at night can sometimes get as low as -20 Fahrenheit! The winter camp site includes a hut with a wood stove for frigid campers eager to warm themselves.

A popular activity for winter campers in Killarney Provincial Park is snowshoeing. The park is considered safe for blazing your own trail on foot in the winter since the terrain is fairly flat and relatively shielded from the elements by the dense forestry.

French Creek State Park

French Creek State Park is located in Pennsylvania in close proximity to Philadelphia.

For those appealed by the idea of winter camping with some amenities, French Creek State Park is a great place to look. They have ten cabins available to rent with electricity and heat. You won’t score many points with the hard-core campers, but it’s a good way to wet your beak to what it means to camp in the winter. The park is known for its hiking trails and is popular as a site of cross-country skiing in the winter. Ice fishing and ice skating is also popular.

Ready to take your camping experiences to another level? Give camping during the winter a try!

Planning a winter camping trip around hiking, skiing, or snowboarding can add fun to your time in the frigid outdoors. With the right amount of planning and preparing, camping in the winter can be comfortable and safe.

No matter what time of the year you camp, having the proper supplies and equipment is imperative. This is especially the case in the winter when the low temperatures can contribute to frostbite and hypothermia.

A Good Pair of Boots

Perhaps the most important thing you can bring on your winter camping trip is a good pair of insulated, waterproof boots. They should go at least halfway up the calf.

Layering

You must protect your extremities against heat loss in the cold weather. Your body generates heat and you need proper clothing to insulate and trap this heat when camping during the winter. If you are participating in an activity like skiing, your body will generate more heat than usual so you will feel less of an overall need to trap body heat. This is why you might see people skiing in 25 degree weather wearing nothing but a turtleneck. But what happens as soon as you slow down and your body’s core temperature returns to normal? You start getting very cold and need to put on more layers to trap more of the heat being produced by your body. This is why you need to have several layers of clothing handy at all times when camping during the winter.

Pack several pairs of wool socks. Doubling up on socks will help tremendously in keeping warm.

Other Accessories

A hat is also imperative. Up to 70% of your body heat escapes through the head. Wear a hat while sleeping to stay nice and toasty.

For keeping your hands warm, mittens tend to work more effectively than gloves. Fingers help keep each other warm, so it’s best not to segregate them away from one another in gloves if possible.

If you’re able to pack clothing with a lot of zippers to help ventilate, your winter camping excursion will be much more bearable. Putting on and taking off clothing can be a real pain in the butt, so it’s nice to have pants and jackets that allow you to ventilate without having to remove your skis, boots, etc in order to cool down.

Final Tips

When playing out in the snowy weather, it’s important to stay as dry as possible. A clump of snow getting into your clothing will later freeze and could cause frostbite.

Bundle up even more than you think you need to at night before going to sleep. Your body temperature, and the temperature outdoors, will be at its lowest while you are sleeping and right when you wake up. A good sleeping bag rated to extreme, sub-zero temperatures is a must-have for winter camping. Keep a thermos of a hot beverage (tea is a good choice) in your tent in case you want a sip of something to warm-up with at night.

Finally, have fun and use common sense. Winter camping takes more planning and precautions than camping in the summer, but with the right preparation it can be a very worthwhile experience!

Like just about industry, the camping industry is ripe with products for sale that you don’t really need in order to camp. Sure, the manufacturers of these products will try to convince you that you need it to camp, and in some cases they’ve succeeded rather admirably at this, but if you’re looking to keep a few extra bucks in your wallet before your next camping trip, consider doing without the following:

Portable Grill

Part of the fun of camping is being able to cook a meal over an open flame. Why take the easy way out by bringing a grill with you? With your campfire and some basic equipment, you can cook just about anything!

RV

The RV lifestyle has become very popular and is great for persons wanting to do some serious, long-term camping while enjoying some of the amenities of a home. But one is hardly necessary for a single camping excursion. It’s okay to camp the old-fashioned way by sleeping in a tent.

Air Mattress

It’s rather common for people to bring along an air mattress to sleep on in their tent. While this does add some comfort versus sleeping on the ground, isn’t the whole point of camping to reconnect with nature and escape the world of modern amenities? Unless you’re prone to serious back pain, a couple nights of sleeping on the ground won’t kill you. Think of it as a chance to reconnect with human history where sometimes sleeping on the ground was the only option.

Space Heater

If humanity survived thousands of years of evolution and sleeping outdoors without an electric space heater, you can too. Prepare by bringing adequate clothing (several thin layers is better than just a couple thicker layers) and sufficient blankets and sleeping bags. By doing this, you can leave the space heater at home.

Power Generator

If you’re going to go all the way out into the wilderness just so you can fire up a noisy generator and enjoy electricity, why not just stay at home? It’s entirely possible to sufficiently prepare for a camping trip that requires zero help from external electrical sources. You can do without a power generator on a leisurely camping trip.