The Classic Campfire Mistake All Beginners Make

A campfire is an integral part of the whole camping experience. They provide heat, light, comfort, ambience, and allow the cooking of great campfire meals. So, odds are as the sun begins to set and you're preparing to overnight outdoors, you can't wait to build that perfect campfire. However, sometimes anxious exuberance can lead to a rushed effort to create a campfire, which is a classic campfire mistake many beginners — and even some experienced campers — make.

Even in perfect conditions, building a campfire takes time. For a fire to light and stay lit, the building process should be done in a series of stages or steps, from easy-to-light tinder and building on all the way through to full logs. All too often, campers want to skip those early stages, which are actually the foundation of building a good campfire, and go straight to lighting larger sticks or logs. Odds are, even if a bit of a log catches aflame, it will be only temporary. The only way to ensure your campfire stays lit is to progress through each stage, allowing your campfire to build slowly, not rushing or skipping any of the steps.

Part of the time required to build a solid campfire involves gathering the right materials for each of three primary stages. The first requires tinder — tiny, easily lit materials such as pine needles, dried grass, cotton balls, fire starters, dry bark, or wood shavings. Next, add kindling: dry, slender twigs and sticks. These can range from the diameter of a pencil to about that of a broom handle. The third and final step is the firewood itself, also known as fuel logs. These, too, can vary in size.

It is critical you have all the materials gathered before attempting to start your campfire. This allows you to add successive materials at the right time so as to keep the fire steadily growing. Not having all your materials at the ready before striking a match is another huge campfire mistake to avoid.

Once all the materials are ready, select your campfire site and create a pile of loose tinder in the middle of it. Then, build a small teepee or pyramid of kindling over the tinder, centered above the tinder. Do not put too many sticks or place them too close together, or your tinder will not receive ample airflow to stay lit. Next, light the tinder. As the flame begins to catch the kindling, add successively bigger sticks of kindling. When the kindling is burning well, begin placing individual pieces of firewood, beginning with the smallest and driest. Allow each piece to adequately catch fire before adding the next. Placing a log too quickly or going with too large of a log will almost inevitably smother the flame, and not fully ignite the large log.