When you’re spending time in the outdoors, there’s nothing like ending the day relaxing in front of a campfire that you built yourself. Whether you’re cooking a quick dinner of hotdogs on a stick or roasting marshmallows for making s’mores or both, or just sipping on your favorite beverage and watching the flames and listening to the crackling of the fire, I think we can all agree sitting around a campfire at the end of the day completes your day like nothing else.
Putting together a good campfire to last as long as you want – now that gets tricky sometimes. Whether you’re the type of person who grabs a can of gasoline and throws it on a bunch of wood haphazardly thrown together (please don’t be this person), lights a match to it and singes your eyebrows or even worse hurts someone else, or a person who builds a solid foundation of kindling and dry wood safely, we’re going to go step by step to ensure you know How To Build The Perfect Campfire In An Outdoor Fire Pit.
Before I get into the steps, I want to talk about someone who many of us were introduced to when we were children, and that’s Smokey The Bear. Smokey was an icon for the USDA Forest Service and is the spokesperson (or spokesbear) for their wildfire prevention campaign and has been since 1944. As a child, I remember his catchphrase “Only YOU can prevent forest fires.” We can’t talk about building a safe campfire without getting Smokey involved. Because there’s so much more than grabbing some wood and matches. These steps may be simplistic and designed for children but I feel it goes for adults too.
So here I go with the steps:
1) Pick out your spot. For the sake of this blog post, we’re going to go with an already established fire pit, one that has already had a fire in it.
2) Make sure there aren’t any fire bans at the time. Weather conditions can get super dry in a hurry, especially if it’s windy or of course no rain for a while.
3) Make sure you have a bucket, a source of water, and a shovel with you.
4) NOW you can start to gather your materials for your fire. There are 3 types of materials you’ll need + your fire source:
- Tinder – this is your fire starter material. Stuff like newspaper, small twigs, and dry needles.
- Kindling – small sticks that are about 1” around that are dry (if you can snap the sticks in two easily then they are dry)
- Larger DRY pieces of wood. If you have to purchase bundles from a source that sells firewood, they will ensure the wood has been properly dried enough to have a campfire.
- Matches or a lighter
- One other important tool you’ll need is a fire poker – a long green (not dried out) stick from the woods or a fireplace poker so that you can move the wood around to ensure it gets enough air once you have it going.
5) Now it’s time to put your materials together to build your fire. There are 4 kinds of methods for building a fire. Two are for cooking – the Teepee and Lean-To method but the best technique for building a campfire are the criss-cross and log cabin methods which we’ll talk about here:
- Criss-cross method – it’s where you put your tinder loosely in the middle of the fire ring and criss-cross your kindling over the tinder.
- Log Cabin method – Surround your pile of tinder with kindling, stacking pieces at right angles. Top the “cabin” with the smallest kindling.
Don’t use all your tinder or kindling at this point because you’ll need more to feed your fire more before you add your bigger pieces of wood.
Both methods are good, but I prefer the criss-cross method for no good reason – it’s just how I’ve always built a fire.
6) At this point, you ignite your fire from the base of your tinder/kindling pile. If you are using a match be sure to throw it in the fire NOT outside of the fire. (this is how wildfires can start).
7) Keep adding tinder and kindling as the fire grows. If the fire needs a little air it’s ok to blow on it at this point.
8) Now it’s time to add the bigger pieces of firewood, one at a time, making sure each piece catches.
It’s important to mention here to keep your fire small and under control. Be sure small children and pets are supervised near the fire. And please do not throw anything like aerosol cans, aluminum cans, or glass in the fire.
Keep your fire poker handy to “move” the wood around safely in the fire pit to ensure it’s burning evenly and to prepare the fire when you add another block of wood.
Once your fire is going and is manageable, it’s a good time to break out the ingredients for your cookout if you’re going to have one or roasting marshmallows or making s’mores.
EXTINGUISHING THE FIRE
It’s always a good idea to let the fire burn down as much as possible before you extinguish it. When you’re ready to call it a night, NEVER leave the fire burning unattended. Take your fire poker and separate the wood chunks that are still burning. Spread the fire apart as best as you can. Then take your bucket of water and douse all the wood well until the hissing stops. Then take your shovel, stir the ashes, and bury the ashes as good as you can.
PACK IT IN, PACK IT OUT
It’s your responsibility to leave the area how you found it or better is the motto. And take your trash with you.
And remember, Smokey’s friends never play with matches, lighters, lighter fluid, or other flammable liquids.
If you’re planning a trip to the U.P. be sure to check out the Hideaway Tiny Cabin where you’ll have your own private fire ring in front of thecabin and the tinder and wood are included with your stay (so are ingredients to make your owns’mores)!
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More Later.