Backpacking Campsite Selection

A tent cannot fix a bad site. The ground around it decides whether you stay dry, sleep flat, lose food to an animal, or wake beneath a falling branch.

Choose camp in this order: legal, safe, durable, then comfortable.

Start with the local rules

Find the land manager’s current rules before the trip. They may set permit zones, named camps, setbacks from water and trail, food storage, group size, fire limits, and closures.

Do not carry one park’s distance rule into another wilderness. For example, Desolation Wilderness calls for at least 100 feet between camp and lakes, streams, or trails, while other parks use different distances.¹ The local rule wins.

When designated sites exist, use them. In dispersed areas, look for an established site or a durable surface such as bare soil, rock, gravel, sand, or snow. Avoid plants and meadows. Repeated steps do more harm than one tent floor, so keep cooking and social time on durable ground too.²

Scan for danger before comfort

Stop and walk the full site without the pack.

Look up for dead branches, cracked trunks, leaning trees, and trees that could reach the tent if they fall. Look uphill for loose rock, avalanche paths, and steep slopes. Look downhill for cliffs. Read the ground for dry washes, flood channels, old water lines, and low bowls that collect rain.

Avoid exposed peaks and ledges when wind or lightning may arrive. The National Park Service also warns against dead trees, ravines that can flood, and low ground that holds water.³

Notice escape paths. A gravel bar may look flat and open, but rising water can cut it off. A sheltered hollow may block wind but collect cold air. A stand of trees may slow wind but add falling-limb risk.

Fit the shelter to the ground

Lay down where each sleeper’s torso will go. A slight slope feels larger after several hours. Put heads uphill. Move a few feet instead of digging, trenching, cutting plants, or building a platform.

Check the tent footprint, doors, guylines, and cooking area before staking. Keep the stove away from the shelter and anything dry enough to burn. Follow the local food-storage plan and keep cooking smells away from sleep.

Wind should meet the shelter as its maker intends. Many tents put the narrow or low end into the expected wind. Do not assume: practice with that model and read its instructions.

The five-minute drill

Practice near home:

Pick a legal patch large enough for the shelter.
Name three hazards before unpacking.
Mark sleep, cooking, water, and food-storage areas.
Pitch without moving rocks or plants.
Pour a bottle of water uphill and watch where it runs.
Pack the site until no small item remains.

Repeat once after dark with headlamps. Work calmly and catch every hazard.

Leave the site when

Move before pitching if you find a dead limb above the tent, a flood channel, unstable rock, exposed high ground during a storm cycle, active wildlife conflict, or no legal durable surface.

Move after pitching if wind changes make the shelter unsafe, water begins to pool or rise, a tree starts shedding limbs, fire or smoke threatens the basin, or an animal keeps testing camp. Sunk effort does not make the site better.

Use backpacking shelter pitching to make a sound site weather-ready. leave no trace backpacking covers how to use the place without widening it.

Go Deeper

NPS: Finding and Setting Up a Campsite — A broad safety scan and camp layout.
Leave No Trace: Durable Surfaces — How use changes soil and plants.
The Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide by Andrew Skurka — Connects campsite choice to weather, shelter, insects, and sleep.

Sources

Recreation.gov, “Desolation Wilderness Permit”, accessed July 20, 2026. ↩
National Park Service, Grand Teton Backcountry Camping, guidance on durable surfaces. ↩
National Park Service, “Finding and Setting Up a Campsite”, accessed July 20, 2026. ↩