3 Easy Ways to Build a Campfire

By Kathy Burns-Millyard

If you're going on a camping trip with your family, the one thing everyone is sure to be looking forward to is having a roaring campfire. If you've never built one before though, you might not know exactly how to get a campfire going nicely. So let's look at three easy ways to do this.

Before starting your campfire, you'll want to clear a space on the ground. If you're camping in a place which already has a campfire pit, you can skip this part. Otherwise, you'll need to clear an area of any brush, weeds, or other dried twigs to be sure it's as safe as you can get it.

Once you have an area cleared, you might also want to surround it with rocks. It's also helpful to dig a small pit in the cleared area. Both of these steps also help contain the campfire and help to prevent forest or brush fires.

Once you have your campfire pit ready, you'll want to start building the fire itself. Here are three easy ways to do that:

1. Create a Teepee. First make a small pile of fire kindling in the center of your pit. Kindling is anything small and dry such as pine needles, and tiny twigs. Then around and above your kindling pile, lean small sticks against each other in an Indian TeePee shape. Light the kindling, and once it starts burning, it should easily catch the TeePee twigs on fire too. Then you simply keep adding wood!

2. Create a Log Cabin. To make a log cabin campfire, you again start with a small pile of kindling in the middle of your firepit. Then you lay out twigs and sticks in a square shape around the kindling pile. With a log cabin style campfire, you'll need to make sure you're laying your cabin sticks close enough to the kindling for them to light. Once you have small "walls" for your cabin built up several inches, light the kindling. As that catches on, it should also light the twigs and sticks from your "cabin".

3. Make a Wagon Wheel. With a wagon wheel campfire, you're again starting out with a small pile of kindling in the center of your fire pit. Then you lay your twigs and sticks across the top, intersecting each other in a way that makes the wood look like the spokes on a wagon wheel. After the wood catches, you'll want to move the longer pieces of your "wheel" in closer to the center so they can burn full.

So there you have it. Three easy ways to build a great campfire! Now that you know the simple ways to do this, you'll enjoy your next family camping, hiking or trekking trip all the more.

© 2007, Kathy Burns-Millyard. Kathy is a professional writer and freelance commercial photographer who lives in Southeast New Mexico, and enjoys camping and hiking with her family during her free time. For more excellent information on having a blast with hiking, trekking and adventure travel, please visit DoHiking.com

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