Solo camping can provide relaxation, self-discovery, and connection with nature through different activities.
It’s more than sleeping in a tent in a rural area.
If you’re making a list of fun activities, add the following ideas for a memorable camping trip.
1. Hiking and Exploring
Hiking is the best adventure to test your physical ability and explore nature along the way.
It also enhances your mindfulness with great eye-catching views, fresh air, and great encounters with humans, animals, and great places.
I often hike for a few miles, let’s say 6 – 8 miles. What I target is not to take more than 40 minutes per mile as there are lots of things to do in the journey.
Depending on their fitness and trail terrain, beginners can also walk 3 – 8 miles.
If you want to take a 5-mile roundtrip hike, that will be proportionate to 2.5 miles for going up and coming down equally.
First-time hikers can start with 25 minutes per mile on a safe route without straying from the trail. The duration exceeds if the elevation rises.
2. Wildlife Watching
After leaving home, you will be thrilled to see wild animals in their natural habitat. Unlike in a zoo, you may witness how wildlife operates.
If you have binoculars, you can see birds and animals more lively.
It would be more memorable if you could capture the moment for later watch. In this case, your high-resolution mobile phone or camera can help.
But be careful not to go near the animals to disturb their habitat. It might also be dangerous for you if they come to attack you.
3. Fishing in Peace
Oh, come on! Your camping trip will be incomplete if you miss fishing out there.
Fishing is an act of keeping patience and a matter of skill.
Camping near the stream, lake, and pond allows you to enjoy fishing for a long time. Fish often come out for food at dawn or dusk.
So, you need to prepare fishing gear and bait before the water gets warm.
You’ll be more happy to make breakfast or dinner out of the caught fish. Roosted fish with a beer under the open sky outdoors is nothing but a moment of heavenly experience.
4. Photography and Nature Sketching
I often capture scenic landscapes such as hills, mountains, trees, wildlife, and local cultures through photography for my blogs and stories.
Night photography is one of the dream acts for every camper. For this, you need good practice. If you have a digital camera with a wide-angle lens, this is more than magic.
But smartphones also produce decent pictures these days.
Besides, some artistic minds prefer sketching nature for their art collection. Many believe camping provides lively moments to frame through art.
5. Reading and Journaling
I don’t boast that I am a bookworm but a decent reader. Whenever I travel, I have at least one book with me.
Reading books has the advantage that the characters are made of thoughts of your own.
And reading in the lap of nature, for example, at the bank of a river, under a tree, or on the open grass meadow, is more joyful than reading under four walls.
If you have no room for books in your backpack, try an e-reader for peaceful reading.
Before the internet or mobile phone world, journaling was a great pastime activity for people. It still relates to people.
Journal writing can reflect the raw experience of your traveling, including your camping experience.
6. Campfire Cooking Experiments
Campfire is the soul of camp life. Singing, dancing, and playing games around the campfire are beyond the expression of words.
But campfire cooking is more fun.
You can try different campfire recipes for yourself. If you’re only a beginner, I suggest you make some simple dishes such as foil packet meals, roasted veggies, and marshmallow variations.
Also, be careful while placing and moving firewood.
7. Meditation and Yoga in Nature
Solo traveling helps you explore more of yourself. A quiet, tranquil, and undisturbed environment is perfect for meditation and yoga.
And camping provides individuals with a natural or urban setting to hold peace and meditate.
You can perform it sitting on the bank of the river or rock cliff. Lotus and kneeling are the best positions to start.
You may need a mat and a flat surface for yoga. Hikers and backpackers can do a hero pose, standing quad stretch, puppy pose, or thread the needle.
These activities not only make your body flexible but also detox your mind with freshness and positivity for a new journey.
8. DIY Bushcraft and Survival Skills Practice
Solo camping is best to taste your basic survival skills fire-starting, shelter building, and knot tying.
Are you ready to explore the hidden abilities within yourself?
You can start practicing bushcraft techniques to improve self-reliance. For example, making a wooden spear helps in hunting and fishing for food.
Besides, the skilled campers can create several useful tools like a multi-tool or paracord.
So, it becomes easier for you to live camp life for a long time without readymade food if you know the bushcraft and survival skills.
9. Foraging for Edible Plants
While foraging, campers need to identify the edibles, harvest them sustainably or without harm, and keep the environment undisturbed.
Acons, blackberries, prickly pear cactus, and cattails are common edible plants in different camping regions.
But you must avoid plants with milky sap, spines, or fine hairs.
Disclaimer: Double-check plant safety before consuming. To be the safer side, only eat food that you bring along with you from home or the market.
I don’t recommend foraging the wood for food until you are knowledgeable about edibles and toxins in the wild.
10. Listening to Nature Sounds and Music
We oftentimes forget how birds chirp, and animals communicate in the cities.
Only rural settings make us realize that nature has sweeter sounds or music than recorded human songs.
The flow of the river, falling leaves, rainfall, waterfalls, wind chimes, and insects can produce soothing sounds that have therapeutic effects.
You will be amazed listening to forest sounds while sleeping in the tent at night.
Also, you can record the sound of nature and save it as a memory of the trip.
11. Water Activities
Many campers set up their tent near stream, river, lake or pond as they know that water is the source of life.
You can get food and drink from the water and have fun in the water as well.
Campers have several water activities while camping near lakes or rivers. Canoeing is perfect if you have a kayak or paddleboard.
I cannot tell you the feeling of relaxation of floating on calm waters. Also, your heart races while boating on the strong currents.
If not, you can have fun swimming, at least. Make sure you’re skilled, and don’t go too far in the water if you cannot return, as you’re camping solo.
12. Crafting with Natural Materials
My grandpa used to make chains out of lotus for me and my siblings. He taught me several craft ideas, and I still know most of them.
You can try making bracelets and rings using flowers and long grass leaves. Craving wood and weaving grass are lovely ideas.
This will not only increase your creativity but also bring your long-lost childhood nostalgia.
It’s beyond words to express the joy of creating something out of found objects.
You can even turn these crafts into souvenirs from the trip.
13. Rock Balancing and Nature Art
These days, rock balancing is a new form of art that has taken the Internet by storm. I often find people balancing stones or rocks near the near in the video reels.
This tastes your patience and consistency.
You have to stake the rocks repeatedly until they are finally set.
Besides, you can also arrange leaves, twigs, and flowers into creative patterns.
Then, take pictures of your creations as a memory of your trip.
14. Cloud Watching and Daydreaming
Sometimes, it’s fun to do nothing, only watch things passing by.
Have you ever watched a clear sky, then filled with clouds, and daydreamed yet?
It’s so relaxing to lie back on the meadow and observe cloud formations, and imagining different shapes and figures in the sky.
You can use this time to reflect your thoughts or creativity.
If you feel good, journaling your thoughts can make it even more fulfilling.
15. Creating a Nature Time-Lapse
Though it’s battery consuming to record the lengthy movement and process, the visuals with time lapse are amazing to watch.
For this, your camera or phone needs to be established in a stable place.
A sunrise, sunset, or moving clouds are common ideas for making nature time-lapse videos.
After hitting the record button, you can do other activities. When the desired moment is captured, you can edit and use it as a personal keepsake.
Or share it on social media.
Final Thoughts
It’s not necessary to go on a 3-day camping if you don’t have a longer vacation.
I started a one-day camping trip, usually on Sunday. So I could return home and join the office the next day.
You can have plenty of activities based on your interest, even on a one-day solo camping trip.
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