If you’re in a state or national park, make sure that you’ve set up in a designated campsite. Often, these will be marked with numbered metal posts and will feature picnic tables, fire pits, and sometimes water spigots for using. If you’re backcountry camping, make sure that you follow the regulations for the park or nature reserve in which you’re camping. Different parks will have regulations about how close you’re allowed to camp to water, for example, or how close you can camp next to the trail. Wherever you’re camping, it’s always critical to avoid private property to avoid a rude awakening in the middle of your camping trip from an angry landowner. Never camp anywhere camping is not permitted.
Find higher ground on the site, if possible. If it rains, you don’t want to be at a lower point, to which water will run. For this reason, it’s a good idea to avoid dry creek beds, little divots, and hollows in the ground. You don’t want to wake up in a puddle.
Never camp under trees. If it’s raining, or threatening rain, it can be tempting to think that setting up under some tree cover would be a safe alternative. Unfortunately, this risks lightning and other hazards. A tent won’t stop a falling branch, should something happen. Set up well-clear of such hazards.
It’s also smart to place your tent upwind from your toilet area, if you’re going to be camping long term.
If you can, look for areas dense with pine needles, if you’re in an environment with fir trees. Pine needles can provide an excellent and soft natural mattress, which can help to keep your comfortable.
Fold the tarp according to the shape of the tent, but slightly smaller. If there’s any risk of rain, you don’t want any of the corners sticking out. Don’t worry about making it perfect, because you’ll be able to tuck them under after you put up the tent.
The tent itself, which should be made of vinyl, plastic, and other materials, with a zippered opening and opening flaps where the tent poles will be inserted. The rain fly, which might look similar to the size and shape of the tent, but without the zippered openings and flaps for the tent poles. This is used to secure over the tent and offer a barrier from the rain, if necessary. Tent poles, which are generally connected with bungee chords or other stretchy material to keep them matched, but might not be with older tent poles, which might need to be screwed together. At the very least, there will be at least two and as many as five or six different poles, which will be made of several foot-long segments. You shouldn’t need any tools to fix the tent poles together. [6] X Research source Stakes should be included to fix the tent to the ground, through small flaps at the base of the tent, and possibly on the rain fly. There should be between four and ten tent stakes. You might also want to include some kind of small hammer to fix them into the ground. Bungee ropes may also be included to fix the rain fly to the poles, or to fix the tent to the stakes. Each tent will be somewhat different.
Different tents might have a few different sizes of poles, so you’ll have to use your judgment to figure out which goes where, or consult the instructions. This can be the most difficult part of putting a tent together, if you don’t have the instructions, but try to hold up the tent to see the basic shape of it, so see where they should go.
When you’ve got the poles staked, you might want to fluff it gently and pull the poles out slightly to let everything settle. Again, all dome tents will be slightly different.
If you’re going to be sleeping in the tent immediately, you may choose to not stake it, especially if you’re in an area with lots of coverage and low wind. If you’re going hiking though, or the wind is up, it’s usually important to stake the tent to the ground so it doesn’t blow away.
Some people choose to not put the rain fly on the tent, if they’re sure it won’t rain while you’re camping. Some rain fly tarps will obscure your ability to see out the windows of the tent, which means you might leave it off it you want. It’s usually better to be on the safe side, though, and put it on. After you’ve got the tent up, fold the corners of the tarp up and under the tent to make sure it’s out of the way. Leaving any of it hanging out will promote water pooling underneath, if rains, so you want to make sure none of the tarp is showing.
