Canoe Camping Vacation

A canoe camping trip that combines tent-camping overnights with a canoe as vehicle-of-choice by day is a sure way to pack extra fun, exercise, adventure, relaxation and scenic beauty into any camping vacation.

Why Canoe?

If your dream excursion is a face-to-face, high-sensation encounter with all that nature has to offer, a canoe camping trip is for you. There's not much better than guiding a 16-foot aluminum canoe down a rushing - or even quietly flowing - stream through a wooded wilderness as the morning sun breaks through the trees.

Canoe camping is beginner-friendly, and astonishingly inexpensive. It requires very few skills and little gear beyond what's prudent for typical camping trips and equipment. Riverfront or shoreline campsites can be as cheap as nothing at all to $5 or $10 a night. Canoe camping with friends or family makes the adventure livelier and even less expensive.

Transporting your camping gear on a canoe camping trip is so easy, you may never backpack again! The typical two-person aluminum canoe can easily carry close to 500 pounds of "stuff" - although, remember, the more you bring, the more you must haul off-board, pack up and haul back on-board when you break camp in the morning. Just because you can haul more on a canoe camping trip, doesn't mean you should.

Because you're traveling relatively slowly, you'll see much more of the countryside's scenery and wildlife in a canoe camping trip than you'll see when using a car, truck, RV or other motor vehicle to transport you from campsite to campsite.

How To Plan Your Canoe Camping Trip

As with any new venture, planning ahead is the key to your enjoyment.

1. If someone in your party (including you!) is new to canoeing, by all means, take a short test run on a nearby stream or small river. Practice paddle-handling, especially turning and banking. Get in and out of the canoe, and load and unload it. If possible, spend at least one night camping on your dry run, to get an idea of what gear and supplies you can leave behind on a longer trip, and what items you absolutely can't live without.