Planning your camping trip includes so many points to remember! Your long prep list includes everything that you should not forget: clothes, dishes, food, medicines, a first aid kit, and lots of other things. Among all these, one of the most important questions is how much water you need for camping!
There are two key points about taking water on your camping trip. The first one is to consider all the factors that can influence the amount of water you need for camping. The second one is to know the smart ways of packing water during the entire trip.
In this article, we will focus on how much water to bring when camping and how to store it.
How much water to bring when camping?
When planning your camping trip, consider the amount of water for all your needs. Keep in mind that you need some water for cooking, drinking, personal hygiene, cleaning up, and washing your dishes.
Besides, the amount of water you need varies on the weather conditions and your physical activities. Consider that you need different amounts of water for a car camping trip and a hiking trip. In addition, your watering needs depend on your age and weight as well.
So, let’s focus on how much water you need for a person per day on average for a typical camping trip.
How much water do you need to drink?
Most experts say that a healthy adult needs about half of a gallon of water every day. This is about two liters or 64 ounces. So, the recommendation is to take at least one gallon of water per person each day. However, this amount refers to the common needs of a person. So, what about a day of active camping?
On average, you need 2 gallons of water per person for each day. This amount includes all the needs mentioned above. As for this, you may calculate how much water you need for the trip. For example, for 4 days of camping, you need about 8 gallons for one person.
How much water to bring for adults?
On average, a healthy adult needs about 64 ounces of water, or about two liters, for each day of the trip. Thus, if you take two water carriers for 128 ounces each for car camping, it will be just enough for the entire group of adults!
Keep in mind that a teenager of 13 years and up needs as much water as an adult does. Although teenagers are not fully grown up, they require more water to keep their growing bodies hydrated and to help their brain work and develop properly.
How much water to bring for the children?
If you are going to travel with kids, take care of their hydration. As you can guess, children need to drink less water than adults.
The average amount of water for kids between ages 5 to 8 is about 1.5 liters each day. But remember that a camping trip includes some extra activities, so kids will need more water than for a usual day at home or school.
As children are active and curious, they just enjoy the trip, have fun and explore something new. So, they don’t care enough about their thirst. It means that you need to control their level of hydration, as it is the essential point.
According to Science Alert, the control mechanism of our body works with some lateness. In other words, the signal of thirst happens when our body has already started dehydrating. So, we need to control the actual hydration level beforehand. As for children, you should help them to be hydrated in time as they can forget about it.
Equip your kids with small bottles of drinkable water, so that you can be sure to keep them in tip-top shape.
How much water to bring for the dogs?
It is always a lot of fun to travel with your furry friend. Dogs are people’s best friends, so let them share some joy of camping trips. It is a good idea for some great outdoor activities, as your dog can play and run in the open fresh air and explore something new around.
As you can guess, active dogs need enough water to stay hydrated. However, the amount of water depends on your dog’s size, age, breed, and fitness level. So, be ready to calculate the proper amount of water for camping with a dog!
Generally, you need about 0.03 liters of water for each pound of your dog’s body weight. Hence, for a medium-sized dog of about 42 pounds weight, you need to take about 1.25 liters of water. No matter what weight your dog is, multiply the entire weight by 0.03 to calculate the proper amount of water.
Why is it important to be hydrated?
As the human body consists of water up to 60%, it is essential to keep it fit and hydrated. Even 1% of dehydration impacts our health and harms such points as memory, mental concentration, motor coordination, and mood in general. If you start dehydrating more than 1%, the situation just goes worse.
Keep in mind that our body needs enough water to function properly. So, control your hydration level and don’t allow dehydration to progress, as it can cause much long-term damage.
Dehydration symptoms
To check if your hydration level lowers, make sure that you have none of these symptoms:
- Your skin and lips get dry
- Less urinating
- The dark color of urine
- Headaches and migraines
- Dizziness
- Muscle cramps
- Fluttering, rapid heartbeat
- Rapid breathing
- Vomiting
- Fatigue
- Mind confusion
- Irritability
- Fainting
How do you stay hydrated while camping?
Now, when you know the amount of water you need to drink, you need to know how to provide yourselves with a proper water supply while camping.
The general recommendation is to take at least one gallon of potable water per person for each day of camping. However, in hot weather conditions, your water needs to increase, so the water to bring camping is about two gallons of water for a person.
Don’t forget that your water needs refer to the camping spot you are going to stay at and to the kind of activities you are going to take part in. Most outdoor activities require more energy than any other of your daily activities. The hot weather and direct sunlight make your body lose a lot of water.
However, even if it is cold outside, active camping makes you dehydrate much faster. So, take care of having enough potable water to restore the lost hydration when camping.
Calculate the amount of water you need for the entire trip. Consider if you have any spots for restoring your water reserves when camping.
Pack water in firmly closed or sealed water bottles, water jugs, and other handy containers. Remember that bottled water is hefty, and you need to arrange your backpack so that you can’t get tired too fast.
For the car campers, there are more possibilities to bring water for camping. You can pack more than one container of water and consider more water for different needs of water usage. Just avoid keeping all the water in one big water jug. Opt for a more economical decision and spread your water between medium-sized containers or several reusable water bottles.
How do backpackers carry extra water?
When planning a backpacking trip, it is important to arrange your belongings optimally. You have just a backpack to carry your garments, sleeping bag, personal hygiene items, and some other things. But there still should be some space to bring enough food and water. All this should be easy to carry during the entire hike. So, what can you do?
As for water supply, you can get the best option which is called a hydration backpack, a hydration bladder, or a camel bag. This is an extra part of your backpack that you can fill with water. It has a drinking tube that goes from the bag to your head. It is extra handy for drinking water while camping!
In addition, these smart hydration bags are the best for any trip! They work perfectly not only for hiking trips, but also for car camping. Even car campers feel the huge difference in the load they should carry. Moreover, these bags don’t cost much and are easily available. Just try it and enjoy all the benefits!
How much water do you need for a day hike?
For a full hiking day, you need at least half a gallon of water. Depending on how difficult your hike is and what is the weather you are hiking in, you may need even more.
The optimal choice is to take about 8 ounces of drinkable water for each hour of hiking. As it requires constant activity, you need to be fully hydrated all the way long.
A good rule of thumb is to arrange your hydration backpack with at least 67 ounces or 2 liters of water for each day. Choose a handy way of carrying water, using water bottles, water jugs, and some other containers. Just make sure they aren’t leaking and can’t damage your backpack when camping.
How much water should I bring on a 2-day backpacking trip?
In comparison to car camping trips, it is less convenient to carry water in the backpack. So, the amount of water should be less heavy as you can carry it easily.
If you are going to take a hiking tour, you need a gallon of water per person for a day. Hence, for a 2-day hike, you need 2 gallons of water in general.
How much water do I need for 4 days of camping?
According to the calculations above, you can easily calculate the amount of water you need for any long trip. The key point is how much water you need per person per day. Thus, for 4 days of camping, you should take about 4 gallons of water.
What about some other water needs?
Drinking water is one of the first points to think about to bring camping. Now you know for sure how to calculate the proper amount of water and how to pack it in the smartest ways.
But what if you need some more water? You can’t neglect such important points as cooking, cleaning, and personal hygiene. Of course, it depends on your trip details, but it is still an actual question to think of.
For car camping, it is much easier to take enough water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and personal hygiene needs. However, if you go hiking, you can carry less weight and have to be more creative with water to bring camping.
So, it is high time to consider some other water needs for backpacking trips and car camping.
Cooking and cleaning water
When car camping, you can take almost any food you wish. You can even take a mini-fridge to keep your food and water cool and fresh during the whole trip! However, for hiking trips, you should be more smart and practical with the food you will be able to cook.
Pasta, dried eggs, coffee, drink powders, and some other dehydrated food are easy to carry and quick to cook. So, aren’t they the best options for camping? Yes, they are closely the best kinds of food for traveling… except for requiring some more water to cook and brew.
So, think of the pros and cons of dehydrated food. Keep in mind that lightweight and space-saving kinds of food just require additional water for cooking.
If you can use alternative methods for cleaning up your dishes, it will help you to save some space you may need for extra water.
A good rule of thumb is to have a water purifier if you plan to restore your water reserves during the whole trip. Taking water from streams, rivers and waterfalls are not safe enough, especially for cooking and drinking water. We will talk about this point a bit further.
Personal hygiene water
As for car campers, there are no problems with having enough water for personal hygiene. For those who travel in the RV, there is the luxury of having sinks and showers! Nevertheless, for the hikers, it is still a problem to pack water for all their needs, including their cleaning up.
On average, you need at least 72 ounces of water for personal hygiene per day: 8 ounces for brushing your teeth and 64 ounces for washing your body. If you need some water for shaving, consider this small amount as well if you have no alternative water sources.
Car camping trips give you the possibility to use a portable shower while camping. On average, a portable shower requires about 2 gallons of water to fill. So, in general, for each day of camping, you may need 3 or 4 gallons of clean water.
There are still some alternative hygiene items such as wet wipes or sanitizers that you can use for some needs.
A few words about the water safety
When your water supplies run out while long camping, it is an extra problem for you. Even car campers can face this situation. That’s why you have to get more water from streams, waterfalls, and some other natural sources. But as you can guess, it can be not safe enough to use this water without extra purifying.
So, what to do and how to clean your water if it is not clean enough? And what are the smartest decisions for the water containers you bring camping?
1. Boiling water
The oldest and easiest way to clean the water is to boil it. Just fill a fireproof container with water. Light a fire and wait until the water inside starts boiling. The only drawback is when you boil water, it is too hot, and you can’t use it immediately.
2. Filtering water
A smart way to clean the stream water is to use a water filter. If you are not sure that the closest stream can’t provide you with clean drinking water, portable water filters are here to help you with purifying water.
No matter how you are traveling, this is still a good option to have a portable water filter with you. If you are not sure that you can drink water from the streams in the national parks, it is better to clean it with a water filter. Moreover, you can fill your water jugs with filtered water and make more reserves for your long trip!
3. Portable water purifiers
Have you ever heard about small tablets that you can add to the water to purify it? They are more space-saving than water filters and work well to purify any questionable water. Even for the short hikes to the national parks, it is still a good idea to have these tablets with you.
The most common types of portable water purifiers are iodine and chlorine water purifier tablets. However, note that you can’t use iodine tablets for children or pregnant women. Opt for chlorine tablets if you need them, as they are suitable for everyone.
4. Eco-friendly packing
Many backcountry campers prefer to take reusable water bottles for camping. Keep in mind that buying lots of new bottles for each trip is a bit pricey, and disposing of bottles when camping is not eco-friendly. So, you can just clean these bottles well after using them, and then use them again for the next trip!
Final thoughts
As you can see, planning a good trip includes lots of points, such as the amount of water per person for each day, the list of needs for water, the smart ways to carry water, the eco-friendly decisions for cleaning water, and the awareness of dehydration.
I hope that my smart tips will help you for the next camping trip to stay clean and hydrated.
Read also: Some useful tips for camping without electricity
Your Turn
How much water do you usually bring with you when camping? Share your experience in the comments below.
My name is Olivia Kellison. I have been camping with friends and on my own for a long time. For me, camping is a great way to escape everyday life’s chaos. I started this blog because I have always had a passion for the great outdoors, and here I am gladly sharing what I know with other outdoor enthusiasts. It does not matter whether you are an experienced adventurer, or just planning your first trip, my blog will be of great help to you.