Outfitted: Campsite Comfort

Summer camping in the mountains is all fun and games until you realize the campsite still needs a little strategy. The days can be hot and dusty, the nights can still get chilly, and the afternoon forecast has a charming little habit of throwing in wind or rain right when you’re lighting the stove. That’s also what makes summer car camping so good: you can keep things simple, bring a few comfort upgrades and make camp feel less like survival cosplay and more like a place you actually want to linger. Here are six items that earn their space when the goal is good food, cold drinks, cozy evenings and staying outside a little longer.

1. Therm-a-Rest Honcho Poncho

The Honcho Poncho is my favorite kind of camping item: the one that solves multiple problems without trying to be precious. It’s an insulated poncho that doubles as a blanket, which means you can wear it while you’re cooking dinner, then wrap up in it by the fire without changing anything. It uses eraLoft synthetic insulation and a 20-denier polyester ripstop shell, so it’s built for damp shoulder-season air. Size-wise, it’s tent-like, as ponchos tend to be (about 79 by 56 inches), but it packs down reasonably for how much warmth it brings. Available in multiple colors. $160, CascadeDesigns.com.

2. Owala FreeSip Sway 40 oz.

Hydration is the least glamorous part of camping, which is exactly why a bottle that’s easy to use matters. The Owala FreeSip Sway is cup holder-friendly, leak-proof and designed to keep drinks cold for up to 24 hours. It includes Owala’s signature FreeSip spout with a built-in straw that lets you sip or chug. The 40-ounce size is the right call for camp because you can fill it once and stop thinking about it, and the handle makes it easy to carry around while you’re juggling everything else. If you’re bouncing between sun and sudden cold, having ice water that stays ice water is a weirdly satisfying luxury, especially when the campsite is dusty or the hike is windy and dry. Available multiple colors. $45, OwalaLife.com.

3. Yeti Trailhead Camp Chair

If you’ve ever tried to “make do” with a flimsy camp chair in varying ground conditions, you know the ending: cold legs, weird posture and the feeling that your chair is slowly losing the will to live. The Yeti Trailhead Camp Chair is the opposite. It uses Yeti’s FlexGrid fabric designed to conform and eliminate pressure points, and it supports up to 500 pounds. The crossover frame makes set-up easy and the included bag has backpack straps for easy transport. It’s far from the lightest chair out there, but that’s not the assignment. This is the chair you bring when you want to actually sit by the fire, eat comfortably, linger over coffee and not stand up feeling like you just did a core workout you didn’t sign up for. $300, Yeti.com.

4. MSR Alpine Deluxe Kitchen Set

Having to dig in the bottomless pit of the kitchen bin for that one knife while saying, “I know it’s in there somewhere,” can seriously mess with your camping mojo. The Alpine Deluxe Kitchen Set is a full utensil kit that’s designed to keep essentials tidy and easy to find in one go: a cutting board, tools for stirring and flipping, a salt and pepper shaker, a kitchen knife, a dish towel and a few other little essentials. The whole set packs down into a compact case, which is totally reasonable for car camping and still manageable if you’re building a longer road-trip kit. This is the set that keeps you from swearing off camping forever just because you can’t find that tiny bottle of olive oil you swear you packed the night before. $73, CascadeDesigns.com.

5. Benchmade Osborne knife

A good pocketknife is one of those camping things that quietly does a hundred jobs, and the Benchmade Osborne is a classic for a reason. The 940 Osborne has a 3.4-inch stainless steel blade and anodized aluminum handles, and it’s built to be slim in the pocket while still feeling sturdy in hand. I like a knife like this for everyday camp tasks: opening food packaging, trimming cord, fixing small gear annoyances and dealing with the endless parade of tags, tape and plastic that comes with new equipment. It’s the tool you reach for without thinking, which is exactly what you want when your hands are cold and the light is fading. $300, Benchmade.com.

6. Travoca Rigel 35 Dual Zone eCooler and Vega 1500 Power Station

This combo is for the camper who is done with ice runs, soggy food and playing the “is this still safe?” game with raw meat on day two. The Rigel 35 is a dual-zone electric cooler that can run as fridge/freezer or fridge/fridge, with independently controlled zones and a temperature range down to -4 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a 35-liter capacity, and the specs are legitimately impressive: about 25.8 by 16.9 by 17.7 inches, roughly 51.6 pounds, and it cools fast (Travoca says it can go from 79 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit in about 20 minutes). It’s also rated around 48 decibels, which matters when you’re trying to enjoy a quiet campsite and not listen to a loud compressor all night. Add in the vacuum-insulated panel build, and it starts to feel less like a luxury gadget and more like a real solution for messy weather and longer trips. 

Powering it is where the Vega 1500 comes in. The Vega 1500 is a 1,536Wh LiFePO4 power station with 1,800W output and three AC ports, plus USB-A, USB-C and a car-style port, so it can handle the cooler and still keep phones, lights and small camp appliances going. Travoca lists an input power of 1,500W and a battery designed for up to 4,000 charge cycles, which is the kind of detail that makes it feel like a long-term buy instead of a one-season fling. On the cooler page, Travoca even estimates about 18 hours of runtime off a 1,500Wh power station, which is a helpful reality check for planning. The best part is psychological: once you know your food and drinks are handled, camp gets easier. You stop opening the lid every 10 minutes and you stop reorganizing ice packs like it’s Tetris. The price tag for this set-up is not for the faint of heart, but it’s worth it for peace of mind and a healthy tummy when it comes to busting out the chicken strips you packed the day before. $750 for the cooler + $1000 for the power station, Travoca.com.

Meg Simon is an Aspen-based freelance writer, graphic designer and founder of Simon Finch Creative. She can be reached at meg@simonfinchcreative.com.