How to Build the Ideal Campfire – Part II

Gather Around a Great Campfire

In Part I of this series on how to create the ideal campfire, we spent most of our time looking at site preparation and planting a good foundation for the fire. Up to this stage, you should have a neat, shallow, but large hole in the ground surrounded by rocks, as well as a pile of dirt nearby and a bucket of water for fire extinguishing.

In this article, we’ll finally get down to the fire itself, taking advantage of our well-place foundation to make one spectacular (and practical) campfire.

Keep in mind the tools to have handy: A bucket of water, a shovel, matcher/lighter.

First, you’re going to need to gather wood, but before you even do that, you have to know what kind of wood to look for.

Understand the ideal structure of a fire: a lower layer of tinder, such as dry grass or shredded paper, a middle layer of small sticks, and an upper layer of larger wood that will keep you fire going. When you look for wood, you’re going to have to look for all three different types in order to structure your fire properly.

Gather these types of wood, avoiding “alive” limbs and branches as much as possible – they don’t burn as well as dead or “free” wood. Gather more than you think you need, because there’s a good chance you might underestimate how far your wood will stretch.

Once you have plenty of each type of wood (you’ll particularly want plenty of small sticks for the middle layer), it’s time to build the structure itself. A tee pee shape is usually recommended, especially if you have longer sticks that can stretch out for a nice, wide fire. This structure allows you to easily pile tinder low and place sticks over it, allowing the wood to rest on other pieces of wood.

This shape is also ideal because it will allow plenty of air for the fire to consume and a natural progression of tinder to wood that makes for a quick-developing, long-lasting fire.

Once you have plenty of tinder and your structure in place, simply light a match or hit a lighter and get your tinder burning well. The fire from your tinder should be in direct contact with the smaller sticks of the next layer, which in turn should start burning and heating the larger logs.

Before you know it, you’ll have a great campfire that burns high, wide, and long! Set a cooking tripod over it for well-cooked hot dogs or find some more branches for roasting marshmellows, and enjoy.

Photo Credits: independentman

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