Do you have to cancel your whole camping plan just because the weather suddenly got a bit moody? We don’t think it’s worth it. If you follow some tips for camping in the rain and gather the necessary gear, you’ll have a wonderful experience camping in the rain.
For successful camping, you need to find a suitable location (avoid lower levels) and set up your waterproof tent with proper air ventilation. Use polypropylene jackets and trousers to stay dry. Wear wool clothes with an extra blanket to keep warm and dry. But don’t eat and cook at the same place. You can also arrange some indoor games to play while enjoying the rain.
These amazing tips and tricks will help you enjoy camping like a pro. You won’t have to cancel your camp plan because of the rain anymore!
Is Camping in The Rain A Good Idea?
Camping in rainy weather – does it sound too insane to camp when people don’t even consider going outside? We say it doesn’t!
You can deal with rain while camping with proper gear and some suggestions like how to set up a tent in the rain, what clothes you should use, how to stay dry, and so on. That’s why it’s a good idea to learn the tricks through this article and make your camping trip enjoyable.
44 Amazing Tips to Enjoy Hassle-Free Camping in Rainy Days
When you are done with all the usual preparations for camping, you need to follow some extra tips to deal with this rainy weather situation. Even if you are a newbie, you can manage camping without messing up by following them correctly.
So, let’s break into the 44 amazing tips for camping in the rain without hassles. Here we go!
1. Good Location
It’s the first and foremost rule of every camping trip to find a good location to set up the tent. But in rainy seasons, you have to be more serious and find a proper one.
Your campsite should not be near a river or lake or waterfalls. Make sure you set the tent in uphill areas. Believe us, you don’t want to wake up floating in water inside your tent because of last night’s flood.
2. Check Everything on Gear List
You should double-check every gear and tick off every essential item from your camping in the rain checklist before leaving.
In the gear list, almost all the items are necessary, and you may have some troubles if you forget any. For example, if you don’t bring any lighter or matches, you have to spend the whole camping time without lighting a fire to stay warm.
3. Weather Forecast
Obviously, you have to check the weather forecast of your campsite before leaving your house. Keep it under continuous monitoring because the weather can change frequently and turn into some natural disaster.
It’s most evident in mountain areas where weather is unpredictable. If the forecast announces a dry day in the rainy season, you should bring your rain gear for camping just in case.
4. Tent Position with The Wind
Alongside the location, you need to set the tent in a position where wind can pass through easily. Place your tent at a place where it faces the sun in the morning to coax out yourself from laziness.
And the most important thing – don’t choose the campsite under a tree. That’s because heavy rain during the night can break the branches and they may fall over your tent.
5. Use Extra Tarps to Stay Grounded
While setting the tent, put a tarp below it and another for the tent floor for extra protection. If one layer gets cracked or damaged, you won’t have any water sneaking through your tent floor.
6. Try to Stay Dry While Setting the Camp
Don’t make your tent and its surroundings messy while pitching the tent. What would be the benefit if you and your belongings get wet in the first place? So, staying dry is one of the basics of camping in the rain.
That’s why you should keep the gears in a dry place or use extra tarps to wrap them. Then, you can pitch the tent and also ensure that you stay dry. You can wait for some time until the downpour pauses.
7. Avoid Wetting the Tent
Keep your tent dry always, and don’t let anything make it wet. Do you want to spend your camping time in a damp and smelly tent? If not, then keep your wet clothes, shoes, or gear outside of the tent at all times.
8. Use Waterproof Tent Cover
Sometimes the tent itself isn’t enough to protect you from the rain. It would be disastrous if your only shelter tears apart because of heavy rain. You can also use a waterproof tarp over your tent to avoid water getting inside.
9. Make A Covered Entrance
It’s a wise idea to avoid wet tents. This will give you enough space to take off your wet clothes or dirty/muddy shoes. A covered area at the entrance will keep the rain long away.
If you’re a new camper and don’t know how to tent a camp in the rain, you can buy a special tent that has an awning. You can also use a pop-up canopy to create a dry place at the entrance.
10. A Rug for Tent Entry
It’s really annoying when you make the entrance too dirty with mud and water. And the dirt won’t stop at the door. It will gradually make your tent muddy. So, it’s best if you put a rug or some old towel right in front of your tent.
It will be super easy for you to mop the entry to the tent and keep it cleaner and dryer. Having a rug with an awning will allow you to get rid of the worst mud and water outside your tent.
11. Hammock Is A Good Choice for Rain Camping
You may think how a hammock can be a good choice for camping while raining! Well, it helps you stay high from the ground, and you won’t need to worry about extra tarps, tent seals, etcetera.
You just need to use the waterproof tarp over your hammock, and you and your gears will stay dry for a long time.
12. Bring Seam Sealer
The seam sealers are the best way to prevent water from entering your tent. You can find some pre-sealed tents in the market, but they are not correctly sealed most of the time.
So, if you want to avoid getting water into your tent, bring some seam sealers with you and repair the seams if needed.
13. Proper Air Ventilation
When the rain pauses or stops for some time, let the air out from the tent. Otherwise, the moisture will get trapped inside the tent because of temperature differences, making all the other things damp.
So, open up the vents and the windows when the sun comes up or rain stops. Let the tent breathe for a moment, and that’s how you dry a tent.
14. Watch Out Your Trails
On rainy days, the roads and walking areas become slippery and muddy. You need to stay careful while walking on those trails, especially when you and your buddies are camping in mountain areas.
You or your buddies don’t want some head or leg injuries on a camping trip to ruin your whole experience!
15. Avoid Tent Borders
If your campsite is in a region where the temperature goes really low while raining, you need to be extra careful. Your rain tent borders will deceive you by cooling all the gears, foods, water, clothes, and others that come in touch with it.
That’s why try as much as you can to avoid the tent borders.
16. Use Ziplock Bags To Keep Your Gears Dry
Don’t forget about your gears while pitching the tent or starting a campfire. Your priority is keeping your belongings dry and safe from the beginning.
For example, your clothes may get wet when you are busy doing other work. Believe us, camping in a thunderstorm without warm garments isn’t a pretty experience. So, you can use Ziploc bags for every item on your checklist, and your backpack should be waterproof.
17. Avoid Cotton Clothes
To put it simply, cotton clothes are banned for camping in the rain. There are four reasons for that:
- They get damp easily
- They don’t dry quickly even while not raining
- They are not lightweight like nylon or synthetic materials
- They can’t provide enough warmth on a freezing night
So, you should avoid bringing cotton clothes on rainy camping.
18. Always Pack Extra Clothes
Unlike the regular camping days, you can’t bring one pair of clothes per day. Getting wet in the rain is pretty normal while camping in the monsoon. In the worst situation, you may need two or three pairs of clothes per day if you need to go outside of the tent repeatedly.
Bring some extra clothes so that you can handle any wet situation perfectly.
19. Get Plenty of Spare Socks
On rainy days, you have the most trouble with your feet, like walking on muddy roads, walking in wet pants and socks. So, if you spend the whole day in a single pair of socks, your feet will be in the worst condition.
Bring lots of extra socks and keep your feet dry as much as possible.
20. Waterproof Jackets and Trousers
It will be lifesaving if you pack some waterproof jackets and trousers that are special rainy day clothes. They will protect you from getting wet because of rain.
Whenever you are working on the tent or collecting some wood or setting your camp, you can just wear jackets and trousers to stay dry.
21. Gaiters Are Day Saver
The gaiters are mainly used to walk in trails during rainy days. So, you should bring a pair while camping.
Your pants and shoes can get wet while walking on a camp road or due to morning dew and wet leaves. So, wearing gaiters will save your feet from water and mud. It also helps to walk on slippery roads.
22. Dry the Wet Clothes
If you get wet during tent camping in the rain, you shouldn’t spend hours in wet clothes. You have to change your clothes immediately after you are done with the work.
You can’t bring unlimited clothes with you. So, whenever the sun peeks for a little while, quickly hang your wet clothes outside the tent to dry.
23. Bring Extra Tarps
Bringing some extra tarps is always a good idea, especially in a rainy tent. That’s because you have to protect your gears, clothes, and tent floor from getting wet no matter what.
They are convenient to cover your supplies, provide extra cover over the tent, some additional layers at the bottom of the tent, create an outside space to chill, etcetera.
24. Bring Extra Ropes
You can use the ropes to hang the wet clothes, collect dry woods in a band, pitch the tent. You can also create support for the tent by binding the edges with trees or pillars.
Overall, it’s one of the most crucial elements in camping in the rain tips. So, bring some extras because you don’t know how many you will need.
25. Don’t Pack Down Sleeping Bags
Your down sleeping bags won’t come in handy, and probably they will prove useless in rain camping. So, you need to find some synthetic alternatives, or else you will have a soggy bed at night.
26. Bivy Sacks Are Handy
Bringing a bivy is a good idea, especially when you sleep in a rainy tent. You can keep the sleeping bags safe and dry in a bivy because of their waterproofing material. You can also sleep in a bivy sack if you bring some extra blankets.
27. Pack Extra Blankets
If you are thinking about staying warm on a frosty night, then bring some extra blankets. It will save you from freezing. Even if you don’t have sleeping bags, you can use the blankets and make one for yourself.
You can also warm the clothes inside a blanket that you are going to wear the following day.
28. Change the Clothes Before Sleep
It’s one of the must-maintain hacks while camping in the rain. Wearing the same clothes all day, and even while going to sleep – Terrible idea!
You should change your clothes before going to sleep every night because it will help you get warm quickly under the blanket. If you wet the sleeping bag somehow with your clothes, your night may get ruined. Also, it’s difficult to dry the sleeping bags and blankets in the middle of the rain.
29. Wear Wool Clothes While Sleeping
Wool clothes are very reliable in rain camping, especially at night. After a long, tiring, and wet day, you need some quick warmth to boost your mentality. In such cases, wool clothes will save you.
30. Use Quick-Dry Towels When Wet
In rain camping, how to stay dry in a tent? Then add some quick-dry towels to your checklist. They are foremost essentials when you need to dry yourself quickly after returning to the tent.
The microfiber of polyester can dry faster and absorb water quicker than ordinary towels. So, you don’t have to wait to dry yourself in cold weather if you use some of these quick-dry towels.
31. Don’t Forget the Hand Warmers
Your hand and face are the most exposed parts of your body, and they would stay cold most of the time while camping. But not for long if you bring some hand warmers to get rid of cold hands.
Your cold hands will make your tasks challenging to perform. So, use a hand warmer and see the magic. These are so small that you can keep them in pockets or even in gloves.
32. Don’t Stay in Darkness
If you are making a checklist of what to take camping in rain, adequate light sources should be at the top of the list.
Staying in darkness at night is risky and terrible. Even during the day, you may need lights because of a cloudy sky. A simple torchlight can save you from snakes, insects or help you spot other animals.
You can bring LEDs, camp lanterns, flashlights, mason jars to boost the ambiance of camping. And don’t forget to pack extra batteries.
33. Make Separate Area for Cooking
Cooking and eating inside the tent just because of rain – Worst concept for rain camping! After setting the tent, creating a covered area is the second important thing to do. You can consider it as your hang-out place as well as your kitchen. T
his camping rain shelter is an ideal place to hang out and cook your meals. Besides, your tent won’t be messy or smell like a kitchen. You can also gather dry woods or extra tarps in this place.
34. Keep Waterproof Matches or Lighters
Is it possible to make fires or cook food without matches or lighters? It would be if there were no rain.
So, if you want to cook some food, keep your lighters dry and clean. It would be best if you bring some waterproof matches or lighters. Otherwise, put them in Ziploc bags to keep dry.
35. Bring A Propane Camping Stove
Yeah, we know that cooking on a campfire is terrific and a lot of fun. But you can’t cook outside over a campfire because of rain.
That’s why bring a propane camping stove if you want to cook food. Hopefully, you or your friends don’t want to stay starving. You can use the stove for cooking in your separate covered area.
36. Dry Food or Others That Don’t Have to Be Cooked
After so much work like pitching tents, creating separate areas, collecting woods, you must be starving. But you have to wait until the food is prepared.
In that case, bring some dry food with you or for the group so that you can restore some energy and then get back to cook your main course. Some midnight snacks will also be better if you feel hungry at night.
37. What About Drinking Water?
On rainy days, you can’t drink from any water resources. You have to bring extra water bottles or bags to stay hydrated. On a rainy day, you may not feel thirsty, but you have to drink water from time to time.
If you think about drinking rainwater, try to collect it under the open sky. But let us tell you that it may not taste like regular water because of minerals.
38. Camping Without Campfire? No Way!
What would be the fun of camping without a campfire, right? But making a campfire on a rainy day is quite challenging. First, you need to collect enough dry wood from the surroundings and wait until the rain pauses.
If you can’t risk finding dry woods, you can bring some fuelwood with you. Then you can use the lighter to start the fire. Once it ignites enough, you will get fire. Use some wet woods to keep the fire burning for longer when it stops raining.
39. Keep the Fire Long Enough
Don’t get too excited if the fire is on. You need to make the fire going on for hours. But the most important topic is don’t make fire under your canopy, or else it may catch fire or melt.
Use the wet woods slowly, not all of a sudden. If the wind flow is strong enough, put off the fire. Sit at the same side from where wind flows, or you can use a tarp as a windshield.
40. Collect and Store Some Dry Woods
After setting up the camp, you need to go and find some dry woods for the campfire if you forgot to bring some firewood.
Try to bring some wet woods along with dry ones because they help the fire burn for longer. And make sure the woods have rain cover while camping. Otherwise, they won’t be in a condition to start a fire.
41. Bringing Some Firewood Will Be Lifesaving
Suppose your campsite has no usable tree branches to start a fire, or you can’t find any dry woods. How will you create the campfire then?
So, as a backup plan, you need to bring some firewood to make a campfire. But don’t use all the woods at a time. You may need them the next day for the same purpose.
42. Positive Mentality Is the Key
Even if you follow every rule of how to camp in the rain, your camping may fail or become a gloomy experience. Camping in the rain can be fun if you have the right attitude. You will gather a unique experience of camping in a different aspect of nature.
Be cheerful and boost others’ morale to keep the camp going. Nothing will go wrong if you have some positivity in you.
43. Arrange Some Indoor Activities
Fun and games are another crucial part of camping. But you can only arrange indoor games in rain camping. Kids don’t like staying in a tent all day. So, you have to make some special arrangements for them like board games, UNO, drawing instruments etcetera.
Books or journals can be helpful in time passing inside a tent. Sing some camp songs or some of your favorites to cheer up. You just have to ensure that you don’t get bored in this fantastic adventure.
44. Don’t Forget to Check on The Rain and Water Level
On your busy day of camping, don’t forget to check on the water level and the rain. You may have pitched the tent in a higher place, but a heavy rain overnight can bring flood into the wild.
So, don’t get carried away on a camping adventure. Or else, you will find your tent floating away the very next morning!
What to Do When You Get Wet In The Rain?
You are going to a rain camp. So obviously, you will get wet. But whenever you are wet, you need to get dry ASAP!
Get rid of the wet clothes and dry your whole body first. Then go inside your tent and put on some wool clothes quickly.
You can also use dry towels to absorb them from your skin. Use the hand warmers to warm your hands and go to the sleeping bag. If anyone has built a campfire, stay near it and keep the body temperature high. Otherwise, you might end up running a fever or get sick during the trip.
One Last Thing About Pets!
We all know pets are good companions in adventures. But things get tricky in rainy camping, especially for furry pets.
Your pets won’t stay inside the tent all day. They may want to come outside and hang out with you. But in the rain, your buddy can get sick pretty easily. And the situation will get worse if you have furry pets. They won’t dry quickly once they get wet.
Therefore, think twice before bringing your little pet friend on a rainy camping trip.
Bottom Line
Camping in the rain will bring you some exceptional experiences that you may never have on a regular camping trip. Just imagine you are reading a book inside a tent while dazzling sounds of rain come to your ears. Isn’t it mesmerizing?
Don’t get upset just because rain breaks out in the middle of your camping plan. If you follow our tips for camping in the rain, you will enjoy some of the best moments of your life camping. Enjoy the rain and happy camping!
Max, a passionate lumberjack and outdoors enthusiast, loves fishing, camping, and hunting. He has extensive experience in the great outdoors and is eager to join Outdoor Fun Mag to share his adventures and knowledge. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, Max promises to bring laughter, learning, and an unforgettable outdoor experience.