About Jake Mercer and Our Camping Approach
Practical camping knowledge, honest gear advice, and outdoor guidance built to help you spend less time worrying about the details and more time enjoying camp.
Camping Shouldn’t Be More Complicated Than It Needs to Be
Camping is simple in theory: find a place outdoors, bring what you need, and spend a few nights away from the usual routine. Getting there can involve considerably more decisions. Which campground fits the trip? Is that campsite suitable for your tent or RV? What gear is actually necessary? How cold will the nights get? What happens if it rains for two days?
Good camping information should make those decisions easier, not bury you beneath another pile of options.
That’s the philosophy behind this site. We help campers find campgrounds and outdoor destinations, choose equipment that makes sense for how they camp, prepare for realistic conditions, learn useful outdoor skills, and understand what to expect before leaving home.
Some readers are planning their first night under canvas. Others already know exactly how quickly a poorly chosen campsite can collect rainwater. Both should find something useful here.
You don’t need to know everything before going camping. You need dependable information, appropriate equipment, sensible preparation, and enough confidence to get outside and learn the rest along the way.
Meet Jake Mercer
Jake Mercer is the camping voice behind this site, bringing an experienced outdoorsman’s perspective to campground planning, outdoor skills, and camping equipment. His approach is built around a simple idea: camping advice should be useful when you’re standing in a sporting-goods aisle, choosing a campsite, packing the vehicle, or figuring out what belongs in your backpack.
That means understanding that campers have different priorities. A backpacker concerned about every ounce doesn’t shop for equipment the same way as a family parking beside a developed campsite. An RV camper needs different campground information than someone heading into the backcountry. A beginner may need straightforward explanations that an experienced camper takes for granted.
Jake’s approach is practical rather than gear-obsessed. Reliability, usefulness, value, and suitability matter more than having the newest equipment or the longest feature list.
You’ll find clear recommendations here, including occasions when the sensible recommendation is to save your money. Camping already provides plenty of opportunities to carry things you didn’t really need.
The tone is confident without pretending there is one perfect answer for every camper. When circumstances change the recommendation, we’ll explain why.
The Jake Mercer Approach to Camping
A useful camping recommendation starts with the camper and the trip—not the price tag, marketing claims, or whatever piece of equipment happens to be popular this season.
The Right Gear Beats the Most Expensive Gear
Expensive equipment can be worth buying when the additional money delivers something you genuinely need, such as lower weight, better materials, improved weather protection, greater durability, or a smaller packed size.
Context matters, though. A $500 ultralight tent could be a reasonable investment for a backpacker carrying shelter for hundreds of miles and an unnecessary expense for someone unloading equipment ten feet from the car.
Our goal is to explain that difference.
Comfort Isn’t Cheating
Camping isn’t a competition to see who can tolerate the worst night’s sleep.
If you’re car camping and have room for a cot, comfortable chair, larger tent, or portable power station that makes the trip better, there’s nothing wrong with bringing it. Comfort only becomes a problem when the equipment creates more trouble than it’s worth.
Preparation Beats Trying to Tough It Out
Weather, temperature, water, food, navigation, campsite conditions, emergency planning, and appropriate equipment matter.
Being prepared isn’t about expecting disaster around every tree. It’s about preventing manageable problems from becoming serious ones—and enjoying the trip instead of spending it fixing things that could have been handled before leaving home.
How We Research Camping Destinations
Choosing a campground requires more information than a pretty photograph and a sentence about peaceful surroundings. We want our destination guides to help you understand what staying there could actually involve.
Research may include information from federal and state government agencies, national and state park systems, official campground operators, reservation systems, regulations, maps, and other reliable primary sources. That applies whether we’re covering a developed national park campground, state park, private campground, primitive site, or backcountry camping opportunity.
We look for practical details that can affect your trip: campsite types, amenities, reservation requirements, operating seasons, accessibility, pet policies, fire regulations, recreational opportunities, and campground rules.
We also pay attention to what those details mean. Knowing that a campground has restrooms is useful. Knowing where facilities are located, whether a campsite is appropriate for your equipment, or what amenities you shouldn’t expect can be much more useful when planning.
Campground information changes. Fees increase, reservation systems change, seasonal facilities close, fire restrictions appear, roads can become inaccessible, and policies get updated. When information could materially affect your trip, check the campground, park, or land-management agency’s current information before leaving home.
How We Evaluate Camping Gear
Camping equipment shouldn’t be evaluated in isolation. A tent, sleeping bag, stove, cooler, chair, or power station only makes sense when you consider who will use it, where they’ll take it, and what they need it to accomplish.
Our gear evaluations look beyond the feature list. Depending on the product, we consider intended use, materials, construction, weight, packed dimensions, setup complexity, capacity, weather suitability, portability, storage requirements, maintenance, durability, replacement parts, expected usefulness, price, and overall value.
Comfort matters as well, but its importance depends on the trip.
A backpacker may willingly trade interior space for lower pack weight. Someone car camping for a week may make exactly the opposite choice. Families have different capacity and convenience requirements than solo campers. Equipment suitable for warm summer weekends may be a poor choice when nighttime temperatures start dropping toward freezing.
That’s why you’ll see recommendations tied to specific campers and situations rather than declarations that one product is simply “the best.”
Manufacturer specifications are useful, particularly for objective details such as dimensions, materials, weight, capacity, and included components. Manufacturer performance claims are treated as claims rather than automatically presented as independent findings.
Most importantly, we want to answer the question sitting behind every gear review:
Does this equipment make sense for the way you actually camp?
Sometimes paying more is justified. Sometimes the less expensive option does everything you need. Knowing the difference is more valuable than owning the fanciest gear at the campground.
We Don’t Pretend to Test Gear We Haven’t Tested
Trust disappears pretty quickly when a gear review describes a dramatic weekend in the mountains that never happened.
We won’t manufacture product ownership, field tests, measurements, camping trips, long-term use, weather experiences, or personal observations to make a review sound more authoritative.
When equipment has not been personally tested, we’ll evaluate it using available specifications, product design, intended application, reliable supporting information, and practical camping considerations. Manufacturer claims will not quietly become “our test results” somewhere between the product page and the review.
If first-hand testing or experience is available for particular content, we’ll make that distinction clear.
Research-based gear analysis can still be useful when it’s transparent about what it is. You deserve to know the difference between someone evaluating the evidence and someone who actually put the equipment in the field.
We’ll tell you which one you’re reading.
Who Our Camping Guides Are For
There is no standard camper, so there shouldn’t be one standard recommendation.
First-Time Campers
Beginners will find straightforward explanations of equipment, campground selection, setup, packing, safety, etiquette, and the small details experienced campers may no longer think to mention.
Tent and Car Campers
Expect practical advice about tents, sleep systems, campsite selection, cooking, organization, weather protection, comfort, and developed campgrounds.
RV Campers
Our destination coverage considers RV-friendly campsites, hookups, campground facilities, site requirements, activities, and planning considerations where applicable.
Backpackers
Weight and packed size matter when you’re carrying everything yourself. Backpacking coverage gives greater consideration to portability, route conditions, water, navigation, weather, and backcountry requirements.
Families
Family camping involves balancing activities, comfort, facilities, meals, sleeping arrangements, convenience, and the needs of campers of different ages.
Solo Campers
Solo camping provides freedom but also puts responsibility for setup, navigation, communication, decision-making, and emergency preparation on one person.
The right advice changes with the trip. Our job is to explain when and why.
Making Camping More Accessible
Camping should be easier to evaluate before someone arrives at the campground wondering whether the site or facilities will meet their needs.
When reliable information is available, our destination coverage considers practical accessibility details such as accessible campsites, level camping areas, parking, accessible restrooms, paved routes, trail accessibility, and distances between campsites and important facilities.
Those details can also matter to senior campers, people with limited mobility, families with young children, and anyone who prioritizes a more comfortable campground experience.
We don’t assume what someone can or cannot do. An accessibility label alone also doesn’t tell every camper whether a destination will work for them.
Our goal is to provide useful details that allow readers to evaluate a campground, activity, or piece of equipment according to their own circumstances. When accessibility information is particularly important, confirming current conditions and facilities directly with the park or campground before traveling is a sensible final step.
How Affiliate Links Support the Site
Some pages on this site contain affiliate links. If you follow one of those links and make a qualifying purchase, we may earn a commission, generally at no additional cost to you.
Affiliate relationships don’t determine which product should be right for you.
We aren’t going to recommend a more expensive tent when a less expensive model better fits the type of camping you’re doing. We also don’t believe every camper needs to continually upgrade equipment simply because something newer has reached the market.
If the gear you already own works safely and reliably for your needs, sometimes the best buying advice is to keep using it.
Affiliate revenue helps support the research, publishing, maintenance, and continued development of this site. Our responsibility to readers comes first: explain what a product offers, identify meaningful compromises, and help you decide whether it’s worth spending your money on.
Please see our Affiliate Disclosure for additional information about how affiliate relationships are handled.
Accuracy Matters Outdoors
Getting a minor product detail wrong is frustrating. Getting campground, weather, safety, accessibility, or regulatory information wrong can affect an entire trip.
That’s why we prioritize reliable and, where appropriate, primary sources when researching information that campers may depend upon. We distinguish factual information from editorial recommendations and work to update content when important details change.
Camping information isn’t frozen in time.
Campground fees and reservation procedures change. Roads and facilities close seasonally. Fire restrictions can appear quickly. Trails can close. Weather changes by the hour. Park regulations and pet policies can be updated. Accessibility can also be affected by temporary closures, construction, weather, or maintenance.
We encourage readers to verify time-sensitive information with the appropriate campground, park, government agency, or land manager before traveling.
We also believe corrections are part of responsible publishing. If you notice information that appears outdated or incorrect, please contact us so we can investigate it and make corrections when warranted.
Why We Do This
Camping doesn’t have to mean buying thousands of dollars in equipment or disappearing into the wilderness for two weeks.
It can be a Friday night at a state park an hour from home. It can be taking the kids to a family campground, waking early for a fishing trip, pulling an RV into a national park, carrying a backpack into the backcountry, or finding a quiet campsite where the biggest decision Saturday morning is whether to make another cup of coffee.
All of those count.
What matters is having the information and equipment appropriate for the trip you’re taking.
Prepare properly. Buy gear that makes sense. Understand where you’re going. Respect campground rules and the people camping around you. Take care of the places that make these experiences possible, and leave your campsite better than you found it.
Then enjoy being outside.
That’s what all the planning and equipment are supposed to accomplish in the first place.
Start Exploring Our Camping Guides →