Camping Coloring Pages

A first night in a tent is something children remember for years: the zip of the door, the sound of rain on the canvas, the smell of the fire. These camping coloring pages are made for the trip itself, for the car on the way there, the rainy afternoon under the tarp, and the quiet hour after supper.

Setting up comes first. A tent stands on a grassy slope with its guy ropes pegged down, a boy fits the tent poles together while his sister holds the fabric, a backpack leans against a log with its bedroll and tin mug, a bicycle is packed with panniers and a rolled tent, and a bell tent opens onto a patterned rug. A caravan waits under its striped awning, and a tree platform has a rope ladder and a bucket on a pulley.

Then camp life. A campfire burns inside a ring of stones with marshmallow sticks ready, a camper toasts one on a long twig, a family cooks pancakes on a grill, a camp kitchen of nested pots and a kettle sits on a stump, and a lantern hangs over a folding table set with enamel plates. A family snuggles into sleeping bags in a dome tent, boots and socks dry by the door, a boy pumps water into a jug, and a camper washes the pots in a stream. There is exploring too: a compass and map on a rock, a trail through the pines with painted blazes, scouts tying knots, a girl looking at a beetle through a magnifying glass, a canoe on a pebble shore, a fishing rod on a jetty, binoculars on a deck facing the mountains, a child reading in a hammock, and a dog asleep by the walking poles. A bear cub eyes the food bags hung between the trees. The seasons change the scene: a tent among autumn leaves beside split firewood, a winter camp under snowy branches, a tent at night with moths around it. A chibi camper with a huge backpack and a camping mandala finish the set.

Why campers hang their food

The bear cub page shows a real rule of the woods. In bear country, campers never keep food in their tent. They put everything that smells, food, toothpaste, even the pot they cooked in, into a bag and hang it from a high branch, well away from the tents, or lock it in a bear-proof box. A bear can smell food from far away, and a bear that learns campsites mean food will keep coming back. The golden rule is the same everywhere: leave the place as you found it, with no crumbs and no trace.

The s'more, a campfire classic

The marshmallow on the stick has a famous destination: the s'more, a toasted marshmallow and a square of chocolate pressed between two graham crackers, so good you want "some more". The first printed recipe appeared in a Girl Scouts handbook in 1927. The trick is patience: hold the marshmallow near the embers rather than in the flames, and turn it slowly until it is golden all over instead of black on one side.

Reading a trail and a map

The painted marks on the trees in the trail page are called blazes. Hiking trails are marked with a small painted rectangle at eye height, and two blazes one above the other mean the path turns soon. The compass on the map page always points its needle to magnetic north; line up the map so that its north matches the needle, and every path and stream on paper lines up with the real ones in front of you. It is a skill worth practicing in a park before trying it in the woods.

Colors of a campsite

• Tents: bright colors are easiest to find from far away, orange, red or yellow; older canvas tents are cream or khaki green.
• The campfire: yellow at the heart, orange around it, red at the tips, and gray stones around the ring.
• A marshmallow: pale cream, golden brown on one side where it toasted.
• Pines: deep blue-green; birch bark white with black marks.
• A night sky: dark blue, with the fire's glow making everything near it orange.

Easy tents and busy camps

The simplest pages keep one tent or one fire large, like the tent at night, the tent on the slope and the campfire ring. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Tent at night
• Tent on a grassy slope
• Bear cub and the food bags

The detailed pages are full of leaves, wood grain and gear. Lots of detail begins with:

• Autumn camp
• Tree house camp
• Canoe on the shore

A camping trip in a folder

Take a few pages on the trip. Pack them in a folder with a pencil case, and at each moment, the first evening by the fire, the rainy afternoon, the walk to the lake, color the page that matches. Write the date and the place in the corner. At home, the folder becomes a travel journal. The compass and map page makes a good cover, and the empty sky of the night tent page leaves room to draw the stars seen that night.

Printing for the campsite

Every page is a free PDF drawn on A4 at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size; US Letter needs "fit to page", which shrinks the drawing by about six percent and keeps the tent pegs on the sheet. The printing guide points to the setting. Add to pack puts a whole trip into one file. The season continues in the summer coloring pages and the fall coloring pages, the woods in the tree coloring pages, and the campsite's most famous visitor in the bear coloring pages.