After years and years of never going camping, and not being an “outdoorsy” person for most of my young life, college was when I started to fall in love with the outdoors, camping, and hiking.
I owe a lot of that to my partner, David and his family who were big campers! Took me on my first backpacking trip, camped every summers my first couple summers dating. I fell in love with it.
So naturally, my love of camping led me to love it so much I wanted to sleep outside, in 20 degree temperatures, in the snow.
Winter camping has been on my to do list for just over a year now, and after convincing my sister (very little convincing is needed to get her to do anything outdoors) I had a buddy to go with!
Where we went
We headed up to the Upper Peninsula, to Tahquamemon Falls State Park. This is a great choice for winter camping because their Lower Falls Campground is open year round for camping! And the Upper Falls area of the state park is also open year round. Typically the brewery is still open but unfortunately they are not right now, due to COVID-19.
If you book your site ahead of time online, it is plowed. Plus there is electricity at each site (this comes in handy later).
What we did
We only wanted to stay one night for our first trip and since this campground is only a few hours away I didn’t mind making the trip up and back. Our first day there we hiked around the lower falls (just over 3 miles). Then we headed back to campsite for dinner.
One down side to winter camping (especially in a tent). It gets dark, and early. By 6PM it’s pitch black. We normally would have a campfire but didn’t have my bonfire-making Dad around so we turned into the tent early.
The next day we had coffee in the tent, packed up and headed down M-123 to the Upper Falls. We hiked around (about 1.5 miles) before we headed back down to the lower peninsula
What we had with us
In our tent (which is a 2-person dome from REI) we had a mat on the ground, a large sleeping bag opened up across the floor, sleeping pads, our own individual insulated sleeping bags both rated down to 0 degrees, fleece blankets, and the game changer, heated blankets.
Thanks to the electricity at the sites I ran an extension cord to our tent with a power-strip and we plugged in a heated blanket for each of us, shoved them into our insulated sleeping bags and we were toasty little burritos.
To sleep in we both wore base layer leggings and long sleeves, and then fleece pants and a fleece button up. Hats and mittens were worn as well.
Reading ahead of time for winter camping prepared me to make sure I had completely separate clothes from sleeping to what I wore during the day. This is important so you are not sleeping in any damp clothing.
How it went
Honestly, I thought it went great!! I was warm pretty much the whole night. My only complaint/thing I didn’t expect, but fully made sense, was that the entire tent (plus fleece blanket over my sleeping bag) was all covered in tiny ice crystals due to our breathing throughout the night and condensation combined with 20 degree temperatures.
What we learned
I learned to have the proper camp stove and fuel for freezing temperatures, to bring a couple towels and rags to dry things off (because snow melts, duh).
I learned that creating a proper insulation between you and the ground is very important.
Comment down below or on Instagram your winter camping tips or places you like to explore during these colder months!