How to Build a Campfire (The Log Cabin Method)
For many people, having a campfire is their favorite part of camping. Whether it’s for cooking s’mores, hot dogs or fancier fare; staring moodily into the flames reflecting on deep subjects, or simply poking at it with a stick, there’s just something primal and comforting about building a good cozy campfire. Building, lighting, and maintaining a campfire can feel intimidating, like a big test, or even a rite of passage. Let’s just take it one step at a time.
Before we begin
I didn’t coin the phrase “Before you light it, have a plan to fight it.” I love it, though. It helps ensure you’re prepared to keep your fire under control, and sort of sets the tone of being safe. For me, I keep my shovel and my $5 hardware store bucket nearby, filled with a few gallons of water. If you don’t want to deal with a whole separate bucket, your gallon water jug is still fine, but keep in mind that you may need to refill it once or more. Fire needs three things to burn – oxygen, heat, and fuel, also known as the Fire Triangle – and using water (better) or dirt (not as reliable; we’ll get into it later) will immediately take away one of those. You don’t need to fear your campfire; just respect it and be responsible with it.
Many official campgrounds provide fire pits for you, like steel or rock rings. Usually this means you’re allowed to have your fire only in the designated fire pit. Regardless of where you’re camping, check for current conditions and restrictions for the dates of your trip. There can be more strict rules or permits required if you’re overlanding or wild/dispersed camping; we’ll save these for another time. If your campground host or manager hasn’t already done so, do a quick check that you have a clear space with no flammable material within about 10 feet from your fire. It should be basically nothing but dirt, in case of flying sparks.
Finally, never leave a fire alone. That means nobody heads to bed, walks to the bathroom together, or wanders off to look at stars until the fire is good and out.
The wood
The best firewood fuel logs are well-seasoned (very dry) hardwood. Buying firewood at your campground when you arrive, instead of bringing your own, is not the cheapest option. When you're driving several hours to go camp somewhere else though, it’s important to obtain your firewood locally so you don't transport wood pests from one region to another. Many established campgrounds will sell it onsite, but it’s also common to find it for sale in the small towns and general stores that you often find near campgrounds.
If your firewood doesn’t already include it, you’ll want to chop some of it up into smaller pieces (kindling) that are going to light easier. Think logs versus sticks. A basic hatchet will do the job here. You will also want some tinder (no, not the dating website) which is going to catch fastest. Think wood shavings or tiny twigs (save your tiny wood chips if you do any whittling). Without getting deep into the science of it, the smaller your pieces of wood, the more surface area they have compared to their mass. There are manmade options out there as well. These often contain loose fluffy material like torn-up cotton balls if homemade, and store-bought versions that contain sawdust and wax-like products.
Prepping the ring
Unless you own the campground or they’ve provided an ash can, you probably won't have the ability to scoop out older ashes and clean out your fire pit. In this case, use a shovel or a flat rock or a log, and scrape them to the side. You don't want to throw these on the ground nearby, because buried coals can remain hot for days, and the ash can create disruptive alkaline soil conditions. Let the campground hosts or park rangers take care of that part.
What I like to do is scrape some to each side of the fire pit and try to create a sort of tiny trench for some airflow (this is one of my go-to moves). That helps oxygen get under your fire (remember the Fire Triangle). This can be especially helpful if your campsite fire pit is unusually deep, which can reduce natural airflow.
Building it
Now you’re going to build your campfire. I like to wear leather gloves, mainly to avoid splinters and give me some heat resistance, but it’s important to choose gloves with a good fit and grip. Some people will tell you not to wear gloves while swinging an axe or hatchet because you can more easily lose your grip, which is why it’s important not to wear bulky or loose gloves if you’re going to use them. You also don't have to wear gloves at all; this is a personal preference. There are a number of campfire methods to choose from. Different methods work better in different situations. This article focuses on the “log cabin” method, which is simple and reliable.
Start by placing a couple of bigger pieces side by side. Lay them across your trench like miniature bridges, if you’re using the trench technique. These big chunks of firewood are your fuel logs. We’ll call this the basement of your log cabin. You don't want to get too carried away at the beginning. More big logs are going on later, but they don't catch very easily, so you’ll start with the smaller stuff. Instead of building your fire directly on the ground, you’re going to build it on your kindling, your smaller sticks. You don't have to do it all fancy like this. This is how I like to do it, and it works pretty well for me. What you’ll do is lay a bunch of your kindling sticks down next to each other, across and perpendicular to your two fuel logs. This will be the floor of your log cabin.
If you don't know why we call it a log cabin, and you didn't grow up playing with Lincoln Logs, that's okay. Just Google image search log cabin.
In a moment you're going to build some walls with your kindling. Before you build it up too much to reach inside though, you’re going to put a bunch of real small stuff in there, real easy to light stuff. This is your tinder. If you want to, you can add some paper. Some people like to use the cardboard if your firewood comes in a box, but sometimes this contains chemicals you don’t want to inhale, and more importantly will usually create burning embers that can float away. Leave it loose and a little bit jumbled up; you don't want it all smushed together. This comes back to allowing as much airflow as possible.
Once you’ve placed your tinder, you can build a little roof out of your kindling sticks and twigs. The idea, and it doesn't always work on the first try, even when you're experienced: once your tinder catches, that's going to light your little log cabin kindling roof. These will burn longer than your tinder. Once those are lit, these should eventually spread to your fuel logs as they collapse downward.
Lighting it
When I'm lighting a campfire, I like to use a stick lighter (they're pretty cheap at Costco), since it keeps your fingers further away from the flames. There are lots of different options though. You can use a standard Bic or Zippo, you can use regular matches, waterproof matches, or even plasma lighters that are USB rechargeable, which are pretty cool. I like to carry one of each so I have multiple options. The idea behind a stick lighter is you don't have to get your hand right up in there, like with a regular match or smaller lighter. You can also light a smaller stick, and then place it into the fire once it’s fully caught. A stick lighter makes a larger point of contact than plasma lighters and doesn’t need to directly touch the tinder, so a plasma lighter is usually only my backup plan.
When lighting your fire, guess what? You’re gonna have to squat or crouch down. Steady yourself first. It may not catch right away, requiring a few tries. You may need to light your tinder from a few different angles. Even with nice dry firewood, kindling and tinder, it might not light right away, or stay lit more than a few seconds.
And that's normal.
It’s better to spend a few more minutes up front building your fire, or even splitting smaller kindling. Sometimes you just need more tinder, especially if your kindling is damp. You don’t want to use accelerants like gasoline or lighter fluid though; it’s both dangerous and unnecessary. Don't get discouraged if your fire doesn't light on the first try, even if you're using nice, dry, well-seasoned firewood. Once you do get it lit though, it’ll start to smoke. This may sound obvious but try to stay upwind of the smoke! Wood smoke won’t just irritate your lungs and maybe leave you coughing; it’ll sting your eyes and make it harder to see what you’re doing.
Pace yourself
Now you’ve got some flames going. You're going to keep an eye on this, but when you first get your fire going, you don't want to poke at it too much. It's easy, once you set up a delicate fire like this, to accidentally knock the whole thing down before your kindling and logs catch, and possibly have to start over. So give it a few minutes. Be patient. Everyone loves to poke at a campfire. You just want to resist that for the first few minutes.
Once your tinder flames have spread to your kindling, once the little log cabin roof you made is on fire and the side pieces are starting to catch, it's still going to take a little bit longer for the fuel logs to catch. You can slowly add a few more pieces of kindling at this point, though. Until your logs are burning, you just don’t want to add anything big enough to knock your fire over. If your kindling supply is starting to run out and your logs haven’t caught yet, just split one of your unused logs and make more kindling!
Once your logs are burning, now you can slowly add more. Slowly. Even with a good bed of coal and burning logs on an established fire, there can be a delay of several minutes before each new log is fully engulfed. It can be tempting to add several logs at a time, but wait until you have an idea of how fast your wood burns. Depending on how dry and how dense your firewood is, adding a few logs to a cozy fire can turn it into a raging bonfire quickly. It’s a lot easier to slowly build the fire up the way you want it, than to dial it back once it’s going.
Putting it out
Remember that phrase from the beginning? Before you light it, have a plan to fight it. This is where that $5 water bucket comes in handy. Properly extinguishing your campfire isn't just common courtesy for the next camper; it’s an absolute necessity to prevent catastrophic wildfires.
Here is how you do it, step-by-step:
Don’t wait until you’re yawning and ready to crawl into your tent to think about putting out the fire. Start the extinguishing process well before you want to go to bed. Stop adding new fuel logs and let the existing wood burn down as close to a fine, manageable ash as possible. Sitting up with the fire as it burns down and the campground gets quiet can be very satisfying. I find that my mind usually quiets with the night, at this point.
Grab your water bucket or jug. Don’t just splash a little water on the glowing parts and call it a night. Slowly pour a generous amount of water across the entire pit. You’ll hear a loud hissing and see a bunch of steam. Stay back so you don’t get a face full of extremely hot vapor. Once the hissing stops, take your shovel or a long stick and stir the wet ash and coals together. Stirring flips the hidden hot spots up to the surface. Once you’ve mixed it up, pour a second round of water over everything and stir it again.
This is the moment of truth. Carefully hover the back of your hand just a few inches above the wet ash. If you feel even a tiny wave of radiant heat, you’re not quite done. Keep adding water and stirring until the entire fire pit passes the test. According to official Smokey Bear safety standards, a campfire is only safe to leave when the remnants are completely cold to the touch. If it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave.
I mentioned earlier that you can use dirt to fight a fire. This is not for properly extinguishing your campfire, however. A common mistake is shoveling dirt over a live fire to smother it out of convenience. Don’t do this except in an emergency, because it’s not good enough. Dirt acts like a heavy, insulated baking blanket. Coals buried under sand or soil can hold trapped heat for days. Eventually, the dirt shifts, wind blows the ash away, oxygen rushes in, and that dormant ember can spark a massive root or brush fire long after you’ve packed up and gone home. Always use water as your primary tool.
You had a campfire!
Hopefully your campfire experience was fairly straightforward, safe, and enjoyable. If it didn’t go perfectly smoothly, that’s just part of making memories. Building, lighting, and maintaining a campfire is a skill that you can improve over time, but it’s really not that complicated. If you still want to walk through it with more than just a web article, watch one of our campfire tutorial videos or book an in-person campfire lesson where we’ll walk you through it in real life.
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