Camp Shaw – Our 2026 Camp Packing List

Our family have been camping for years, mostly at Ontario Provincial Parks, and over the years we’ve refined our camp packing list to try to ensure we don’t forget the essentials. Not to say we don’t; there’s always something (this year I forgot to bring my raincoat, even though I reminded myself to grab it many times as I was packing to leave). And every year we think of something else it would be good to have, and put it on the list for next year.

I thought I’d post it as a resource; there are lots of good camping resources out there, but I’m feeling pretty good about ours. It’s a good jumping-off point for your own list; everyone camps differently, and brings different things. For example, we have a cast iron Dutch Oven/Bake Kettle, and we’ve experimented with a few different recipes – Apple Crisp, fresh-baked bread, and most recently, pizza. But that’s a specific thing we like to do, and not everyone will have the space or interest in lugging along a heavy cast iron dish to cook one or two dishes.

If you’d like to download our Camp Packing List as a pdf, click on the image below – you can edit it in Adobe Acrobat or Canva, etc. to make it your own.

We have a kitchen bag, formerly a picnic knapsack, which one of us got for Christmas; it came with cutlery, dishes, a small cutting board, and wine glasses, but was roomy enough to fit all of our camp kitchen gear. It’s been pretty durable, and though we did ditch some of the things it came with (wine glasses), we’ve used it for years when we camp, and it’s worked really well.

If you have something like that, it’s best to give it a good look-through before every trip to make sure everything’s still there – things have a habit of wandering.

This is a general gear packing list for four adults camping together and sharing a tent; it doesn’t include food, clothing, or a lot of activity-specific things.

Camp Packing List 2026

Click to download the PDF, and edit to make it your own!