20 Stealth Camping Tips & Skills

The basic principle of stealth camping is to avoid being seen by people. Generally you're going to need to be putting up a shelter of some sort. It might be a tent or a tarp or you might be feeling ambitious and build one from the natural materials around you. Either way your best bet is to make it low profile. If you're using a tarp then I recommend only setting up no higher than waist height. This is generally in keeping with the height of most low growing plants and shrubs, particularly in summer time. I recommend watching my video on 15 tarp setups which gives you a step-by-step guide on different configurations. I'll link it below. If you're going for a shelter from natural materials then you might be able to get away with a slightly larger shelter as it should look more natural and blend in with the environment around you. For this I tend to use an A-frame or if time is short then a lean-to shelter. A lean-to style is faster to set up as it's only half a shelter so you only need to build one wall. Most of you will likely be using tents. For this I use a bivy tent. A good example is this one, the Snugpak Stratosphere. It's ideal for stealth camping as it's incredibly low profile, easy to set up and take down and the olive colour tends to blend in well to the natural environment. The only downside is there's not much headroom. But I've done some great stealth camps in this shelter and the benefit being is that it packs down really small and takes up very little space in my pack. A small addition to your kit to help you blend in is using a piece of camo netting. You can find this in many army surplus stores or online for pretty cheap. Just throw it over your tent or tarp and watch your shelter merge in with the environment around it. Here's an image of my tent without the camo netting on it and here is one with it on. As you can see it blurs the sharp outline of the tent and makes it blend in more naturally to the backdrop of the woodland. You can get camo netting in different colours and patterns to suit the time of year and colour of the leaves on the trees at that particular time. When stealth camping I tend to downsize my gear. Smaller tent, smaller tarp, smaller backpack, smaller sleeping bag etc and even a smaller gas canister and stove. Not only does it save on weight but it means it's less cumbersome if I have to move on and pack up my gear quickly. You're much more likely to be seen if you have a campfire going and so more often than not I'll take a butane or propane gas stove. It's far quicker to set up and get water boiling to cook a meal or have a hot drink. I also opt for a more compact version to save on space. The flame tends to burn blue and it gives off far less light than a campfire would. It also doesn't produce smoke like a campfire, thus giving away your position. If you are concerned about being caught you can always use a stick to dig a small hole and bury the gas canister in the ground. Not only does this put the flame out of the line of sight, especially at night time, but it also reduces the noise given off from the stove and it acts as a wind barrier. And I've also found it boils water quicker as the heat is reflected off the earth walls surrounding it. If time is on your side and you need a fire for warmth, then a Dakota fire hole or fire pit is arguably the best stealth camping fire setup. It gets its name from the Native American Dakota tribe who built fires in this style to protect it from strong winds and avoid potential grass fires across the land. If you have a stick, continue to dig a hole around 30 centimetres deep. For the sake of this video, I used a compact folding shovel to get the job done quickly. Then dig another hole about 15 centimetres away from it and dig down another 30 centimetres. Then go back to the first hole and use a stick to dig horizontally towards the smaller hole. Eventually you will break through and create a tunnel for the wind to flow. Use your stick or shovel to bevel off the front end of the smaller hole in the direction that the wind is coming from. This will encourage the wind to flow in the direction of your fire. Then light a fire in the main hole. I use a lighter and a barbecue fire lighter combination. It just gets the job done, even in windy and rainy conditions. Then place some small thin sticks vertically over the fire and as the flame creeps higher, lay some horizontal sticks across the pit. The draw of the wind coming through the tunnel results in a really clean burning fire with very little smoke. This greatly reduces your chance of being discovered via the smoke and as the fire is burning in a pit, only the tips of the flame are visible instead of the whole fire. Once this burns down enough, you'll have some really hot coals which you can cook on or use for warmth. Another method I use to ensure that pitching up and taking down my setup is as fast as possible is to actually pack my sleeping pad already inside my sleeping bag and then the sleeping bag already inside my bivy bag. That way my entire sleep system is one unit and can be quickly deployed or stashed away should I need to make a quick exit. I tend to keep this setup in a larger dry bag. I don't always opt for this particular way of packing but if I know it's going to be a risky camp and I might need to move on quickly, then it just makes life a little easier. Certainly much faster to pack away than having to pack away all three components individually. When choosing a location to stealth camp, I'll often get out an ordnance survey map or have a browse at some online maps to gauge where there are public footpaths or roads. Not only does this mean that I can choose a particular location that is far away enough from being seen, but it also means that I can get good idea of where my vehicle is likely to be should I need to make a quick getaway in the dead of night. It also helps when I need to let my wife know where I'll be camping and I can draw a rough area out of where I intend to go and which time I intend to be there or get back, purely for safety reasons. When choosing a spot to pitch up, areas of dense foliage offer the best form of cover. This is where having a low profile tent comes in handy. You can pitch it right underneath bushes. Pitching near bushes and small shrubs helps to reduce the chance of your tent or tarp standing out like it would if it were pitched in an open area. You can also use some of this foliage to lean up against your tent or tarp and make yourself much less visible from other people who might be nearby. At night, a bright head torch can easily be seen from a distance. Even on a dim setting, if the light beam flashes across someone's line of sight, it will be much more visible even from fairly far away. One way that you can help to reduce the intensity of the light coming from your head torch is to put a piece of masking tape over the front of the lens. This will act as a diffuser and it will take out the harshness and create a much softer light. It will still shine light on close-up tasks that you're doing around camp and it should still let in enough light so that you can walk around in the dark easily, but it just reduces the chance of someone seeing the flash of your main beam. Another option is to use a head torch which has a red filter. This type of flashlight is used in the military as it improves night vision, reduces a person's light profile, and can be used to send out signals. The typical flashlight with a bright white light is too harsh for night vision equipment to handle, especially when it's switched on and off suddenly. The human eye is much less sensitive to red light compared to white light, so when we switch off a red light in the dark, our eyes can adjust to the darkness much faster. This also works well in terms of being seen from a distance. Since our eyes are less sensitive to red light, it means that it's not easy for someone to detect the red light, especially when we are far away from the light source. If you're worried about batteries running out on the head torch, you could always pack a Cyalume light stick or glow stick. These chem lights give off light when you bend them until they make a cracking noise. The way that these work is that inside the plastic tube is a small glass vial. As you bend the plastic, this glass vial snaps and the chemicals inside are mixed together. When these two chemicals mix together, a new compound is formed and the electrons shoot up the tube, and when they fall down, they give off light. In a military setting, they can be used for discrete lighting for map reading in the dark, as well as mark, tag, signal, and identify dangerous situations such as combat operations or natural disasters. They are discrete, lightweight, and a great backup lighting source if your main headlamp battery goes down. When stealth camping, it's always worth preparing some simple cold meals to bring with you. That way, if for some reason you are not able to get fire going, or even if you aren't able to use a gas stove, you always have a backup option of a quick way to get calories into your body. It's good preparation if you aren't able to heat up your food. If you do have a heat source, then opting for fast cooked meals is a great option when stealth camping. Often, these cook in a bag meals either just need boiling water poured in them, or the bag itself can be boiled in water to heat up the food. They are usually ready to eat within minutes. They can be pretty expensive though, but the military MREs, or meals ready to eat, are fairly easy to get hold of these days, and they usually have a large number of calories in them. Many have the added benefit of being able to eat them when they're cold. A lot of modern day camping kit is made with bright and fluorescent colours. Understandable if most of the places you camp are in the mountains, and if something goes wrong, you need to be visible by mountain rescue or emergency services. However, the bright colours aren't ideal when trying to keep a low profile during an overnight camp. For this, you are better off using gear that has dark, earthy tones. Drab olive, and darker tones of brown or even black. You could take this further, and opt for gear that has DPM material, which stands for Disruptive Pattern Material, essentially camouflage. This helps you and your gear to blend in more with the environment around you. Wearing gloves, long sleeve clothing, and potentially a hat or cap can also help you to blend in more, as well as keeping the majority of bugs at bay in the summer, and keeping you warm in winter. Multi-purpose is key. One of the best ways to avoid being seen when stealth camping, is to set up your tent or tarp late in the day, and pack away your gear early in the morning. By arriving and setting up late in the evening, the majority of people will have finished their daily tasks or dog walk, and will likely be back at home. In the morning, if you pack away early, most people will either be just getting out of bed themselves, or they will likely be eating breakfast before they get outside. Having done this on so many occasions, I can vouch that it works. However, it does mean that you do get less actual camping time to enjoy in the outdoors. But on the flip side, especially in summer, you can clock out from work in the afternoon, head out for a quick camp, and then get back in time for work the next day. And yes, I have done this before as well. Finally, and definitely one of the most important tips, is to leave no trace. Make sure that you don't leave any litter or rubbish behind. Clear up your campsite, put out your fire, and make sure it's properly put out before you leave. Put the dirt, soil, or leaves back over the area that you camped, so that it looks like you were never even there. That way, you are not only being a responsible camper, but you're also creating good habits for the next generation to learn from. It also means that if no one knows you have camped there, then you might get away with camping there again in the future. And that's just a few of my stealth camping tips. They might not work for everyone, but they've worked for me, and I hope you guys enjoyed the video. And if you're interested in more camping, bushcraft, and survival tips, then be sure to check out my wilderness survival skills playlist on my channel. If you like stealth camping and keeping it low profile, then there are plenty of videos on my channel featuring this. And if you're interested in my official bushcraft and camping gear, then head to taoutdoors.com for more info there. Thanks for watching guys, and I'll see you in the next one.