Never Pitch Your Tent in These 8 Places (A Ranger's Warning)

Never pitch your tent in these 8 places. A retired ranger counts down the campsites that look safest and cost the most. I'm Cliff Hollis. Thirty-two seasons as a backcountry ranger in the mountain West, the last fifteen running search and rescue. Forty yards off a trail in my old district there is a flat spot with soft ground, big trees and a creek you can hear from your bag. It is the prettiest place to pitch a tent I ever saw, and I have carried three people out of it. Not one of the three was hurt by an animal. Eight places, counting down. The clean lane through the brush that something else made. The low hollow where the cold pools while you sleep. The water's edge, and why the ten steps you saved cost more than they look. The high open ground, where being right does not save you. Somebody else's fire ring. The place you cook, if it is also the place you sleep. The dry wash that feels like the mountain made you a bed. And number one, the spot I picked myself in my second season, which passes every test on the list but one. At the end I give you the five looks that take ten seconds and settle all eight: up, down, water, wind, who. It is what my old volunteer crew asked me to put on a card for new members. The numbers here come from the Park Service record, and the stories come from thirty-two years of callouts, with names, places and dates changed. There is nothing to buy in this video. Nothing here replaces the rangers on duty where you are headed, a weather report, or a real first aid course. When in doubt, ask at the trailhead. This weekend, walk out to where you would pitch, lie flat on your back on that ground, and look at what is over you. That is the view your tent has all night. Then tell me what you found up there. Down in the comments: did your father teach you to look at what was overhead, or did nobody ever hand you that one? I read every one. Next time, one smell. There is a single smell in these woods that means you turn around inside ten seconds and walk out the way you came, without going to see what is making it. Subscribe so you do not miss it. Stay found, folks. #camping #campsite #campingtips #wildernesssurvival #searchandrescue #parkranger #hikingsafety #campingmistakes #backcountry #stayfound #outdoorskills #tentcamping