Whether you spend a lot of time camping or simply enjoy the occasional overnight trip with your family, you know how much being surrounded by nature can help you relax and escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. And camping is the perfect way to be surrounded by wilderness and still have some of the comforts of home — like a hot cup of coffee, a cozy chair and a warm blanket on chilly nights. And, of course, games and activities.

At camp, you typically have many options on how to pass the time and bond with your friends and family beyond relaxing and exploring nature. Camping games are a great way to pass down time and help you engage with the people around you. Whether you’re looking for a competitive sports game, a quiet craft activity, or a storytelling session, these recommendations are for people with a variety of interests and skill levels.

With this list of 10 camping games and activities, you’re sure to be entertained and keep campers engaged during your next camping trip. From classic games to creative crafts, there are endless opportunities for fun and adventure.

1. Bingo With a Nature Twist

Before heading out to camp, make some camping Bingo cards and combine Bingo with a scavenger hunt. You can get creative and add a certain bird, animal, or animal track, or stick with easy objects like round rocks, sticks, and pinecones. You could also get more elaborate with your Bingo cards and take them along on a hike. Have a space for a lake, one for a bird’s nest, one for a specific type of tree, one for a mushroom, etc. You can have fun with it. If you’re camping near a beach, you could have a Bingo beach camping theme. And of course, the first person to get a Bingo wins something, so remember to bring a prize!

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2. Nature Photography Contest

With easy access to camera phones, a nature photography contest can easily be done even when you’re offline and unplugged from civilization. You can personalize this contest and tailor it to the area where you’re camping. One example would be to give five prompts for photos, like capturing a sunrise (or sunset), an interesting pattern in nature, wildlife, a waterfall or river and a landscape image. Your prompts can be whatever you’d like. Then, each camper shares their photos. You can vote or simply leave it as a non-competitive activity.

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3. Knot-Tying

Learning to tie knots at camp is a great way to make learning a new skill fun. Be sure to pack some small ropes before you head out camping — and learn a few knots to teach — so you’re prepared for your knot-tying activity. Practice at home so you’ll be a pro demonstrating the knots. To start, research a few knots online. Three recommended knots to start with are a bowline knot, a clove hitch knot and a square knot.

A bowline knot creates a loop that won’t slip and is great for tying a rope around a tree to hang a hammock, a tent or a tarp. A clove hitch knot is versatile and can be used to attach a rope to a pole, kayak, stake, tree or canoe. A square knot is good for joining two lengths of ropes together and is useful for tying up bags or bundles of your gear. You could even have a challenge at the end that challenges each camper to a specific task.

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4. Outdoor Cooking Challenge

For a fun food-themed activity, you could have a camp cookoff using a specific theme and a set amount of ingredients. You could choose a creative art challenge like, “Create a log cabin using only ingredients meant for S’mores,” where campers roast a marshmallow over a fire and stack graham crackers and chocolate to create an edible masterpiece.

Or you could do a more traditional camping cookoff by challenging campers to cook the best chili. Provide a cooler filled with ingredients for campers to choose from. And of course, the best part is the judging, where campers taste all of the creations. The possibilities for outdoor cooking challenges are seemingly endless.

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5. Classic Card Games (and Cribbage)

Card games are a nice way to relax and unwind at camp as you simply need a deck of cards. Some classic card games are Crazy Eights, Uno, Rummy, Go Fish and War. There are also some longer card games you can try like Phase 10. Cribbage is also a fun card/board game hybrid. You could also purchase a custom cribbage board, a folding cribbage board, or a rustic one specifically for camping.

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6. Survival Challenge Activity

If you have a large group of campers, a survival challenge activity is a great way to involve everyone and encourage campers to engage with one another and work together. A few survival challenge ideas for splitting people into groups of two or three could be to see who can build the best shelter, start a fire the fastest or catch the most fish. You can customize these activities to fit your camping style. You can also provide a bag of resources for each team to use if you want to plan and really get into it. And if you wanted to take this activity to the next level, you could give each team a specific storyline with a task, like “You’re out hiking in the wilderness and a member of your team breaks their ankle and can’t walk. You need to makeshift something to assist that member back to camp.”

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7. Storytelling With Cubes

Using story cubes around a campfire can lead to some interesting and creative stories — and lots of laughs. Simply gather everyone around and roll the cubes to make a story. You can combine items like characters, places and animals to create a tale as limitless as your imagination. You can set themes, too, like it must be spooky or it must be suspenseful and mysterious. There are many types of story cubes you can use. This is a great way to add some improv to your night. Another fun twist on this game would be to use different voices or personas to tell your story. You could create scenarios like you’re a forest ranger pretending to train a set of bear cubs or you’re a 102-year-old western cowboy departing wisdom to the next generation of cowboys. You could also be a bird, telling a story to campers.

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8. National Parks Yahtzee

This unique take on the classic game of Yahtzee is for outdoor enthusiasts and features images of some of America’s most iconic national parks. Yahtzee is a classic game that has been enjoyed by families for generations. If you’re camping with kids, the National Parks Yahtzee game is a great way to introduce them to the game while also educating them about the beauty and history of America’s national parks. It’s compact, portable and proceeds benefit the National Park Foundation.

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9. Play ‘Who Am I’

This game has a minimal setup. All you need are sticky notes, a pen, and a list of fictional or real characters to add to each sticky note. You can choose from cartoon characters, historical characters to celebrities. The key is to choose people that your crowd will know. For example, if you have a camp full of Star Wars fans, you could include some Star Wars favorites like Han Solo or R2D2. If you have history buffs, you could use key characters in history like Amelia Earhart and Aristotle. If you want to play along, have someone else choose some characters for you so you don’t know them all.

Next, have each person select a sticky note and place it on their forehead without looking so each person doesn’t know who they are. Figuring out who they are is the goal of this game.

Players do this by mingling around the space (or you could take turns in a circle). Each person can ask a total of 20 questions to try and guess who they are. They must ask questions to all people in the game.

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10. Capture the Flag

If you’re looking for an active game, Capture the Flag is a great way to get campers moving. To play, you’ll need two teams and two flags. You can bring a flag along or create a makeshift one at camp with a stick and something brightly colored. The classic game recommends 10 people, with five people on each team, but you can modify it to fit your camp size. The goal of the game is for each team to capture the other team’s flag and bring the flag back to its own side without getting tagged by the other team.

You can set it up Capture the Flag in a wooded area or open space — using natural landmarks like rocks and trees as boundaries. Each team hides their flag. You can also designate a “jail” area where players who get tagged by the other team are temporarily held until they are freed by one of their teammates who tags them. This game is great for kids and adults as it requires teamwork and strategy.

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Suzanne Downing is an outdoor writer and photographer in Montana with an environmental science journalism background. Her work can be found in Outdoors Unlimited, Bugle Magazine, Missoulian, Byline Magazine, Communique, MTPR online, UM Native News, National Wildlife Federation campaigns and more.