Gone are the days when your only choice of shelter when out in the great outdoors is tents.
Today, large sheets of durable and flexible materials known as camping tarps provide an alternative shelter for your next camping or hiking trip.
These tarps are usually waterproof and they feature reinforced grommets that serve as attachment points for ropes, sticks, and posts.
These grommets make tarps very flexible in terms of how you can put them up.
Unlike tents, which are always assembled upright, tarps can be suspended, hung, or tied down.
This flexibility makes them ideal for outdoor activities in areas without enough clearing or space to accommodate a tent.
Buying camping tarps Tarps are very hand camping gears so make sure you bring at least one sheet whenever you brave the outdoors.
If you don't have one yet, then now is the time to buy one.
Just make sure that you choose the best kind of camping tarp you can find.
Need help choosing among the different kinds of camping tarps out there? Well, there are only two things that you need to remember: size and weight.
Choose a camping tarp that is large enough to cover the whole of your sleeping or camping area.
On the average, you should get a tarp that is at least five feet wide and nine feet long since this is the measurement of a regular camping hammock.
As for weight, it is best to choose a camping tarp that is light enough to easily transport or carry around.
However, you must take caution not to compromise the tarp's durability for lighter weight because lighter tarps in general are usually less durable than heavier ones.
But since you would not want to burden yourself with a heavy tarp either, it is best to choose the heaviest tarp that you can comfortable carry over time and over distance.