10 Things I Pack for Every Family Camp (and 3 I Stopped Packing)

The non-negotiable core of our camp kit — plus the three things that kept riding along for years before I admitted they were dead weight.

After dozens of family weekends in the Ghost, our packing list has been edited by reality. Here’s what survived — and what got cut.

The 10 that always go

Water plus a way to make more. A few gallons in the rig and a filter in the go-bag. Running out of water ends trips; everything else is negotiable.
First-aid kit we actually know how to use. Stocked for the realistic stuff: blisters, burns, splinters, allergic reactions. Practice with it at home first.
Tire repair and a compressor. A plug kit and a 12V compressor have saved more trips than any other single item. Flat tires don’t care about your itinerary.
Fire kit. Lighter, ferro rod, and dry tinder in a waterproof bag. Redundancy matters when the one lighter gets wet.
Headlamps for everyone. One per person, plus spare batteries. The sun sets exactly when you’re mid-task, every time.
Camp chairs. Cheap ones are fine. Sitting on the ground gets old by night two, and the campfire is the whole point.
Cooler and one real meal plan. Not a gourmet spread — just knowing what dinner is before we leave. Hungry kids at a dark campsite is a situation, not an adventure.
Weather layers. Texas will swing 40 degrees on you without apology. A warm layer per person lives in the rig year-round.
Paper map and offline maps. Phones die, signal lies. A paper map of the area and downloaded offline maps are cheap insurance.
Trash bags and the leave-no-trace habit. We pack out everything, including the stuff the last campers left. The next family gets the campsite we wish we’d found.

The giant camp table. Used it twice in two years. The tailgate and a camp chair work fine, and that’s one less bulky thing to wrestle.
Duplicate tools. I carried two of everything “just in case” until I realized one good set, maintained, beats two mediocre ones gathering rust.
“Just in case” bulk food. Three extra days of food for a two-night trip. We ate the same rotation anyway. Now: the meal plan, plus one backup dinner. Done.

The list gets shorter every year, and the trips get better. Funny how that works.