When I’m teaching outdoor cooking skills, I often get asked what are the essential items to get started? One of the must have pieces of camping equipment are a couple of good coolers. Cold foods should be kept below 40°F. So, unless you regularly camp in temperatures below 40°F, you need to have good coolers. And the higher the temperatures, the better the coolers need to be.
Coolers are one place where you want to spend the money and opt for the highest quality you can afford. You want rugged, hard-shell, well insulated coolers with tight seals. Lockable ones are even better. Trust me, most raccoons are pretty smart. You want coolers that will keep your foods cold at least 4-6 days. This will get you easily through a long weekend. If you like to take longer trips, there are more options.
I advocate for multiple, smaller coolers as opposed to one big cooler. Smaller coolers are easier to lift and pack into your vehicle. Packing the vehicle is always a game of Tetris, isn’t it?
Smaller coolers allow you to separate your foods by type, i.e., all your proteins in one, all your fresh produce in another, all your cold beverages in another, etc., or you can separate by meal so that the Sunday morning breakfast cooler doesn’t need to ever be opened until Sunday morning.
The best brands on the market today include Yeti, Orca, RTIC, Engel, Xspec, OtterBox, Cabela, Igloo, and Coleman. There are more brands but the ones I mentioned consistently get high marks from hard core campers. Each of these lines have multiple models with varying features to fit your needs. Figure out how and where you like to camp and what’s important to you.
Even if you’re just a weekend camper, go for something that will keep foods cold (below 40°F) at least 4-6 days. This will ensure that even on a long weekend, your foods will still be cold by the end of the trip and the return back home where anything that did not get eaten can be safely returned to the refrigerator.
If you live in bear country, you might want to check out coolers with IGBC certification. Yes, that’s a thing. A certification from the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee verifies that the product in question has been tested by said committee and meets minimum standards for design and structural standards that are considered “bear-resistant” by a team of grizzly bear experts. The IGBC specifically states that this does not mean the product in question can’t be opened or destroyed by a bear, nor does it mean the product is leakproof. With that said, even the minimum construction standards required to deter a hungry 900 lb grizzly lend a lot of credibility to the durability of a product.
Do your research. Quality coolers are a good investment and, once you’ve made your purchase, treat your cooler as just that: an investment. Store it in a safe place, clean it out after every trip, take good care of it, and it will last a long, long time. A quality cooler will keep your foods safe and cold, and that includes your beer because after a long hike who wants a warm beer on a hot day?!
If you like this blog and don’t want to miss a single post, subscribe to Chuck Wagoneer by clicking on the Follow Us button in the upper right corner and follow us on Facebook and Pinterest for the latest updates and more stuff!
Chuck Wagoneer 
Recent Comments