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Photo Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer), CC BY 4.0

Hammock camping

Sleeping off the ground: hanging a hammock level and safe, and keeping warm and dry in it.

What you need

How

  1. Find two live, healthy trees about four to five metres apart, thicker than your leg.
  2. Look up before you hang. Dead branches and dead leaning trees overhead are called widowmakers for a reason.
  3. Wrap the straps around the trees at about head height and clip the hammock on.
  4. Let it sag. The straps should run down to the hammock at about 30 degrees. Pulled tight, it squeezes you like a banana and puts far more load on the straps and trees.
  5. Aim for the seat of the hammock about chair height off the ground, so you can sit in it and stand up out of it.
  6. Lie across it on a slight diagonal. That flattens it out and lets you sleep on your back or side.
  7. Hang the tarp over it on its own line, low and wide enough that blowing rain misses the hammock.

Do and don't

Do
  • Put insulation under you. Your bag is crushed flat under your weight, and the air below pulls the heat out of your back even on a summer night.
  • Tie a short drip line on each strap so rain runs off before it reaches the hammock.
  • Practice the hang in the yard before a trip.
Don't
  • Do not hang from dead trees, or from saplings that bend.
  • Do not hang higher than you would want to fall.
  • Do not use thin rope around trees. It cuts through the bark and kills the tree.

Watch for

Danger
  • Widowmakers overhead, and trees with rot at the base or loose roots in wet ground.
  • Wind. A hammock in the open loses heat fast. Hang it in the trees, out of the wind.
  • Where the trees are all small or all dead, a tent is the better night.

Notes

Woods here are thick, lumpy and wet underfoot, and full of trees at the right spacing. A hammock turns ground you could never pitch a tent on into a dry, flat bed.

See Choosing a tent, Sleeping bags and pads and Tarp lean to.

hammocksleepingtarptrees

Updated 2026-09-29

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Boots and rain gear Gear and Packs The two pieces that decide whether a wet day is a nuisance or a rescue. Choosing a tent Gear and Packs What makes a tent stand up to our wind and rain, and how to pick the right size, weight and kind for the trips you actually take. Packing a backpack Gear and Packs Where everything goes so the pack rides on your hips, stays dry, and gives you what you need without unpacking it all. Sleeping bags and pads Gear and Packs What keeps you warm at night is the pad under you as much as the bag over you.