3 Ways to Light Your River Camp

What’s the best lighting for your river camp? We’ve found that it depends entirely on when you roll into camp. The earlier you land, the less the lighting matters from a practical standpoint. You can get the kitchen set up, serve dinner, and do the dishes in the waning summer evening light. Camp lighting can be atmospheric in this situation: Hang a string of Luci lights, and you’re done.

*Solar string lights in Labyrinth Canyon*

But if you’re sailing into camp at near dark for whatever reason—or you’re boating in the off-season—good camp lighting is a matter of practicality and safety. You need to see whether you’re getting those dishes clean, and you need to make sure no one loses a finger while cutting up veggies. (For tips on keeping people warm on a late fall river trip, check out “A Few Take-Aways from our Thanksgiving on the River.”)

Here’s a rundown of ways to light your river camp, with a few notes on what has worked best for us. (Note: Some of these links are to our affiliate partners, so we might make a small commission if you buy something, but at no cost to you.)

1. Headlamps

Headlamps are hands-down the most useful light for camp. You can get by with a headlamp and no other light source if need be. But a headlamp is a must—perfect for doing dishes, finding things on the table, scouring camp before bedtime, finding the groover, digging stuff out of the rafts—without creating a huge, glaring light show. Bonus points for headlamps that have red bulbs so you don’t randomly blind your fellow campers.

What to look for in a river camp headlamp:

Water-resistant: Headlamps don’t have to be tough enough to survive a complete dunk in the river, but it’s helpful if they don’t sputter out in a rainstorm.
Rechargeable: The cost of all those little AAA batteries starts to add up quickly, plus they’re wasteful. If you can get a system going with a battery recharger and sufficient batteries to always have a set charging and a set in use, you will save money and resources. Choose a headlamp that uses both regular batteries and rechargeable batteries if you’re worried about nailing the system. One of the best, and most affordable choices for a rechargeable headlamp is the Petzl Actik Core headlamp.
Comfortable: The weight of the headlamp and the way the band fits is a huge factor in how happy you’ll be with the headlamp in river camp. You want a band that feels snug and comfortable. You can get away with a headlamp that’s not super-lightweight if you’re just using it in camp (rather than for trail running, for example). But the band needs to feel good. Some of our river friends like the type that have a band over the top of the head as well as around the head to cut down on the potential for slippage. (The Black Diamond Icon 700 is a good example—this one is pricey but emits a powerful light.)
Red-light option: This setting comes in very handy for keeping ambient lighting low in camp and avoiding blinding your friends.
Simple settings: For river camp, you don’t need a lot of settings. You basically need the thing to turn on, have a couple of brightness settings, and a red light setting. To avoid having to mess with headlamp settings instead of getting the dishes done, choose a headlamp that’s simple and usable.
Brightness: Because this might be your only light in camp, you want a decent amount of brightness. We’ve found that 400 lumens is a good target.
Lockable on/off switch: This feature can save battery life as it keeps the light from turning on during transit.

Based on these points, here are a few headlamps that work well for river trippers:

All-around pick: The Petzl Actik Core headlamp ticks most of the boxes above. It’s rechargeable, but also works with regular AAA batteries. It has only one button, so adjustments are easy. Max brightness is 450 lumens, and it includes a red-light setting. Other nifty things: It’s somewhat water-resistant (splashing is cool; submersion not); you can wash the band to expunge river stink, and—my favorite feature—you can lock the on/off switch so it won’t turn on randomly and drain the battery.
Great waterproof choice: The Black Diamond Storm 500-R is fully submersible, dustproof, rechargeable, and has a max light output of 500 lumens. It also has a “brightness memory” that retains the latest setting you used rather than reverting to the default setting—super handy for not blinding your river friends.
Great choice for kids: the Petzl Tikkina headlamp, which gets the job done for $20, so it won’t hurt so much when it gets broken or lost.
If you’re buying more than one: Having a couple of inexpensive headlamps on hand for those who might have forgotten theirs is a great idea. A couple of good ones for this purpose are the aforementioned Petzl Tikkina and the highly rated Black Diamond Astro 300, which has an impressive number of features for the price, including the ability to run on alkaline batteries or rechargeable lithium ion batteries.

Handy headlamp tip: Put your headlamp on as soon as you hit camp, or at least when you set up your tent, so you’re not wandering around in the dark looking for it later in the evening.

2. Solar lights

Luci lights are now common in river camps, but before they arrived on the scene, the options for lighting camp without lugging battery-powered lanterns were slim. We love the original Luci lights and all their offspring, including Luci string lights. Especially as rampant wildfires have made fire bans the default on western rivers, solar lighting is a perfect substitute for setting the mood and creating a focal point for folks to gather. Over time, we’ve become so enamored of “Luci light fires” that we’ve stopped building fires in camp even when we’re allowed to. Nixing the campfire means less smoke to breathe, no more worries about people getting burned, and zero ash clean-up.

Solar lanterns and a water bottle in river camp — *Still life with solar lanterns and a water bottle on the Grand (photo by Ellen Marshall)*

Some great uses for solar lights in camp:

Lighting the kitchen area: Although they’re not bright enough for task lighting, solar lanterns can at least show you where the table ends, where the trash is, and other essential information.
Setting the mood: Solar lights come in all sorts of colors and formats now, so you can use various combinations to create ambience in camp. We’re especially fond of string lights in strategic places.
Creating a cool campfire: Clustered in a group, solar lights make a nice glow that draws people in. They don’t add any heat to a hot desert night, they’re no-mess, and they are sustainable.
Lighting the path to the groover: We recently took an 80-year-old on her first overnight river trip (go, Mom!), and we wanted to make sure she was comfortable navigating to the groover and back. Luci lights worked perfectly for showing the way. Lighting the groover path is especially important if the groover location isn’t obvious, or to help folks avoid obstacles along the way. (For more about groovers, see our guide to buying and setting up your river toilet.)
Lighting your tent: Clipped to the top loop inside your tent, solar lanterns make a lovely glow in your tent, enough light to find your bedtime gear if not to read a book.

Solar lanterns in river camp — ***Solar lanterns*** *light the path to the groover*

Our favorite solar lanterns:

Luci Outdoor 2.0 Inflatable Solar Lantern: These are classic. They smash flat, are waterproof, have survived years of river trips, charge up quickly, and come in a variety of colors. (The frosted ones cast a nice, warm glow.) You can’t have enough of these, so we highly recommend you buy them as gifts for your favorite river runners.
Luci Solar Color String Lights: One string of these will create a nice vibe for the evening, and can help mark paths as well.
Goal Zero Crush Light Lantern: The great innovation with these lanterns is you don’t have to inflate them! (Sometimes you get tired of eating the sand that invariably gets lodged in the inflatable ones.)

3. Camp lanterns

Although we rarely pull these out, we typically have a couple of big, bright, battery-powered lanterns in the dry box for times when we just need some good lighting quickly, with no messing around—for example, doing after-dark first aid, checking that all the boats are still tied off, and confirming the presence of raccoons or other pests. These also come in handy when you’re boating in the off-season, the sun goes down at 5:30, and you need good light in the kitchen camp for an hour or so.

What to look for in a camp lantern:

Wide beam: The point of a lantern (rather than a headlamp) is to cast a wide beam, so you can see a large area at once. Multidirectional lanterns are a great choice.
Bright light: Aim for at least 400 lumens, but if you can find one with 600 lumens, even better.
Compact: A lantern that won’t take up too much space in the dry box is best.

A couple of great choices:

Nite Ize 400: We have two of these compact, easy-on lights. Downside: They aren’t rechargeable, and they use 3 D-cell batteries. But they’re rugged and water-resistant so we’ve found them to be reliable when we need a big light.
Goal Zero Lighthouse 600 Lantern: 600 lumens of adjustable, multi-directional light in a rechargeable package. One of the best aspects of this lantern is, although is burns through the battery in about 2 hours when it’s running on high-beam, you can recharge it with solar power or with the hand crank. It has a stand, or you can hang it.

River camp lantern — *River camp dinner in November lit by a **Nite-Ize** battery-powered lantern*

Turn the camp lights down low

Although you need some lights in camp, after the dishes are done and everyone knows how to find their stuff, it’s good to occasionally just cut the lights and look at the stars. If you’ve ever done a trip in Desolation Canyon or Labyrinth Canyon, you know the magic of taking in the constellations set against a truly dark sky. It’s a good thing in that situation to call lights out.