Tents to Trails: The Top 3 Outdoor Gear Review Blogs on the ‘Net

For the vast majority of us living in the northern hemisphere, camping season is unfortunately coming to a close. Yes, there are still those brave souls who like to do their camping when its coldest (kind of like the Polar Bear Club, but for more outdoorsy types) but most of us will be packing up our tents and hibernating until warmer weather. 

This, of course, means it’s the perfect time to buy some new gear since most items will be drastically marked down for the end of the season!

Here, we’re going to look at some of the best camping gear review blogs out there so you can start planning for the springtime. Of course, you could always just venture out into that great, snowy yonder with some sled dogs and, if you’re thinking about that, you’ll probably want to have the best gear, in the best condition, possible!

Gear Junkie

If your ideal weekend starts with a little happy hour at REI followed by two days camping in the wilderness, you’ve probably already heard of Gear Junkie. They’re one of the foremost voices in camping gear reviews and news you can use. From flannel fashion to rechargeable no-smoke fireplaces (that will charge your device too!), Gear Junkie is always on the forefront of the camping scene and covering all the technological advances.

Even if you’re the most gung ho primitive camper, shirking anything but a pup tent, flint and a buck knife, you’ll find something to interest you on the site. In addition to gear reviews, they also offer survival methods and cool videos if you’re looking to just pass the time.

OutdoorGearLab

OutdoorGearLab is another one of those amazing sites that simply exists for the sake of helping people. Okay, yes, the site still definitely makes plenty of money, but they’ve positioned themselves admirably in the sphere of outdoor camping gear reviews.

Look no further than their mission statement if you need to be convinced just how seriously these folks take their jobs:

• We select the top products in each category.
• We buy the products we review ourselves, at retail just like you, to help assure complete objectivity and independence in our ratings. We will not accept free evaluation units from manufacturers.
• Our OutdoorGearLab Review Editors put the products through detailed side-by-side tests, both in the lab and in the field, and carefully assess performance, ease of use, and reliability.
• We rank the products, explain why, and give awards to the best.
• After our testing and reviews are finished, we sell reviewed products on eBay at big discounts. Check out the: OutdoorGearLab eBay Store

On top of that, they’re not just reviewing these items in their backyards, but taking them through real life camping and extreme weather situations. There’s nothing better than people who love what they do and are out there doing what they love! 

If you’re more a tech person, you should definitely check out their sister site, TechGearLab, where they apply the same rigorous testing to consumer electronics, and their BabyGearLab, which reviews products for the little ones.

Backpacker

Backpacker is the only outlet on this list that is still hanging onto a physical publication and for good reason, they’re one of the most well-known outdoor lifestyle magazines and one of the most widely read: to the tune of a 1.1 million total audience!

While their gear reviews are incredibly helpful, they also offer so much more than many of the other sites on this list. For one, they have the “Ask a Bear” series, which we’re pretty fond of. While this might seem like a joke (and it kind of is), the in-house bruin offers good camping advice and necessary bear facts (just the “bear” essentials, of course) so you don’t run afoul of any large predators while you’re in the wild. 

In addition, they’ve got popular camping, hiking and biking trips categorized by each state, fireside recipes, and articles covering basic outdoors skills to more advanced survival aids. Backpacker really is a one-stop shop for all of your outdoor and camping needs!

Also, be sure to check out their “Stories” section, which has some very cool, and harrowing, survival stories written by the people who lived them!

There’s just a few weekends left of camping season (unless you’re in the South, in which case you’re camping year round) so you might want to jump on the sales and hit trails! Then again, you could always harness up those huskies and pitch your tent in the snow! Either way you do it, we hope you get the right gear for the right price, and these sites are sure to help you do just that.