10+ Easy Backpacking Snack Ideas
Ohhhhhhhh I love me some snacks!
I am a huge snacker when it comes to hiking or backpacking. I love to nibble. It is also incredibly good for you to have snacks readily available to you while you are hiking. This way you can keep your energy up and not ‘bonk out’ as I call it. This means basically where you have a massive energy crash and you all the sudden don’t feel like you can hike anymore.
Today I wanted to talk about some of my favorite easy backpacking snack ideas. First and foremost, I make alot of my own snacks. You kind find all sorts of recipes here:
Now lets get into it! My 10+ go to Easy Backpacking Snack Ideas:
The list below are some of my favorite and go to snacks. What I try to do is make sure that I have calorie dense food (lots of calories per ounce of food). I also want to have a variety of food to make my taste buds happy as well as my body happy.
Protein Bars:
Energy Chewies:
Energy Chews are some of my favorite to have readily available. I put them in my side pouch on my hip belt in order to just grab one and chew along the way. They are yummy little gummies that make you feel like your eating candy :)
Stinger Waffles:
These bad boys have become my naughty little treat. I keep these as just that…. a treat. Be careful with these because they are so delicious and lightweight that you could probably eat 10 of them in just one sitting. Now at approximately 140 calories a piece that could be a problem lol. The salted caramel ones are my fave.
Dried or Freeze Dried Fruit:
My absolute favorite place to buy freeze dried fruit is Trader Joes. I love their freeze dried strawberries. They are honestly the best ever. Now freeze dried is so much lighter than dried or dehydrated fruit so if you are backpacking make sure to think about the weight. The positive about dried fruit is the fact that it is a bit more substantial. It actually feels like you are eating fruit where freeze dried is light and airy. This is because regular dried fruit still has alot of water (hence what makes it heavier).
Jerky:
Man oh man oh man is jerky my go to snack. You will not find me on the trail without jerky. Just saying.
I use to buy bags of jerky; however, jerky has gotten so incredibly expensive it is quite ridiculous. I also was tired of buying the bags of jerky and throwing away the big thick plastic bag. It just didn’t sit right with me, so I started experimenting with jerky recipes. I have found a couple that I absolutely love.
Dehydrated veggies:
If I am hiking I will typically bring some fresh sugar snap peas. These are just nice to snack on as they add that satisfying crunch to them.
If I am backpacking I will probably either make my own dehydrated veggies, or I will buy some sort of green bean or snap peas at trader joes. These are yummy, salty, and have a crunch just like a chip.
Nut Butter Packets:
These are healthy and yummy and give you energy! There are so many different flavors out there anymore it can be kinda fun to pick and choose which ones you want. They are packed with calories and are a wonderful healthy fat.
Now when I say these come in all sorts of flavors I really mean it. There is peanut, almond, and cashew butters. They are flavored like chocolate peanut butter, vanilla almond butter, maple almond butter, honey peanut butter and so much more. They are pretty dang awesome.
Trail Mix:
There are so many delicious trail mixes out there it really just depends on your taste buds. There are ones with chocolate, without chocolate, with dried fruit, with berries, with pineapple I mean it really just depends on what you like.
For me, I love the ones with chocolate, but you have to be careful here because chocolate will typically melt out backpacking. So, you will need to put your trail mix somewhere where it will stay a bit cooler, and not in the sun.
I also love making my own trail mix :)
My absolute favorite store bought trail mix is from Walmart called Indulgent. It is pretty much the perfect amount of sweet and salty.
Gum:
I like to stay busy so gum is just a necessity for me no matter where I go. I think it is just a weird nervous habit, but I take my gum everywhere with me. I have been trying to find a gum that doesn’t have the fake sugar in it and that still has a long lasting flavor. The best one I have found so far is Xylichew and Pur
Sunflower Seeds:
Sunflower seeds are pretty awesome because they keep you busy and provide you with salt. They aren’t very nutritious and don’t add many calories, but they are lightweight and good for snacking.
I love getting different flavors of sunflower seeds to keep things fun and interesting.
Popcorn:
Amazing when out backpacking, but crushes easily. If you are going to bring popcorn you need to make sure to either keep it in a bear can on the top or keep it in the very tippy top of your backpack. This way it doesn’t get crushed and just become popcorn dust.
One thing I love about popcorn is that you can make it yourself! Just air pop that stuff, add some salt, and throw it in a bag. Boom Baby!
Bonus! Here are some ‘not so healthy’ Backpacking snack ideas:
Crackers
Chips
Starbursts and/or Jolly ranchers
Corn nuts
Alright, there you have it! One huge list of easy backpacking snack ideas. Do you have any go to snack for hiking or backpacking? Make sure to comment below. I want this to be a community where we help each other out, give each other ideas, and really just support each other :)
Happy Adventuring and snacking!
Bessie
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