Right now I’m in the process of planning our two week Utah and Arizona national park road trip. Since we are planning on hiking most days and don’t want to leave the park mid-day for lunch, a lot of my planning has been around figuring out what hiking snacks and lunches we want to pick up once we get there. Whether you’re planning a long road trip, a short backpacking trip, or just a long day hike, here are some great hiking food ideas and snacks for bringing along in your pack.
Day Hiking Food Ideas for Lunch
If you’re planning on a hike longer than a few hours, you’ll likely need to pack a lunch. In most cases this will probably consist of a sandwich for day hikers as you won’t be carrying a stove or other gear to make more elaborate meals, but here are some ways to mix up your hiking lunch options.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
Peanut butter and jelly are some of my favorite options for sandwiches. They’re easy to make and pack, and you don’t need to worry about keeping the sandwich cold since nothing will spoil on your average day hike. The peanut butter provides some caloric dense options to replace all the calories you burn on the trail and both the peanut butter and the jelly can provide a bit of sugar to help you power through both the short term and the longer term as you finish up your hike.
Meat and Cheese
While you may need to be a bit more careful in high temperatures bringing along meat and cheese, this is also a great option for lunch on the trail. If you carry a bag with a water bladder, you could easily slide some ice cubes inside the bladder and pack your sandwich close to the bladder to keep everything cool until lunch time. You could make this as a sandwich, just cut up pieces of meat and cheese, or roll up some pieces of lunchmeat and slices of cheese without the bread for a quick grab and go option.
Read: Hike Upstate New York in 5 Miles or Less
Tuna Packets
While I’m not a huge fan of tuna, there is no denying that tuna is a great option for hiking both short and longer hikes. You can easily buy some pouches at the store that are stored at room temperature and not too heavy to add to your day pack. Tuna is also a relatively cheap way to get some more protein your muscles will need after hiking all morning.
Hummus Wraps
If you have any dietary restrictions to the above hiking lunch suggestions, you can also always bring along wraps. One of the biggest troubles with bringing sandwiches is that the bread is fragile and can get smashed in your bag. One way to combat this is to replace the bread with wraps. One of my roommate’s suggestions is to make a quick wrap using hummus as a spread. I like adding in other items which could include veggies like finely diced carrots, cucumbers, or peppers. You could even add some lunch meat like turkey or some tuna if you prefer a bit more substance.
Bagels
Bagels are another good way to get in some grains and aren’t quite as fragile as sandwich bread that can be easily smashed in your pack. Add on a spread like peanut butter and you have yourself a great hiking snack. Be wary of bringing refrigerated items like cream cheese though as that may not keep well during your hike.
Best Day Hiking Snacks
Dried Fruit
Dried fruit is one of my favorite hiking snacks because it packs a lot of punch into a small package. Try to bring some apples or oranges on a day hike and you’ll succeed only in making your backpack quite heavy. Instead, I opt for dried apricots and apples. My favorite dried fruit option though is That’s It fruit bars. They press an apple with another fruit (pineapple, mango, and blueberry are some of the options) into a sweet little bar that are honestly so delicious, I have a hard time just eating one! They are a bit on the pricey side though, so your other option is to stock up on bulk dried fruit from the grocery store. You can even mix things up a bit more and buy options like yogurt covered raisins.
Nuts
Nuts such as almonds, peanuts and cashews make for easy, nutrient dense food on the trail. Salted nuts also provide much needed salts to keep your electrolytes in balance when taking in a lot of water on hot days. Almonds are my personal favorite for this and we always have a Ziploc bag full of salted almonds as one of our day hike snack staples.
Pretzels or Crackers
If you are allergic to nuts, pretzels are another salty option for snacking during the day. They are easy to eat and great to snack on throughout the day for both the salt and the carbohydrates. You could replace pretzels here with other options like Goldfish crackers, Cheez-Its or Ritz crackers as well.
Granola and/or Granola Bars
There’s a reason that tons of companies market granola bars and other similar “energy bars” to hikers. Some granola bar combinations rely on multiple items from this list, but can also have a lot of added stuff that isn’t really necessary. Also be wary of anything with chocolate if you’ll be hiking in hot weather. The last thing you want is for your snacks to melt in the heat. Sometimes we do like to bring along granola bars and other times we’ll just bring along granola you might put on some yogurt in a Ziploc to eat handfuls of as we walk.
Beef Jerky
Beef jerky is another one of those foods that packs a punch for less weight. Jerky is typically salty but also provides some good protein that you won’t find in most of the other snacks on this list. Unfortunately beef jerky is one of the more expensive options on this list, but we splurge for this snack every so often. I typically go for the more tender honey barbecue flavored jerky options.
Fresh Vegetables
Fresh veggies tend to be a bit heavier weight than most of the foods on this list, but they can provide a lot of good vitamins and are typically better than fruits since they won’t have any messy waste (think apple cores or orange peels) to pack out with you. I like to bring some of the sturdier vegetables like carrots, celery, or slices of green peppers since they won’t get smashed in your day pack. You can even pair carrots with hummus or celery with some peanut butter to get more nutrients out of your snack.
Once we gather all these snacks we stick them in our packs (check out the gear we use) and head out on adventures! What other snacks do you enjoy while hiking? What makes them your favorite?
