25 Indoor Activities for Outdoorsy People During Self-Quarantine

By: Sirena Rana Dufault

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While we may all be dreaming of the days when we can travel to our favorite trails again, coronavirus has us inside for now trying to flatten the curve and prevent the spread of the disease. It might be tempting to think you should seek refuge during this time in the great outdoors, but with many park facilities closing and smaller trail towns being particularly vulnerable to an outbreak, choosing to explore some indoor activities is a responsible choice. And, it can be a fun one, too!

To get you started, here’s a list of 25 ideas of things you can do in self-quarantine that don’t include going outside. 

1. Organize and clean your gear (you know it needs it!)

2. Weigh EVERYTHING (it’ll help you make some gear list comparisons for your trips)

3. Read a book about hiking, mountaineering, rafting, or other types of adventure

4. Learn about photo editing

5. Use your new skills to edit photos from a past adventure

6. Tag your photos to organize them, such as by location, feature, or people in the photo

7. Have a dance party!!!

8. Wear your Gossamer Gear pack fully loaded on a “hike” around your house or apartment until you’ve gotten your 10,000 steps in for the day and/or the other people in your house look like they might lose their minds if you take one more lap around them

9. Learn how to roll and stretch out your muscles (Rawlogy.com has tutorials and sells cork balls light enough to take on your next backpacking trip)

10. Figure out what meals you can make with your backpacking food stash

11. Research the next trip you’ll take once restrictions are lifted

12. Look longingly at maps

13. Video conference with friends looking at the same map

14. Learn some knots (Animated Knots is a great resource)

15. Watch YouTube videos of your favorite places or places you’d like to visit

16. Discover the nature in your backyard or out your window

17. Do macro photography around your house or yard, focusing on extreme close-ups of small things in nature

18. Journal the process of this new existence
19. Enjoy some outdoor-themed coloring books (Coloringnature.org has many free pages to print)
20. Use Google Earth for hours of entertainment through virtual exploration, including taking a digital tour of some National Parks
21. Do exercises to build backpacking strength for when you hit the trails again
22. Schedule a video or phone chat with friends and reminisce about all the adventures you’ve taken together
23. Exchange hiker memes with friends and family (or, really, cat memes, celebrity memes, just all of the memes)
24. Write up and share a trip journal with photos from a past adventure
25. Try backyard birding with tips from this article

Don’t feel like doing any of the above? That’s ok, too. This is hard right now. Take the time you need to process.

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