With every Tracks & Trails RV trip come memorable miles behind the wheel, unforgettable moments of togetherness, and vistas that will leave you in total awe. However, when exploring unfamiliar places, setting out on new adventures, and undertaking pursuits that aren’t in your normal wheelhouse, some bumps and bruises can happen along the way. That’s why a good first aid kit is near the top of our recommended packing list. Here are some of our suggestions for choosing the gear to bring along, and a few tips for using it.

Questions to Get You Started

When it comes to your first aid kit, customization is key. Whether you are buying a stock one or building from scratch, here are a few questions that can help guide you in choosing or building the one that’s right for you:

1. What’s your budget?

This is a very practical question, but an important starting place. This will help determine whether you buy a fully-stocked pre-made kit, build your own, or choose a mix of the two.

2. Does anyone in your family have special medical needs?

If anyone regularly takes medications, needs glasses, or has medical considerations like asthma or allergies, you’ll want to keep an extra set of meds, glasses, inhalers, epipens, etc…in your kit. If you let your doctor know that you’ll be heading out on longer hikes, rafting trips, or other excursions that take you outside of the normal range of medical care, they will likely be happy to write an extra prescription for you.

3. How many people are in your group?

Not all first aid kits are built the same. A quality kit will be built around the number of people its contents can support. A family of four will need a smaller kit than a multi-family group of 10, but if you have any kids in the group, having extra BandAids will go a long way to making boo-boos of all types feel better.

4. What excursions do you have planned?

Will you be rafting the Yellowstone River on your trip or fishing your way through Colorado? If so, you’ll want to choose a fully-waterproof kit or purchase a dry bag for the kit you build. Whereas if you’re just hiking, biking, and horseback riding, a water-resistant one that can handle a little rain splatter should do the trick.

5. What level of first aid skills do you have?

There is a wide variety of kits built for varying levels of injury severity and for varying levels of skills to administer to them. A good quality kit will have a guide or book with instructions for reasonable procedures you can learn, but if you’re not a medical practitioner or first responder, then save your money and don’t buy the first-responder level kit. (If you’d like to become a wilderness first responder, the NOLS WFR course is a highly respected one in the outdoor industry.)

The Basics of Stocking Your Kit

Whether buying a pre-made kit or fully building your own, make sure you are well-stocked in the following areas that address the types of injuries you’re most likely to run into when exploring the National Parks:

1. Burns & Blisters

The most common ailment you’ll deal with is blisters from hitting the trails or getting wet feet as you explore new horizons. Moleskin, hydro-gel dressings, and duct tape are kit-essentials to address these.

2. Cuts & Scrapes

Pack plenty of BandAids, bandages, sterile dressings, and a triple antibiotic like Neosporin to prevent infection.

3. Medicines

Individual packets or small bottle sizes of common medicines should be included in your kit. Ibuprofen and acetaminophen for pain, swelling, and fevers, Imodium and Pepto Bismol for stomach upset, and Benadryl for allergic reactions.

4. Tools

Nitrile gloves are a must to keep caregivers protected, tweezers for extracting cactus spines and splinters, Ace bandages to wrap sprains or strains, an irrigation syringe for cleaning cuts and scrapes, medical scissors (the ones with the rounded tips and the bend in the middle) for cutting off clothing or sizing bandages, and duct tape and safety pins for securing bandages (or MacGyvering just about anything) are basic tools that should be included in every first aid kit.

5. Major Bleeding

In case of a more serious emergency, a SWAT-T Tourniquet, triangle bandage, and/or QuikClot gauze can be useful additions to your kit.

6. Instructions

In conjunction with #5 from our questions list, if you don’t have first aid training, a first aid pamphlet or more comprehensive wilderness medicine first aid book with diagrams is an essential asset for your kit.