The Best Gifts for Hiker Friends Always Includes a Hatchet

Buying gifts for the outdoor enthusiast is damn near impossible. Your hiking/camping/cycling outdoorsy friends are often serious gearheads, meticulously poring over reviews, guides, and the perennial wisdom of ounce-counting Reddit users to find the exact right thing.

Don’t stress trying to pick that exact right thing yourself. The chances of you figuring it out and getting it for them as a gift is exactly zero. That doesn’t mean you should punt and buy an REI gift card, though (although they might like that). Instead, get them something they totally didn’t expect—one of these fun, but useful, sometimes whimsical, things that are almost guaranteed to not only delight them but actually get used outdoors.

And what about you? While you’re here, don’t you need to replace your sleeping pad? Don’t forget to check out the rest of our buying guides, including our Best Sleeping Bags guide, our Best Barefoot Shoes guide, and our Best Merino Wool guide.

Updated October 2025: We’ve added several new picks, and swapped out some picks for things we’ve discovered we like more. But we’re sticking with the socks. If you get nothing else, just get the socks. Trust us.