Trail Mix — Build Your Own for Hiking and Camping

Trail mix (or scroggin if you're a serious bushwalker) is the original on-the-go fuel — nuts, seeds, dried fruit, sometimes chocolate. Done well, it's the perfect hiking/camping snack: dense calories, no refrigeration, no spoilage, infinitely customisable to taste and budget. Done badly, it's just a bag of dusty supermarket shrapnel.

Make your own from quality ingredients and it transforms a hike. Here's the practical guide.

Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash

Five base food groups make up almost every great trail mix:

1. Nuts — dense protein and fats, slow-burn energy
2. Seeds — protein, fibre, micronutrients
3. Grains/cereals — fast-burn carbs and crunch
4. Dried fruit — natural sugars, vitamins, chewy contrast
5. Sweets/chocolate — quick sugar boost + morale

The art is balancing these for the trip type. Day-walking with kids = more sweets, less raw nuts. Multi-day endurance hike = more nuts, less sweets, more dried fruit.

Nuts are the energy density champion — high in fats and protein, slow-burning, satiating. The Aussie favourites:

• Almonds — versatile, mild flavour, holds up well to summer heat
• Cashews — sweeter, softer texture, kids love them
• Macadamias — rich and buttery (and Australian!)
• Walnuts — slightly bitter, brain-friendly omega-3s
• Brazil nuts — dense, selenium-rich, large pieces
• Pistachios — fun shells but messy at camp; pre-shell at home
• Peanuts — technically a legume, but they're the cheap workhorse

Avoid salted or roasted-in-oil versions — too much salt accelerates dehydration. Plain or dry-roasted is better. Some lightly salted in the mix is fine for taste.

Photo: Marcos Paulo Prado / Unsplash

• Pumpkin seeds (pepitas) — high in zinc and magnesium, mild flavour, great chew
• Sunflower seeds — cheapest, light, good filler
• Sesame seeds — small but calorie-dense, easy on digestion
• Linseed/flaxseed — high omega-3, but ground or whole work differently — whole adds texture
• Chia seeds — nutritional powerhouse, but tiny so they sink to the bottom

Seeds are excellent fibre, vitamin E, and protein sources. Use sparingly though — too many seeds make for a dusty mix.

• Rolled oats — slow-release energy, low GI, cheap
• Granola/muesli clusters — sweet, crunchy, kids love them
• Roasted soybeans — high protein, satisfying crunch
• Pretzel sticks — salty contrast, surprisingly good in trail mix
• Mini rice crackers — light, gluten-free option
• Wheat puffs / spelt puffs — light, airy, fills volume

For sustained energy, lean toward low-GI options (oats, soybeans). For quick boosts, sweetened cereals are fine but treat them like sweets — small amounts.

Photo: Gerardo Ramos / Unsplash

• Sultanas/raisins — classic, cheap, sweet, slow-release
• Dried cranberries — tarter, more interesting flavour
• Dried apricots — sweet, chewy, high vitamin A
• Dried mango — tropical and addictive (Aussie kids' favourite)
• Dried apple, pear, pineapple — light, kid-friendly
• Dates — sugar bomb, very dense calories, great for hard climbs
• Dried banana chips — crunchy alternative to chewy fruit

Mix sweet (mango, dates) with tarter (cranberries, apricots) for balance. Avoid candied fruit (cherries, mixed peel) — too sweet and lose nutrition.

• M&Ms or Smarties — the candy shell stops them melting (mostly). The classic addition
• Dark chocolate chunks — better nutrition than milk chocolate. Won't melt unless above 30°C+
• Yoghurt-coated almonds/raisins — adult favourite
• Mini marshmallows — sugar bomb but kids love them
• Crystallised ginger — surprising and excellent for nausea

Hot weather warning: chocolate melts. In summer hiking, either skip chocolate or carry it separately and add to the mix at break time. M&M-style candy-shelled chocolate is more heat-resistant.

Avoid: caffeine pills, energy bars, anything with artificial sweeteners. The natural-sugar boost from dried fruit is more sustained.

Hiker's Endurance Mix (high protein, sustained energy):

• 1 cup almonds
• 1 cup cashews
• ½ cup pumpkin seeds
• ½ cup sultanas
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ¼ cup dark chocolate chunks (skip in summer)

Family Day-Trip Mix (kid-friendly, sweeter):

• 1 cup peanuts
• 1 cup pretzel sticks (broken)
• 1 cup granola clusters
• ½ cup dried mango pieces
• ½ cup banana chips
• ½ cup M&Ms

Mix in a big bowl, store in airtight containers (mason jars at home, snap-lock bags or reusable silicone pouches for the trail). Decant into a sandwich bag for the day's pocket portion. Keeps 4-6 weeks at room temperature.

Pre-mixed trail mix from supermarkets is fine in a pinch but it's twice the price for half the quality. Buy nuts and dried fruit in bulk from health-food stores, mix to your taste, and you've got a year's worth of hiking snacks for the cost of a few weeks of supermarket bags.

And the kids actually love being involved — let them choose the ratios for their own bag. Suddenly hiking becomes about THEIR mix, and the snack break becomes a highlight, not a forced ten minutes of complaining.