The Outdoors
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50 free The Outdoors trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Time outside comes with its own body of knowledge: how to read a map, build a fire, tie a rope that holds, and tell a harmless plant from one that will ruin your week. It also comes with great stories, from accidental inventions to climbs and treks that made history. This quiz covers the outdoors the way people actually enjoy it: camping and campfire cooking, hiking and long-distance routes, fishing and hunting, climbing and paddling, national parks, navigation by compass and stars, survival basics, classic gear, and the adventurers and conservationists behind it all. It is written for campers, anglers, hunters, hikers, scout leaders and anyone planning a trivia night at the cabin or around the fire. The questions start easy and get tougher, and every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play straight through or print it for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which fastener did George de Mestral devise after burrs stuck to his dog on an Alpine hunting trip?
Velcro
Velcro copies the hundreds of tiny hooks de Mestral saw when he put the burrs under a microscope. Its name blends the French words velours and crochet, meaning velvet and hook.
Q 02Which US president protected about 230 million acres and inspired the teddy bear on a hunting trip?
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a black bear that his guides had tied to a tree in Mississippi in 1902, and a newspaper cartoon of the scene inspired the toy.
Q 03Which youth organization's campers were recorded making s'mores, then called Some Mores, in the mid-1920s?
Girl Scouts
The Girl Scouts were toasting Some Mores at camp by the mid-1920s, sandwiching chocolate and marshmallow between graham crackers. The name only shrank to s'more in the 1930s.
Q 04Which reserve, signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, is widely seen as the world's first national park?
Yellowstone
Yellowstone holds well over half of the world's geysers, including Old Faithful, which an early expedition named for erupting so regularly.
Q 05According to the survival rule of threes, a person can last roughly three weeks without which necessity?
Food
Food comes last in the rule of threes: about three minutes without air, three hours without shelter in harsh weather and three days without water all run out first.
Q 06Which treasure-hunting hobby began in May 2000, a day after civilian GPS signals became far more accurate?
Geocaching
Geocaching began when Dave Ulmer part-buried a black plastic bucket near Beavercreek, Oregon, and posted its coordinates online. Its contents included a can of beans and a slingshot.
Q 07Which winter sport grew out of the Snurfer, a toy Sherman Poppen made in 1965 by fastening two skis together?
Snowboarding
Snowboarding began as a toy for Poppen's daughters. His wife Nancy named it the Snurfer, from snow and surfer, and about a million were sold over the next decade.
Q 08Which US Forest Service mascot has fronted America's longest-running public service ad campaign since 1944?
Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear has no "the" in his official name. The writers of a 1952 hit song about him added the word only to keep the rhythm, and the mistake stuck.
Q 09Which pungent crop supplies the active ingredient in the deterrent spray hikers carry in grizzly country?
Chili peppers
Chili peppers likely make capsaicin to deter mammals from eating them, and the same irritant halted unwanted bear behavior in 92% of the Alaskan cases in a 2008 review.
Q 10Which extreme sport was inspired by Vanuatu islanders who leap from wooden towers with vines tied to their ankles?
Bungee jumping
Bungee jumping began on 1 April 1979, when members of Oxford's Dangerous Sports Club leapt from Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge after discussing the Vanuatu ritual.
Q 11Which footpath runs almost 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine?
Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian Trail passes through 14 states and was completed in 1937. Thru-hikers set out to walk the whole route within twelve months.
Q 12Which New Zealand beekeeper reached the summit of Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953?
Edmund Hillary
Edmund Hillary kept bees in summer and climbed in winter. From 1960 he devoted himself to the Sherpa people of Nepal, and his trust built many schools and hospitals there.
Q 13Which star do stargazers find by extending a line through the two pointer stars of the Big Dipper's bowl?
Polaris
Q 21Which angling method uses a heavy line to cast an almost weightless lure tied from feathers, fur or yarn?
Fly fishing
Fly fishing lures imitate the insects and other small prey that fish feed on. A dry fly is made to float on the surface like the real thing.
Q 22Which bony headgear do male white-tailed deer shed and regrow every year, covered in velvet while it grows?
Antlers
Antlers are shed and regrown each year, unlike horns, which usually stay for life. Reindeer are the only deer whose females grow them too.
Q 23Which compound is the chalk that rock climbers and gymnasts rub on their hands to keep a firm grip?
Magnesium carbonate
Polaris lies less than one degree from the north celestial pole, which is why travelers have long used it to find north. It is actually a triple star system.
Q 14Which plant, identified by clusters of three leaflets, causes an itchy rash through an oil called urushiol?
Poison ivy
Poison ivy causes a rash in most people who touch it, yet its fruits are a favorite winter meal for turkeys and some other birds.
Q 15Which pocket tool did Karl Elsener's firm, later named Victorinox, begin making for soldiers in 1891?
Swiss Army knife
The Swiss Army knife got its English name from American soldiers after World War II, who used it in place of the German word Offiziersmesser, meaning officer's knife.
Q 16Which Scottish-born naturalist, called the Father of the National Parks, co-founded the Sierra Club in 1892?
John Muir
John Muir once walked about 1,000 miles from Kentucky to Florida, a trek he described in a book. His later writing helped persuade Congress to create Yosemite National Park in 1890.
Q 17Which cold-weather condition can make victims remove their own clothes, a symptom known as paradoxical undressing?
Hypothermia
Hypothermia sets in when core body temperature falls below 35 °C (95 °F). Shivering stops and confusion deepens as it worsens, and in severe cases victims may undress.
Q 18Which tick-borne illness, a risk for woodland hikers, is named after a town in Connecticut?
Lyme disease
Lyme disease was first diagnosed as a separate condition in Lyme, Connecticut, in 1975. About 80% of infections begin with a rash at the site of the tick bite.
Q 19Which hiking snack of nuts, dried fruit and sometimes chocolate do North American backpackers nickname gorp?
Trail mix
Trail mix dates at least to the 1910s, when outdoorsman Horace Kephart recommended nuts, raisins and chocolate in his popular guide Camping and Woodcraft.
Q 20Which slim paddling boat was first built by Inuit, Yupik and Aleut hunters from seal skins stretched over a frame?
Kayak
Each kayak was traditionally a personal craft, built by the man who would use it and shaped closely to fit his own body for maximum maneuverability.
Magnesium carbonate acts as a drying agent on the hands, soaking up sweat. Climbers can also buy it in a liquid form.
Q 24In campfire building, what name is given to the small sticks that catch from tinder and ignite larger logs?
Kindling
Kindling covers anything bigger than tinder but smaller than fuel wood, from sticks thinner than a finger to ones as thick as a wrist.
Q 25Which Yosemite granite monolith did Alex Honnold climb alone without ropes in June 2017, as filmed for Free Solo?
El Capitan
El Capitan rises about 3,000 feet from base to summit. The film of Honnold's ropeless ascent won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Q 26Which US state is home to five national parks: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion?
Utah
Utah has the third most national parks of any state, behind only Alaska and California. Canyons, arches, pinnacles and mesas dominate its southern landscape.
Q 27Which Alaskan sled dog race, first run in 1973, normally takes mushers from Anchorage to Nome each March?
Iditarod
The Iditarod takes mushers and their teams of 12 to 16 dogs anywhere from 8 to 15 days or more, crossing the Alaska Range before following the Bering Sea coast.
Q 28Which hiking route runs 2,653 miles from the Mexican border to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington?
Pacific Crest Trail
The Pacific Crest Trail climbs to 13,153 feet at Forester Pass. The trail's association recognizes Eric Ryback, an 18-year-old student, as its first thru-hiker, in 1970.
Q 29Which outdoor ethics program condenses low-impact camping into seven principles, such as disposing of waste properly?
Leave No Trace
Leave No Trace once had as many as 75 guidelines. A nonprofit formed in 1994 organized them into the seven principles taught today.
Q 30Which spring-gated climbing loop is named after a hook soldiers used to hang guns from their belts?
Carabiner
Carabiner is short for the German Karabinerhaken, the hook that carabiniers used to clip their carbines to their belts. Climbing models are typically rated to 20 kN or more.