Is it safer to travel at night or day in the wilderness? Could you please give me some examples ie desert, forest, plains, jungle, mountains. I read on one of the posts that using the moon and stars was kind of a waste of time but how can that be? Anyways, any feed back would be greatly appreciated!

It is very difficult to navigate at night. It is much easier to to get off course because of limited visibility.

When I was in the Army, one of the tricks I used, when the terrain made it possible, was to use land marks to aid in keeping myself in the correct direction. It worked well, and I was always able to find the point I was searching for. Many land marks may not be seen at night.

At night you could use the stars to help you navigate. I do not recommend using the moon. It moves across the sky and could cause you to go off course. Another problem with navigating at night is not being able to see dangers to yourself. You could easily find yourself falling into a pit, over a cliff, or even encounter a dangerous animal if you cannot see what is ahead.

I do recommend that everyone knows how to navigate at day and night. There are conditions in which traveling at night could be beneficial. The desert is a good example. You can conserve water by limiting your exertion to when it is cooler. This would increase your chances of survival. In combat situations we traveled at night to prevent detection by the enemy. If you need to be able to move undetected by others that is the best time to travel.

If you are new to navigating, I recommend learning during the day until you are able to find exact points. After that start navigating at night in areas that you know and slowly branch out. You would be surprised how much different a known area looks at night. If you do manage to get lost in a known area at night you can always get yourself out once the sun comes up. This way you will not turn a training excursion into a full blown survival incident.

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Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

NRA Certified Instructor for Basic Handgun and Personal protection in the Home.
V.F.W. Life Member
NRA Member
U.S. Army Veteran

Thank you for the info! It is very helpful to know all these things and having people who have done it before is an asset.

In addition to that, use dusk to prep for your travel and dawn to prep your shelter for the day,
In heavily wooded areas you may want to travel during dusk and dawn rather than at night
due to the hazzards involved in traveling in woods.

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Retired Navy SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) Instructor
certified pistol, rifle, shotgun, home defense Instructor
NRA Life Member
Survival & Disaster Preparedness Instructor