How do you find cardinal directions without a compass?
As we prepare for hiking, camping, or just being outdoors, let’s explore how to find your way in the dark—without a compass—by using the stars, the Sun, and nature’s signs. Here are some fun pointers for finding North, South, East, and West the next time you’re outside. Don’t get lost!
Use the Big Dipper
The most accurate and reliable direction finder is right over your head. It’s Polaris, the North Star. Polaris is over the North Pole, so you’ll know where north is if you find it in the night sky. Fun fact: Birds also use Polaris to navigate the night sky!
Here’s how to find the North Star:
- Find the Big Dipper.
- Then, find the two stars at the outer edge of the Dipper’s bowl. These are pointer stars. They “point” to the North Star.
- Extend an imaginary line from the pointer stars across the sky to the next bright star.
- Stretch your arm out full length and spread your fingers, and the North Star should be about as far away as your thumb is from your middle finger.
- If you’re interested in learning more about star gazing, read our article here.
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Use Two Sticks in a Field
In the evening, when you can see the stars:
On a cloudless night, drive a stick into the ground until the tip of it is at your eye level. Behind it, plant a taller stick such that the tips of the sticks line up with a bright star as you look at them. After a few minutes, the star will appear to have moved (but remember: stars don’t move; it’s Earth that’s rotating). If the star seems to move …
- up, you are facing east.
- down, you are facing west.
- right, you are facing south.
- left, you are facing north.
During the daytime, when the Sun is shining:
Find a stick that’s almost a foot tall. Poke a stick into the ground in the ground so that it is standing straight up. Look for the shadow. Then place a rock at the end of the shadow cast by the stick. Wait about 15 minutes.
Put another stone at the end of the second shadow. With your back to the stick, stand with your left toe touching the first rock and your right toe touching the second rock. You’re facing north.
Draw an imaginary line from the first rock marker to the second. West is the direction of the first marker.
Use a Wristwatch
- If you have a watch with hands (not digital), you can use it like a compass. Place the watch on a level surface.
- Point the hour hand towards the sun. Then find an imaginary line halfway between the hour hand and the 12 on the watch face. (During daylight savings time, the halfway line is between the hour hand and the 1.)
- That imaginary line points south.
- This means North is 180 degrees in the other direction.
- If you can wait, watch the Sun and see which way it is moving. If it’s rising, that’s east. If it’s setting, that’s west.
Make a Needle Compass
Got a first aid kit or an emergency survival kit? Get the needle from it. Find either the silky liner of your sleeping bag or another material.
- Rub the needle on the silk or wool material about 100 times and static electricity will build up and create a magnetic charge.
- Lay the needle on a leaf placed in a small pool or cup of water.
- Place the leaf delicately on the pool of water and place the needle on top. If there is no wind, the needle should orient in a north-south axis toward the magnetic north. The thicker end of the needle (the side with the eye) will favor the northern direction.
- You also can use shadows (shadows tend to favor north) to determine which way your needle is pointing. From there, you can figure out your coordinates.
Observe Nature
During the day, look for these directional signs (applicable for certain locations in the Northern Hemisphere):
- Deciduous trees tend to grow on the south side of hills; evergreens grow on the north side.
- In the desert, the giant barrel cactus always leans toward the south.
- The leaves of the pilot weed grow in a north-south line. (Settlers crossing the Great Plains called it the “compass plant of the prairie.”)
- Moss on a solitary tree that is openly exposed to the Sun. Moss likes shade, so the northern side of a tree is typically in shade most of the day.
- In the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun lies due south at local noon every day. [Note: Local noon, aka “local apparent noon or “solar noon,” occurs when the Sun crosses the meridian (an imaginary line that runs through the north and south poles and a point directly overhead) and is highest in the sky for the day. Local noon is usually not the same as clock-time noon.]
Be sure to practice and tell us which way you prefer (we still recommend you bring a compass with you on your walks though!).
Looking for more ways to rely on yourself and less on tools and electronics? Learn how to estimate distance quickly and easily.
Catherine Boeckmann
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The daytime tip is wrong. The path of the tip of shadow of a vertical stick does not trace a west to east line as described. However, there's an easy fix that does work: Put the stick into the ground pointing directly at the sun to start, so it has no shadow. Then wait. The shadow that will appear points east. It's because the stick lies in the plane of the ecliptic.
Update: I am wrong. Both methods work only on the spring equinox and fall equinox.
The moment you take your first DETOUR step around a cluster of thorn bushes on your "non-phone-compass-bearing" towards your target destination, ONLY A GPS will update you with your (now constanly changing) location while moving. You need this changed location to calculate and update the required bearing to your target location - OOPS...but you have no target location !!! because you only took a bearing with a reliable, cannot break when dropped, hopefully pre-hike and post purchase tested compass that must save you from a $ 20 000 search and rescue bill using tried and tested old school navigation techniques that have no inherent short comings. No sir, USE REDUNDANCY PLANNING !!! Buy 3 phones !!! 3 cheap phones with a GPS. Carry 10 small, charged, spare batteries. AND THAT NON-PHONE COMPASS too. Also ensure you carry a laminated paper sun compass card * 4 (a valid one for each hiking day).
And don't forget a valid daily card with watch compass method error corrections in any hemisphere...Oh, you already have a push button to give you that info on your analog watch ???
Last, but not least, DONT FORGET TO CARRY WATER WITH YOU ! You will need it to float a magnetised finger pricking needle on a leaf !!! in case all else fails.
Then, in an emergency, call 911 with the phone you got your GPS on, or try a satellite phone and personal rescue beacon if you can afford them.
(Be weary when a forest canopy calls you...)
- by Spanner in the Wheel
Geez, all the paranoid obsession over exact compass bearings. I've roamed through the woods for miles ever since I was a kid, without caring about compass bearings and have never been lost. I always just knew which way was back without even thinking about it. What has happened to people's natural born abilities?
Ron, I teach Hunter Safety, Map & Compass, and Survival. With your attitude I strongly suggest you stay out of the woods or at least where you can see the road. What happens if your cell phone/GPS battery dies, you drop it or lose it or you are not near enough to a tower to get reception. I will tell you what, in NH you will be handed a bill for 20K by search and rescue if the find you in time. Please don't be so cocky and maybe you can learn and survive.
This is the 21st Century. Just fire up your GPS.
Oh my goodness!! I agree with Linda. Don’t go into woods if you have no clue where you are going. Carry a compass and have a family member use their device to track you( just in case you take a little unsuspecting twist in the direction you were going and are lost)
I always told my kids to go downhill in the woods until reaching a stream or at least a dry creek bed. Following it downward will eventually lead to human contact. Probably not good advice in the vast space of the West, but works in New England.
Helen-
This is a great tip, especially if you are hiking with children.
The advice about "sun at noon" and "wristwatch" will give you the wrong locations for North, as others have pointed out, because of local vs apparent noon, time zones, daylight saving time, and so on. But here is a way to find North on a clear day (in the Northern Hemisphere):
On flat ground sink a 4-foot stick into the ground so it is vertical, and so its shadow will be unobstructed. Starting in mid-morning, place stones on the ground every so often at the point of the tip of the stick's shadow. The stone which is the shortest distance from the base of the stick points North (draw a pointer from the base of the stick through that stone). Note: you can stop placing stones when the shadow starts to lengthen.
