Campman Outdoor Gear & Apparel

There's a reason car camping trips up Mirror Lake Highway hit different than a three day backpacking slog through the Uintas. You don't have to ration ounces. You don't have to choose between a stove and a second layer. Your car's trunk can fit a lot more gear than a backpack.

That's the whole idea behind HEST. The Seattle-based brand builds sleep gear that borrows house mattress technology and packs down small enough to still fit next to the cooler. We put together this guide to walk through the full HEST sleep system, piece by piece, so you can build out a car camping setup that actually lets you sleep instead of just survive the night.

Car Camping At Its Comfiest

Backpacking gear gets built around one question: how do we make this lighter? Car camping gear gets to ask a completely different question: how do we make this better? When your car is doing the carrying, weight stops being the enemy and comfort becomes the whole point. That's exactly the gap HEST is built to fill. Dual layer memory foam, cooling fabrics, and fitted sheets don't make sense on a 12 mile approach, but they make total sense when you're pulling into a spot along the Cottonwood Canyons or setting up at a Uinta trailhead campground for the weekend.

The Foundation: HEST Foamy Sleeping Pad

Every good sleep system starts with the pad, and the Foamy is where HEST built its name. It uses the same dual layered, high performance foam you'd find in a home mattress, tuned for body contouring, pressure point relief, and a warm 8.8 r-value that holds up through shoulder season nights. The cover is dirt and water resistant, removable, and machine washable, and the waterproof bottom doubles as a welcome mat you can stand on to change without touching wet tent floor. An integrated compression harness with clips rolls the whole thing down for the drive, and linking clips let you connect two Foamy pads together if you're sharing a tent.

The Foamy comes in three sizes, and picking the right one depends on your tent, your height, and whether you're sleeping solo or sharing.

Size	Dimensions	Weight	Packed Size	Best For
Short	64 x 25in	9.5lb	25 x 10in	Smaller tents, kids, or campers under 5'6"
Regular	78 x 25in	11lb	25 x 12in	Most solo campers
Wide	78 x 30in	13lb	30 x 12in	Couples, side sleepers, or anyone who wants room to spread out

Foamy Sleeping Pad

Dial In Your Bedding: HEST Fitted Sheets

A sleeping pad without a sheet is just a mattress with nothing on it, and once you've felt a fitted sheet snap onto your camp pad, you won't want to go back to a bare cover. Both HEST fitted sheet options are cut from soft, stretch woven fabric with elastic corners built to match Foamy pad dimensions, and both include a stash pocket that doubles as a place to stuff the sheet down small when you're packing up. The only real decision is whether you need the standard version or the cooling version.

Option	Standout Feature	Best For
Fitted Sheet	Soft, breathable, stretch woven fabric	Spring, fall, and mild summer nights
Fitted Sheet Cooling	Jade Cooling Fabric disperses heat	Peak summer trips in the desert or lower elevation sites

Both sheets come in Fitted 25, Fitted 25 Short, and Fitted 30 to match the Foamy pad lineup above.

Fitted Sheet

Fitted Sheet Cooling

Camp Pillow vs. Pro Travel Pillow

A stuffed dry bag under your head is not a pillow. HEST makes two, and they're built for different parts of the trip. The Camp Pillow is the one that lives in your tent, a blended fill of shredded memory foam and polyester with a stretch woven, removable, washable cover in three sizes. The Pro Travel Pillow is the one that comes with you in the car, folding into a neck pillow, unfolding into a body pillow, and packing down small enough to clip to a duffel for the drive up and back.

Pillow	Sizes / Modes	Best For
Camp Pillow	Small, Medium, Large (1.2 to 3.2lb)	Tent sleeping, home-like cush every night
Pro Travel Pillow	3-in-1: neck, body, and travel pillow modes	The drive there, the drive home, and anywhere in between

Camp Pillow

Pro Travel Pillow

HEST Pillowcase vs. Cooling

Your Camp Pillow is going to spend its nights in a dusty tent, so give it a case. HEST pillowcases are stretch woven, machine washable, and stuff down into themselves for storage, and they're sized to match the Camp Pillow and Pro Travel Pillow exactly. Same choice as the sheets applies here: standard for most trips, cooling if you're camping through a heat wave.

Option	Sizes	Standout Feature
Pillowcase	Small, Medium, Large, Pro Travel	Soft, breathable, dirt resistant
Pillowcase Cooling	Small, Medium, Large	Jade Cooling Fabric for hot nights

Pillowcase

Pillowcase Cooling

The Extra Mile: HEST Foamy Seat Cushion

Comfort doesn't have to end when you climb out of the tent. The Foamy Seat Cushion brings the same dual layer memory foam to your camp chair or the long drive up the canyon, with a removable, washable cover and a roll-up design that packs down small enough to toss in the back seat. It's the cheapest way to feel the HEST difference before committing to the full sleep system, and it's just as useful strapped to a camp chair as it is on your car seat for the drive.

HEST Foamy Seat Cushion

Full HEST Lineup at a Glance

Product	Best Use	Standout Feature
Foamy Sleeping Pad	Camping	8.8 r-value dual layer memory foam
Fitted Sheet	Camping	Stash pocket, elastic corners
Fitted Sheet Cooling	Camping	Jade Cooling Fabric
Camp Pillow	Camping, Travel	Memory foam and polyester blend fill
Pro Travel Pillow	Travel	3-in-1 neck, body, and travel pillow
Pillowcase	Camping, Travel	Stuffs into itself for storage
Pillowcase Cooling	Camping, Travel	Jade Cooling Fabric
Foamy Seat Cushion	Travel, Camping	Dual layer memory foam, rolls small

Frequently Asked Questions

What r-value do I need for camping in the Wasatch or Uintas?

R-value measures how well a sleeping pad resists heat loss to the ground. For most three season car camping in Utah, from spring through fall, an r-value of 4 or higher is a safe baseline, and the Foamy's 8.8 r-value gives you enough of a buffer to handle chilly nights at higher elevation spots like the Mirror Lake Highway corridor without needing a second pad underneath.

Will the HEST Fitted Sheet fit a sleeping pad from another brand?

HEST sizes its fitted sheets to match the Foamy pad and HEST Sleep System exactly, but the elastic corners have enough stretch to fit most standard camping mattresses close to those dimensions. If you're pairing it with a pad from another brand, check your pad's measurements against the Fitted 25, Fitted 25 Short, or Fitted 30 dimensions before buying.

What's the difference between HEST's standard and cooling pillowcases?

The standard pillowcase uses a soft, breathable stretch woven fabric built for general use across seasons. The cooling version swaps in Jade Cooling Fabric, which actively pulls heat away from your head and neck, making it the better pick for peak summer trips or lower elevation desert camping where nights stay warm.

Can I use the HEST Camp Pillow for backpacking?

The Camp Pillow is built for car camping, where weight and pack size aren't the priority. Even the Small size runs 1.2lb, which is heavier than most dedicated backpacking pillows. For overnight trail trips, the compact Pro Travel Pillow is the closer fit of the two, though it's still designed more for travel days than backcountry miles.

How do I clean HEST sleep gear?

Every cover across the HEST lineup, from the Foamy pad to the pillowcases, is removable and machine washable. Pull the cover off, wash it on a gentle cycle, and let it air dry before packing it back onto the foam for your next trip.

Build Your Sleep System

You don't need to buy the whole HEST lineup on your first trip. Start with the Foamy pad since it does the most work, add a fitted sheet once you're hooked, and build out from there with a pillow, pillowcase, and seat cushion as your car camping setup grows. However you build it, the goal stays the same: fewer excuses to stay home, and more nights actually sleeping well under the Utah sky.

About the Author

Derek Newman

Born in the Wasatch, Derek has had an affinity for mountain life since day one. He was on skis the year he learned to walk, and as a high school graduation present he gifted himself rock climbing lessons. Nearly two decades later, Derek spends most of his time climbing up and/or skiing down most of the mountains around Salt Lake City, and he’s traveled around the world multiple times for the sole purpose of peak exploration. When he isn’t a man about camp, he’s working in Campman’s content marketing crew writing up blogs about backcountry skiing or rock climbing as well as describing products that he’s used personally. He’s climbed in most climbing shoes, toured on most backcountry skis, and ridden the resort on skis, snowboards, and even some evac sleds.