Printable escape room · Instant download

Explorer's Lost Camp

21 reviews

Unfold puzzles in a 3D paper camp where animals, tents, and the outdoors come alive.

Download & print instantly
Clever puzzles like in a real escape room
Self-checking coded envelopes confirm every answer
Works with real padlocks (optional upgrade)

Play time45 min
Best forKids

What you need

Optional extras

Instant PDF download
Answer sheet included
Event and business licenses in the cart
4.8 from 4,000+ reviews

Award-winning games

Best Fun Game of the Year 2025
Best Online Game 2020
Featured in Oprah Daily

The story

Explorer's Lost Camp

Discover an abandoned tent and embark on a thrilling adventure to uncover legendary explorer Richard Rutherford’s hidden treasure. Solve intricate puzzles, decode messages, and navigate through the forest using animal carvings, magical symbols, and compass directions. The final reward? Rutherford’s golden badge and vintage lantern.

Ready for the challenge? Experience Explorer's Lost Camp and follow Rutherford’s footsteps to the hidden treasure!

Start the adventure

What's inside

Everything inside your kit

Story cards
Sealed envelopesThe set-up for our Summer Camp Escape Room is like a breeze. With easy-to-follow instructions, you're good to go in under 30 minutes! Our Lost Camp Printable Escape Room Kit includes ten themed envelopes used for both decor and answer-checking. An Internet-free escape room you can enjoy anywhere! As printing might be difficult in some situations, all ten envelopes may be replaced with regular ones. If that's the case, you have all the instructions you need within the Escape Room Kit.
Hints when you need themCompared to other DIY escape rooms online, the Summer Camp Escape Room doesn't require any game master. The person setting the game up can also join the fun! If players get stuck, they can directly access hints and solutions for each of the six puzzles. Everything they need is included in the puzzle envelopes! The perfect Internet-free escape room!

Included in your download

Illustrated setup instructions
Coded envelopes in theme with the game
Story cards that tell the story chapter by chapter
Game materials to solve the puzzles
Printable Hint Strips™ that offer gradual guidance directly to the players

How to play

Read. Solve. Unlock.

Read the story Open the intro and step into the mystery.
Solve the puzzles Team up to crack one clever puzzle after another.
Unlock the ending Every answer moves you forward, all the way to the grand finale.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Read the full game description

Explorer's Lost Camp is a printable summer camp escape room for kids and families, built around a 3D paper explorer's tent as the centerpiece. Players step into legendary explorer Richard Rutherford's abandoned campsite, solving 6 puzzles involving animal track identification, compass orientation, fire-making, constellation navigation, and wilderness knowledge to uncover his hidden treasure.

Players: Solo or teams; flexible group size
Play time: ~45 minutes
Setup time: Under 30 minutes
Difficulty: 3/5, suitable for kids, teens, and families
Age range: Kids and teens; designed to be enjoyed by the whole family
Format: Instant PDF download, no shipping
Includes: 3D paper explorer's tent, 8 story cards, 10 themed envelopes (can be swapped for regular envelopes), hints and solutions for all 6 puzzles
Game master required: No; no internet needed to play or check answers
Price: $29
Best for: family game nights, scout activities, summer camp themes, outdoor-adventure birthday parties, classroom or educational use

Q: How long does Explorer's Lost Camp take to play?
A: Explorer's Lost Camp takes about 45 minutes to play, with under 30 minutes of setup beforehand.

Q: What age group is Explorer's Lost Camp designed for?
A: Explorer's Lost Camp is rated 3/5 difficulty and designed for kids, teens, and families to enjoy together.

Q: What kind of puzzles are in Explorer's Lost Camp?
A: Explorer's Lost Camp includes puzzles based on animal tracking, compass orientation, fire-making, constellation navigation, and identifying wilderness elements.

Q: Does Explorer's Lost Camp require a game master or internet connection?
A: No — Explorer's Lost Camp is fully self-guided, with hints and solutions included, and needs no internet to play or check answers.

Q: How many people can play Explorer's Lost Camp?
A: Explorer's Lost Camp works for solo explorers or teams of any size, making it flexible for families or larger groups.

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What players say

Customers praised the "exceptional quality" graphics and engaging puzzles perfect for ages 9-18. Most found difficulty "challenging enough to keep them engaged" without giving up. Prep takes 1-1.5 hours. Some noted puzzles too hard for younger kids and chapter cards hard to read. Groups of 4-5 work best. Customers loved it for parties, reunions, and events.

Exceptional quality! Challenging enough to keep them engaged but not so hard they wanted to give up.
Great quality design - both aesthetically and the quality of puzzles. Everyone had a lot of fun!
The graphics, story and puzzles are impressive! Overall so fun - will definitely do this again!

Event (positive)Puzzles (positive)Experience (positive)Graphics (positive)Envelopes (positive)

5 stars: 18 (86%)
4 stars: 3 (14%)
3 stars: 0 (0%)
2 stars: 0 (0%)
1 star: 0 (0%)

Difficulty: Just right

Player type: With teens (13–17)

Duration: 1–2 hours

Good Birthday Fun

The difficulty level was perfect for the group.
The girls were around 14 years old in the group and even though they were more than 4 people, they still enjoyed solving the puzzles.

Difficulty: Quite tricky

Player type: With kids (under 12), With students / classroom

Duration: 1–2 hours

Great Experience!

The graphics, story and puzzles are impressive! It did take about 1.5 hours to print and prepare, so plan ahead. I printed most of it on cardstock and used a paper cutter for any straight edges - that helped! I also just bought small manila envelopes instead of printing the envelopes. That saved time, as well, and did not impact the experience.

I used it as a main activity one night for group of 11-12 year olds at camp. I printed off two sets, and I read aloud the chapter cards and had them come to me for the envelopes. They loved the look and experience, but a few puzzles were a bit too hard for that age. Even the hints weren't enough. I gave them more hints and offered extra help though, and then they could do it. Because of space (only 2 tables) I had to do two large groups of 7, and those were too big. As they say, a max of 4 or 5 is best so everyone can see and participate better. It took them an hour and 15 minutes.

One thing that could improve the game is the readability of the chapter cards. The background color and size of text made it hard to see.

Overall so fun - will definitely do this one again and purchase another one!

Exceptional quality! My daughter completed it with her friends (12 year olds). It was challenging enough to keep them engaged but not so hard that they wanted to give up.

Difficulty: Just right

Player type: With kids (under 12)

Duration: 1–2 hours

Loved it!!

We loved this game for our kids cabin styled birthday party!! It was longer than expected which was a nice surprise but just take that into account if you do want to have it at an event it takes center stage!

Phenomenal!

Great quality design - both aesthetically and the quality of puzzles. Used with our youth group (11-18s) and everyone had a lot of fun! I kept the envelopes so they had to come to me with the code they'd worked out, to avoid the risk of some just opening them all! Worked really well. Thanks so much.

Remarkable!

We had a great time in our family reunion doing this escape room. We printed off a few of them and put people in groups to race to the finish. There were people of all ages working together laughing and having fun working on the challenges together.

Used them for a high school activity. Worked so well, kids loved it!

We did this for a family reunion. Everyone (9 and older) loved it!

You should get this!

I host many events for family and friends, and needed something a bit different for the teens. They started with a group of adults and ended it themselves. (LOL) It had everything that the game needed. I took out the solutions, though. Handed these out to the adult around the room to be able to help them one by one.

How great!

Fantastic game, mixed age group 40-80 really enjoyed it

Really like mystery locks! Graphics and puzzles are amazing !

I wish the intro and the story lines to each “mystery” were not as elaborate… the kids (ages 6-14) lost interest real quick trying to either read them for themselves or having them read to them….i will have to rewrite the intro and individual stories / explanations with each puzzle/mystery when I am playing the Explorers lost camp at our next family camp!

We're looking forward to playing!!

Purchased for a community center event. Everyone enjoyed themselves.

Excellent!

This was a lot of fun. The puzzles were a good range of difficulty for a diverse age group.

Thank you, Stephen! Explorer's Lost Camp is a favorite of ours, so we're really happy to know that! :)

Really good!

Really easy to understand how to use simple to set up

Thanks, Jade! Can't wait to have you back!

Great looking printable escape room. I can't wait to use it for the children at church. I'm sure it will be fun!

Great looking printable escape room. I can’t wait to use it for the children at church. I’m sure it will be fun!

Great looking printable escape room. I can...

Great looking printable escape room. I can't wait to use it for the children at church. I'm sure it will be fun!

We have bought many escape rooms from MysteryLocks and my daughter and her friends have enjoyed them all. The materials and illustrations are beautiful. This Explorers game was especially nice because it came with little hint books (I think each had 4 hints total before giving the answer) where the kids could look at hints if they were having trouble, so I didn't have kids constantly asking if they needed help. They didn't have to use all of the hints but it was very nice to have them available. Assembly did take awhile, but the whole presentation is very nice and the kids were very impressed with the 3D objects and they loved the envelopes. Double-stick tape worked beautifully. Highly recommend! We'll be back for more, for sure :)

This was a great escape room! The puzzles were very cute. Thank you. I did this with kids 10-14 years old.

87%

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3111

Explains the set up perfectly, the puzzles themselves were very good :) We played with four of us initially as one team but ended up competitively racing to work everything out boys v girls (girls won😉) - worked well both ways! Was a really fun night, will most likely buy from this shop again 🫶🏼

Player type: With adults

Duration: Over 2 hours

Raven Mansion Mystery- Pure Delight!

We played this as a family of four (2 parents and 2 adult kids) at our son's birthday weekend getaway. We all had an amazing time exploring, learning and (eventually) escaping! The website element was so well done and truly set the stage for the entire event! Well done!

Great fun for a rainy day!

This was lots of fun! We did this as a group of 3 and it took about 90 minutes. Easy to set up, and next time I'll try adding boxes and locks to add to the atmosphere.

Difficulty: Easy and fun

Duration: 30–60 minutes

Fun Easter activity

The kids enjoyed this Easter escape and only needed a few clues on certain ones. Aged 9 and 12. I loved the way all the clues and pieces were in envelopes and kept together. It made it look very nice and organized.

What a wonderful experience! We loved playing this for my son's 24th birthday! The online portion was so well done and we worked together to get all the puzzles solved (used the hints too!). Thank you so much!

We had someone much fun!!!!🤩🤩🤩

We had so much fun!!!🤩🤩🤩 I will say, it was on the hard side for us which made it an absolute great evening!!!!

I printed it twice and had 3 on 1 team and 4 on the other (1 didn't show up🫣) . That was the perfect amount to work on this game. I did use some envelopes to put some of the items in so I didn't have to fold them as much. I just wrote inside the door to open the coinciding envelope when the room was opened.

We did have to use some clues to get through. The website was awesome with guiding you throughout the game.

We look forward to our next game night doing one of these puzzles.🤩

(I didn't get a picture of everyone☹️ but one group did take a picture. 🥰)

hatte Potenzial mit etwas Bastelarbeit ein cooler escape rooms zum Anfassen zu werden

Monster Chest - 14th birthday party

We had a 14th birthday party with seven boys, at least four of whom were used to escape rooms. Everything went very smoothly and the materials were high quality. The kids definitely had fun. It took them a little longer than an hour to do it, but they weren’t trying to rush. Even though they were all one team, I printed two copies of everything so there wouldn’t be seven people all huddled around one piece of paper. In retrospect, I would have printed at least four copies so everyone could truly see and remain engaged. I would have also printed the room and the chest a lot bigger, just to make it a bit more immersive. I swapped out the envelopes for boxes with 4-digit locks, to make finding the code more satisfying. I would say the 3.5 difficulty was just right for the experienced players and a little too hard for those who had never done an escape room before. We will definitely buy more kits for future parties.

Oh my gosh! This was so much fun Easter Morning. I set the game up for my husband and two grown children. What a riot watching them figure out the clues so the could get the next clue.
I highly recommend!!

It was a great experience for the whole family

It was a great experience for the whole family, my 18, and 20 year olds were intrigued and dedicated to solving the puzzles. Everyone had a wonderful time while using our brains, lol.

Really great puzzles

Really great puzzles, lovely story, easy to follow and if not, the clues are there! Great way to take our Easter Egg hunt to the next level!

We did this as a family of four and really enjoyed it! I went full immersive. Loved the details of the box and the envelopes

The Easter Escape Room was fun. My 15 and 13 year olds (who are skilled escape roomers) took about 25 minutes to complete it, along with searching the house for the 11 envelopes they needed. The directions and clues were clear.

Fun...but need more of a challenge.

This one was a bit on the easy side for our family (18-26 years old). But we did enjoy it and will try another one in the future. The next one, we will split up into teams and compete against each other to add a little more excitement.
Couple of suggestions, the font on the cards is hard to read and some of the words were above our pay grade. And honestly, most of the puzzles were solved before our narrator was done reading the card. But overall, it was a great game.

Great game. Whole family enjoyed and difficulty-level was pitched right for my 12 and 13 year old. My only critique would be to improve the contrast of the text on the base layer of puzzle two, as when printed out, the blue text on blue background was a little difficult to read.

So cute and fun, great graphics!

Player type: With kids (under 12), With teens (13–17), With adults

Super fun!

Super fun escape room! Easy to print, cut and set up. I printed 4 sets and split our large family into groups to solve. Everyone had a great time!

Difficulty: Very challenging

From the Printer to the Banquet Hall

Last year, we bought "The Pirate Box" Escape Room from Mystery Locks to use for our high school's Spring Banquet. We tweaked the story a little and gave it a "Goonies" intro, inviting the students to free "One-Eyed Willie!" We went all out, building a room that modeled the inside of a Pirate ship, complete with skeletons and treasure! The students had a blast! We are looking forward to this year's banquet as we tackle "The Venice Heist!" Thank you, Mystery Locks!

If you would like to see our Escape Room, here is a public link to a silent video through Canva! Thank you!

https://www.canva.com/design/DAHATVV-CZM/FVu4iH8Jmmu6sL8cTWH_Cw/watch?utm_content=DAHATVV-CZM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=hda909b91de

Duration: Under 30 minutes

Great for kids!

The hunt went really well! My kids are 7, 9, and 12, and the level was just about perfect for them with the exception of a couple *really* easy ones. We gave the super easies to my 7 year old, and she was fine with it but one of them was truly too easy, maybe more appropriate for a child just learning to read (to solve the clue you just had to be able to read in a spiral). Otherwise, it was fun and good quality!
Looking forward to trying some of the higher level games and playing with adults!

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