Cat hole at a glance
- Depth
- 6 to 8 in
- Distance from water
- 200 ft
- About 70 adult paces
- Toilet paper
- Pack it out
- Tool
- A trowel
- A boot heel does not reach depth
How deep, and how far from what?
Six to eight inches deep, four to six inches across, and 200 feet from water, from the trail and from camp. Two hundred feet is roughly seventy adult paces, which is considerably further than most people go and is the number that actually protects the water.
Depth matters because that is the band of soil with enough biological activity to break waste down. Deeper is not better: below about eight inches the soil is too inert and the waste effectively pickles rather than decomposing.
Where cat holes do not work
Alpine and desert ground has almost no organic soil layer, so nothing breaks down. Canyon corridors concentrate every visitor into the same narrow strip of ground. Snow hides the hole you dug and delivers its contents to the watershed at melt. In all three, packing it out is the only method that works, which is why so many popular permits now issue a bag with them.
Toilet paper is a separate question from the waste itself. Pack it out even where burying is allowed: it breaks down far more slowly than you would guess and animals dig it up.
What this means when you're choosing
- Whether the unit you are visiting requires waste to be packed out
- A real trowel rather than a tent stake, which will not reach depth in root-bound soil
- Ground with dark organic soil rather than sand, gravel or alpine grit
The common mistake
Pacing out 200 feet by eye
Almost nobody walks far enough. Two hundred feet is about seventy normal paces, and from a creekside camp that usually means going up a slope and out of sight of the water entirely. The distance is what keeps pathogens out of the drainage, so it is the part worth getting right.
Common questions
How deep should a cat hole be?
Six to eight inches. That is the depth where soil biology is active enough to break waste down. Shallower gets dug up by animals, and deeper puts it below the living layer where it barely decomposes at all.
Do I need to pack out toilet paper?
Yes, in practice everywhere. It decomposes far more slowly than people assume and animals dig it up. A zip bag inside an opaque one weighs nothing.
What do I do in snow or on rock?
Pack it out. There is no soil layer to do the work, and anything buried in snow arrives in the watershed at melt. Most alpine and canyon permits now issue a waste bag for exactly this reason.
Where this is defined
- Dispose of waste properly, Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics
- Human waste disposal in the backcountry, National Park Service