Hiking photography

Hey everyone,

so i'm an avid hiker, hunter and fisherman. I love all things outdoors. I have never really been into photography, but I do find myself often taking photos during my trips. It ranges from wildlife and scenery to photos of what I've caught fishing and how my camp for the night looks. These photos are mainly used to show my dad (who is also an outdoorsy person) and to look at by myself and relive some of my trips after some time has passed.

Right now I'm kind of on the fence on whether I should buy a real camera instead of just shooting on my phone. I've a oneplus 12, so it's not really the best for photos and I would prefer to keep it turned off in my backpack anyway. One of the recent trips I went on, I saw a couple of grouse sitting up a tree about 300m away. With my phone the photos were complete garbage, but maybe with a proper camera you could make out the fact that there was infact a grouse right there.

I'd like to note that I'm not really fond of post processing my photos. I would much more prefer to grab my camera, shoot, and be done with it. All the photos I take are just quick shots whenever I notice something that looks cool for some reason. I also don't really bother trying to take the best photo possible because I don't really have an understanding of photography.

So I guess the question is, is it worth getting a proper camera, just to take some quick pictures from my adventures to share with family and relive those trips? Will the camera produce that much better photos or am I going to get very similar results from my phone?

Thanks for the help in advance!