Iโm ready for my kids to be long distance hikers. I realize they are still little (8, 6, and 4 years old) but I MISS hiking. Pre-kid and even when Rachel was little and would fit in a backpack, we would take a Saturday and do 8-13 mile hikes OVER mountain passes. It was glorious….
We had plans to stay at a lake between Bryce Canyon & Cedar Breaks that fell through due to lack of Verizon signal, so with a couple of extra days before we needed to be back to Salt Lake for a photography workshop we decided to detour to Great Basin National Park. This had been…
Now that summer is here, we are trying to get the kids out hiking. A lot. Usually this involves lots of whining and complaints about being tired. A few months ago, however, we stumbled upon the perfect combination: beautiful scenery + in the evening. The first time we hiked in the evening it was by…
Nearly every outdoor outing can be made more fun with the addition of some walkie-talkies. We have had a few for years, and just recently added a few more to spread among our growing number of interested children. We wanted to get new radios that worked well with our previous ones, so we made sure…
For the past 7 years, most family hikes involved the littlest child riding in a kid backpack. We once hiked a 9 mile, 4,000 ft up, 5,000 ft down trail with Rachel on my back. I have fond memories of singing songs while we hiked, and passing snacks over my shoulder to little waiting hands….
Good tips ๐ I just realized on our last hike that even though it was really hot and long neither of my boys whined! End in sight! They still have their moments but they used to switch who was going to be happy and who was going to be misarable! That has not happened in a while! I am so excited!
Thanks Danielle! That IS good news. I think our big turn around came when I told them in no uncertain terms that I love to hike and they were ruining it for me. ๐
Great write up. We’ll have to try some of these. We do a lot of hiking. Sometimes the kids do great and have a blast. Other times it is a multi-hour chorus of “when are we going to be done?” ,”i’m bored” ,and – my favorite – “I don’t like hiking, it is too much walking”
Such a great list! Thanks for sharing all of your ideas. Will help as our kids get older.
You are welcome!
Good for you conquering that long hike with the kids! Yay! Something else I’ve found that works… tell the kids stories along the way, or with older kids, playing the story turn taking game, or whatever other game that comes to mind. Can pass some good time. Plus my kids aren’t familiar with all the true fairy tales since they are so young, so that’s always fun! ๐ Scavenger hunts are fun too, the generic nature ones you can find online work. ๐ Or play it like Bingo! Then prize for the first to get bingo, etc. ๐ So fun! Sounds like you guys are having a blast!
Great list, everything you mentioned is exactly what my parents did with my sister and I when we were little! So I can tell you from experience that it will work. Keep it up ๐