Six Steps to Hiking & Adventuring With Kids

I like traveling with my kids.

I like taking adventures with my children.

I like hikes and being outside and going places with them.

(This is beginning to sound like some sort of confessional. Are you waiting for the “however” or the “but”?)

Exploring with my family has always been on the top of my list of favorite activities.

This summer the kids and I drove 5,000 miles and hiked a handful of trails.  We rode horses.  We toured through four National parks in Utah and we went glamping for the first time. We saw the Grand Canyon and we drove across this gorgeous bridge in some state (I cannot even recall where) called The Navajo Bridge.

These kids have been making giant cross country road trips since they were in utero. (My parents lived for a while in Wyoming. And flying with a passel of kids was often out of our price range, so driving it was.)

Even after COUNTLESS hours logged in a vehicle, I’d do it all over again with them.  They’re good travelers and they’re fun people. And some of that traveling success comes from following these basic guidelines.

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1.Have a plan. 

Even if you aren’t the planning type – PLAN. 

Let your plans have plans.

Winging it might be fun for a random Friday night at home, but it’s no fun to wing it and then get to a National Park after days of driving to find it closed.   Or to get everyone’s heart set on Chick-fil-a for dinner and then suddenly realize that it’s Sunday.

Planning does not mean you are always forced to stick to the plan.

It just means you have done some basic research and you have an idea of how long an activity takes, where you’ll be by lunch, how much the tour costs, knowing that everyone needs close-toed shoes for that zip line.

I like my plans to even have back up plans.

An idea for a rainy day or a sunny day.
Three ideas for lunch.
An either or sort of loose plan in case kids are more tired or the drive is filled with traffic.

Plans with options.

But – despite all that advice and my strong affection for PLANS, it’s really important to . . . 

2. Be flexible.

Stuff will go wrong.

Weather will shift dramatically.

Much anticipated hikes will be closed. (Like The Narrows at Zion.  It’ll happen.)

This is why muli-level plans are advised.

Be willing to roll with the punches.  Go with the flow.  See where the wind blows.

Don’t hold those sweet little plans so closely that a change sets you down a negative spiral.

3. Remember your actual agenda.

Chances are – your hike isn’t just about reaching the summit.  (Or maybe it is. We’ll come back to that.)

If you’re hiking with kids instead of grown adults with longer legs, a bigger perspective and the ability to reign in their attitudes, then you probably are hiking with those said kids because you love them and you want to spend quality time with them. Maybe because you want them to share your enthusiasm for the outdoors or because you want to be active together or because you want to make childhood memories like the ones you have with your family growing up.

Whatever the reasons that convinced you to leave the comforts of your air conditioned home to trek it through the woods with sweaty, impatient children, you need to remember those.

I like to review the reasons together with my kids out loud.

Sometimes it’s just to build relationships. Create Memories. Enjoy one another’s company. To challenge ourselves to do hard things with one another’s help. Just to have fun.

Whatever your motivation is, whatever your goal is – say it out loud to your people.

Help them see your vision. 

And when the day gets hot and the packs get heavy and the backs get sweaty and the sun gets high, remind yourself – your goal is not to cover the most distance, it’s to laugh together. It’s to encourage one another. It’s to establish healthy relationships.  (Repeat it to yourself.)

4. Develop a thick skin.

Parenting is hard.

Parenting kids at the end of a long hike when their water bottles are empty and the granola bars have been consumed is also hard.

And here’s the thing.

It can be the literal best hike of all of your collective lives. You could have spotted a mama bear and her twin cubs. You could have identified a rare bird that’s never been seen by human eyes. You could have trekked it a full ten miles and shocked all of yourselves with your strength and endurance.

And then.  And. Then.

The state park’s gift shop can be out of ice cream sandwiches or the sticker can fall off of a water bottle or a shoe string can come undone and then suddenly the kids will all forget all the dreamy accomplishments in the blink of an eye.

They’ll text their friends that glamping is just “okay” and when the grandparents ask how the adventure was all they’ll talk about is the heat or the mosquitoes or their stubbed toe.

But – and I believe this wholeheartedly – they WILL remember this later.  And it won’t be the lack of ice cream sandwiches or the bugs, it’ll be the laughs and the silly moments, the hill that seemed too hard but they overcame it. It will be the feeling of being together, of working toward a common goal, of their brother humming the same Michael Jackson lyric for two miles.

You, as the parent, just have to not take all the chatter and nonsense too seriously and let it pass like the chaff that it is.

5. Bring all the snacks.

I don’t care if you have ten toddlers or two teenagers, every human body feels better when it is watered and fed routinely.

Let the kids carry their own snacks. Extra points if you make the snacks fun and out of the ordinary options for your kids. Their own beef jerky bag goes a long way toward a kid ranking the adventure as an excellent one.

6. Keep realistic expectations.

Know your kids. Know their abilities, what they have a deep fear of or a low tolerance for.

You don’t have to cater to their every whim and make them the star of the show, but you will go much farther in the good times department if you recognize your family’s own current strengths and weaknesses.

Angel’s Landing at Zion National Park is not for eight year olds. (At least not any I ever raised.)

Babies need naps. Kids need breaks. Sometimes teens need buddies.

Don’t compare what your family can do in an afternoon with what that Instagram family with the matching bags and the cute flannel shirts can do.

If you’re a paved trail kind of people, find the best paved trail and enjoy the mess out of that paved trail. If you’ve got a ten year old who is terrified of the ocean, don’t make swimming with the dolphins your major game plan this year.

Know what your people love, what might stretch them a little without breaking them. Toss in a few fun plans with a tiny taste of challenge.

Go ahead guys – get outside. Take a hike. Bring the whole family. You can do it!

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