How to Make Hiking Fun for Kids + Printable Scavenger Hunt
Learn how to make hiking fun for kids, so the entire family will be excited to hit the trail!
While the idea of packing up a kid or two (or more!) and heading into the forest might feel daunting, there are many ways that you can capture kids’ attention for hiking…and keep it there.
Overall, hiking with kids requires more planning and engagement than hiking with your adult friends, but once you’ve got your family in the right mindset, it will get easier and easier each time you want to take your kids out.
This mindset can be accomplished by associating the act of hiking with fun and positivity by your kids.
As the mom of 2 outdoorsy kids who’ve been hiking for the entirety of their little lives, I’m sharing my best tips on how to raise happy hikers who look forward to family outings on the trail.
Below, you’ll find our tried and true methods for keeping kids engaging on hiking trails so that they see hiking as outdoor fun and not a chore, and our recommend list of gear to make prepping for the trail as easy as possible.
On the trail with the Camping Kiddos to Running Eagle Falls in Glacier National Park, Montana
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14 Tips to Make Hiking Fun for the Family
Pick an enjoyable weather day.
PIN ME!
There isn’t any point in slogging through the rain or trying to find your way along the trail in fog or sweating every step of the way.
All of these are going to cause your kids to complain and it take the focus away from the reason you’re here: to have fun!
Plus, picking a warm (but not too warm day) without any inclement weather on the horizon means you won’t have to worry about dressing them in layers and layers, or bringing specialized clothing like heavy overcoats, gloves, or beanies.
Regardless of the weather, I do suggest tossing some lightweight raincoats/windbreakers into your hiking bags on the off chance that rain does sneak onto the forecast.
If that happens, and you’re already on the trail, toss on the coats, and encourage your kids to have fun playing in the rain as you make your way back to the car.
I love the super lightweight Columbia rainjackets for kids, like the Switchback rain jacket for girls or the Glennaker rain jacket for boys.
Have a destination.
Don’t plan to show up to a park and pick a trail that looks okay.
You’ll want to do some research before you go to find a trail with some pizzazz.
And by pizzazz, I mean that you’re going for that wow factor that will motivate your kids along the trail.
You need some kind of pay-off when hiking with kids, especially if you’re just getting them into hiking.
Things we aim for on our hikes include:
A waterfall overlook, like the more than 35 on our South Carolina waterfalls road trip!
A swimming hole, like the one at Riley Moore Falls near Westminster, SC,
A scenic overlook, like the one at Artists Paintpot in Yellowstone National Park, or
A fascinating natural feature, like one of the rock arches in Arches National Park
If you’re an avid hiker, you know that not all trails have these things, and, as an adult, it’s okay that they don’t. I often go into nature just to be in nature, and if I don’t get to some awe-inspiring viewpoint, I’ll still come away with the calm that comes from walking in the woods for a couple of hours.
Kids love that proverbial carrot dangling in front of them, and it comes in handy when spirits begin to lag. When they look ready to sit down or start complaining, you just have to remind them: “We can’t stop now, we’re only a half mile from that cool swimming hole!”
Usually that perks my kiddos right up, so they remember why we’re on the trail in the first place and (more importantly) that we’re almost to the cool thing.
Pack all of the snacks.
My kids have always been motivated by the promise of a good snack. (The apple didn’t fall far from the tree there!)
My husband and I used this knowledge for good from the time they were little by playing up the “trail snack” whenever we could.
You’re getting tired? We all yell, “Trail snack!” and suddenly, everyone is feeling ready to go again after a quick break.
You’re bored on the trail? It might be a case of getting hangry, so out come the trail snacks again as a little diversion and nutritional top-up.
My kids LOVE their trail snacks now, and they look forward to selecting special things to carry in their backpacks to snack on while hiking.
Now that they’re older, we give them a selection of things to choose from as they pack their bags for the day: bananas, fruit leather, granola bars, bags of nuts, graham crackers, and hard candies are among their favorites.
Keep a variety of snacks on hand while hiking with kids and disperse them liberally. Your hike will be all the better for it!
Do a scavenger hunt.
Our son examining a leaf while completing a hiking scavenger hunt
While I enjoy the quiet space on the trail to think about something—or nothing at all—my kids aren’t quite there yet.
To keep happy hikers, I need to get them actively involved in the hike.
One of our favorite ways to do so is by using a scavenger hunt!
We’ve even printed them 2 to a page so they are smaller for little hands, laminated them, and used dry erase markers for the ultimate in reusable kid entertainment.
We started doing these on hikes when my kids were really small (you can see my son completing one when he was just 2 years old) and they were a hit.
Now that they are older, they still enjoy doing these hiking scavenger hunts as it keeps them engaging in what we’re seeing and doing on different nature trails.
Keep your expectations low.
Even if you and your kids head outdoors regularly, it’s important to remember that you’re traveling with kids. And that means that there aren’t any guarantees on how the experience will go.
Sometimes, we have the perfect hike where everyone is in good spirits.
And then there are the other times, when someone skins a knee, or my kids start to bicker, or little feet start to hurt.
Even when they were toddlers, I sometimes wouldn’t make it out of sight of the trailhead since they wanted to pick up and examine every single leaf or stick on the ground.
So, keep those expectations low and focus purely on what you and your kids get out of the hike.
You might not make the full trail loop, but you could learn about a new tree or identify a rare mushroom or get a glimpse of a deer grazing!
This is a case where it’s all about the journey and not the destination.
Go slow.
Our toddler exploring the Sewee Shell Ring Trail outside of Charleston, South Carolina
As I mentioned above, kids like to take their time doing everything, and hiking is no exception.
My 7-year-old loves to gather data and ask questions about everything he sees. He’s less concerned about making it to that overlook or waterfall, and really, really interested in why the trees’ leaves rustle and what that bird over there eats in the winter.
There is immense educational value in hiking slowly, even though that idea flies in the face of what you might think about hiking in general.
Don’t worry about how long it normally takes someone to finish the trail, and focus instead on the incredible bevy of things to see and examine right in front of you.
Let the kids point out every one of the colors they can see in the leaves. Let them look for the best stick on the trail. Backtrack to compare the knots on one tree with that cool one near the trailhead.
Let them lead the experience. You might not make it the full length of the trail, but you will come away with much, much more.
Keep it short.
My son on the boardwalk at Trail of the Cedars in Glacier National Park, an easy, short trail perfect for kids!
I asked my son how parents could help their kids like to hike, and this is what he told me:
My advice would probably be to go hiking on short trails ‘cause it doesn’t exhaust their little legs.
-my son, 7
As he’s the little one in our family, and, therefore, the one most likely to suffer from sore legs or feet first, he’s hyper aware of the distance between what he wants to do hiking and what he can do.
Exhausted kids tend to be miserable kids, so try to leave them wanting more when it comes to hiking.
Build up their stamina slowly and consistently, starting with very, very short trails when they’re just walking on their own and then working up to trails that are a couple of miles long when they get older.
If you’ve got particularly enthusiastic hiking kids, then begin to test their limits if they always look as if they’re still fresh on the previous trail.
We have to go back through this process every year as we don’t do much hiking during the colder winter months, but by the end of summer, we can get even the 7-year-old to hike a reliable 4-6 miles at a time.
We’re going slowly for those miles, but we’re still having fun, which is the most important thing.
Find that sweet spot in terms of trail length for your kids, and don’t increase it until you’re sure they’re up to it. When in doubt, pick a short trail!
Work on your bird and plant identification skills.
Everything has educational opportunities hidden inside! I’ve taught my entire adult life, both as an English professor and (more recently) as a homeschool teacher to my own kids, so I’m always looking for ways to help us learn more.
My son and I working on a plant ID at Grinnell Lake in Glacier National Park
Hiking is FILLED with ways to teach your kids—and yourself, too.
When my kids were old enough to talk on our hikes, they’d ask me questions about the plants, animals, and ecosystems we were seeing. Sometimes, I would know the answer, but often, I wouldn’t. It turns out that my graduate degrees in English don’t translate into the identification skills needed for hiking with kids!
To help them learn, we turned to a variety of resources.
We’ve stocked up on laminated nature pamphlets, which pack a ton of information about a region’s flora and fauna into a lightweight, reusable item.
The Pocket Naturalist series has SO many different pamphlets, including general ones about American flora and fauna like animal tracks, trees of North America, and mushrooms.
The same company makes state and region specific pamphlets, too. We’ve picked up some of these on our travels to help us drill down on new species to us that we can’t see back home.
For example, you can check out:
My kids keep these in their hiking packs, and we pull them out all of the time to help us ID animals and plants.
We’ve also downloaded the Merlin bird ID app on our phones, where users record a bird song and the app automatically matches the song to one in its database. It’s a great way to “collect” birds that you’ve seen and heard!
The PlantNet app has similar results for plants and trees, so you can quickly have the system compare your photo of an interesting plant against those in its database.
Help them feel like a “real” hiker.
The kids with their hiking poles and gear in Glacier National Park
If your child is anything like my older kid, you’ll know that the right clothes mean EVERYTHING when it comes to mindset.
When she took her first dance class, she needed that sparkly tutu.
Likewise, when we took her out on her first real hikes when she could walk she needed special shoes like her mom and dad, and a little backpack, too.
Get your kids their own lightweight backpack and appropriate footwear to help them get into the right mindset for hiking. Even a hiking pole or two can go a long way to helping kids feel comfortable on the trail.
We’ve had our kids carry a small, age-appropriate backpack on the trail ever since they were small. Not only does this allow them to look and feel just like the grown-ups, but they can grab their own snacks and water while on the trail.
If you’ve got elementary-aged children and up who are ready for a little more responsibility, have them pack their own backpacks with our handy kids hiking gear checklist. This is a great way to keep them organized, so all you have to do is a quick check behind them.
Look for a TRACK Trail.
The Camping Kiddos picking up a TRACK Trail brochure in Sesquicentennial State Park in Columbia, South Carolina
We discovered these free booklets at the Fox Hollow Trailhead in Shenandoah National Park, one of the park’s best easy hikes.
Each of the TRACK Trails have been selected by Kids in Parks, a part of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.
Despite the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s managing efforts, the trails can be found along the Blue Ridge Parkway AND in various other places throughout the U.S.
In fact, you can find them all over the country, from Oregon to Florida. Many more are planned for the coming years, so keep checking the map to find one close to you.
At the trailhead for each of the TRACK Trails, you’ll find printed pamphlets filled with facts, activities, and hiking tips. Kids complete these booklets to earn credit for their hike, and then parents can go onto the Kids in Parks website to log their hikes.
You’ll get a free hiking tracker in the mail once you’ve signed up online, and there are free prizes when you hit specific hiking milestones. My kids love doing these, and the fact that they get some fun mail because of it is even better.
Go troll hunting.
The Camping Kiddos and I found Mama Mimi in Rendezvous Park near Jackson, Wyoming!
What could be more motivating for kids than to promise that they’ll see a troll on their hike?!
When you’re on the hunt for one of Thomas Dambo’s trolls, that’s exactly what you’ll find at the end of the trail.
He has more than 100 trolls sculptures across the world with nearly 2 dozen in the United States.
The trolls are free to access, which makes them an easy and fun day out for the family.
Plus, they’re made from naturally occurring materials (often sourced from the location) so that they blend seamlessly into their surroundings.
Dambo, the sculptor, works with the local arts and environmental groups to ensure that each troll is placed in an area that looks completely natural.
We’ve come across 2 of the Thomas Dambo trolls on our travels, Mama Mimi in Jackson, Wyoming, and Rita the Rock Planter in Victor, Colorado.
Find a trail with fun features.
This might mean you’ll have multiple river crossing on little footbridges, or that you’ll have to ford a small creek.
We’ve also found shorter trails in city and state parks that include storybook elements, so you have to walk from one page in the story to the next. (There are several of these in the Charleston County parks, which include some of our recommendations for best hikes in Charleston, SC!)
Perhaps you can plan a hike when the leaves are turning bright colors in the fall, when your child can practice naming different shades found in the forest.
Or, if you’re visiting national park, you can ask the rangers at the visitors center if there are any easy trails with water features or unique attributes, like hiking the Narrows with kids in Zion National Park.
Read up on trail guides, AllTrails, outdoor blogs, and social media to find trails with shallow caves, easy rock scrambles, hidden picnic areas, and the like. Most kids are easy to get excited about an adventure, so you just have to find something on a hiking trail that’s out of their ordinary!
I’m continually amazed at how my kids remember hikes. They never talk about the Pinky Falls hike in Highlands, NC, but rather “that hike where we got Gibby (my son) excited about going down the rock slide by himself for the first time.” They will remember those fun, unusual moments, and they will define the trail by them.
Have a back up when they get tired.
What kind of baby or toddler carrier you need really depends on the type of hiking you think you’ll be doing.
For shorter hikes, you can use a baby wrap or carrier. I loved my Tula carrier as it was lightweight but sturdy, and it easily went from grocery store to the hiking trail.
If you know that you’re planning to do longer trails or overnight hike-in camping, you’ll want to invest in a framed carrier. These are highly structured to support the weight of baby and your necessary gear. The Osprey Poco Child Carrier will last through multiple kids and as many outdoor adventures as you can throw at it.
Prepare for the bugs.
Adventure is out there, but so are the bugs.
And nothing ruins a fun day out like itching and scratching bug bites.
Get out ahead of mosquitos, gnats, and biting midges by packing bug spray and/or repellant.
If you’re looking for something more natural, we’ve also used a Thermocell portable repeller. NOTE: These are more efficient when you’re sitting still rather than hiking, so they come in handy when you’re pausing for a snack or when you’re camping.
If your trail is really badly covered in bugs, you can also use this mosquito netting that drapes over a hat. However, I’d recommend not going hiking if you know the bugs are that bad, as your kids will have a much more fun time at another time of the year.
Some bugs are a fact of life even in the cooler months, so having a can of bug spray or repellent at the ready will help your kids enough the outdoors without spending their entire time itching.
More resources for family hiking:
If you have NO IDEA where to start with hiking and you don’t want to spend a lot in the process, check out my guide to hiking for beginners on a budget. This will walk you through the stuff you absolutely need and the things you can skip until you’re really into hiking.
Taking the youngest members of the family out on the trail can be daunting since they come with so many extra concerns like diapers, nap times, and a desire to aimlessly run everywhere. Check out my best tips for hiking with toddlers here.
Final Thoughts on Hiking with Kids
My daughter crossing a stream on a trail foot bridge in Montana
Ultimately, that overlook, waterfall, or scenic bridge isn’t the point of hiking with kids—having fun with them in nature is!
Keep things light and fun to reinforce the idea that hiking and being outdoors is enjoyable.
Never make it a chore or something they need to suffer through.
Even if you make it no further than the first half-mile, that’s success, especially when you’re hiking with very little children.
If everyone gets back in the car with a small on their faces, then count that as a great hike. And the more times you end that way, the more likely everyone will be excited for the next trail…and the next.
We hope to see you and your family out on the trail!
