Hiking with Kids – when you’re not regular day-long hikers

We LOVED hiking mile after mile as a family this past summer.  Our kids are active 9, 11, 11, 13, & 15 year olds.  However, I was concerned that hiking as much as we were planning could get tiresome and difficult.  So, I did a bunch of research before we headed out and learned some valuable lessons about hiking with kids as we went along that made the experience as positive as I could think to make it.  So here, in no particular order, are my thoughts/recommendations about how to make your hike with your children truly enjoyable:

• Hydration Packs are WONDERFUL.  We gave each of our kids (and ourselves)hydration backpacks for birthdays and even though birthdays got a bit redundant, it was well worth it.  We bought 1.5 or 2 liter packs depending on the size of the child.  They were great because our kids could easily drink as they hiked and keep some basic supplies on them.  Yes, that means that on one of our hikes a couple kids ran out of water because they were drinking a bit much (so us adults got to share), but it was still wonderful to not listen to them whine, “I’m thirsty, can’t we stop?”  5 minutes after the last stop to get out water bottles.
  • Keep extra water in your vehicle.  In case kids run out in their pack, it’s good to have some extra. :)

• Pack Snacks.  Before our trip, I bought a variety of dried fruits and nuts, granola bars, nutrigrain bars, slim jims, fun fruits, etc.  Every morning each child was given a quart size ziplock baggy to fill with the nuts and dried fruits they wanted.  Plus they could pick out 4 or so of the other snack items.  They put their snacks in their packs.  When you’re planning on hiking an average of 8 miles a day, your children will have much more energy and will be MUCH more smiley when they have plenty of snacks to keep their tummies happy!

• Pack Lunch.  Every day my husband and I, along with our 15 and 13 year old carried lunch for everyone.  Even if you think your morning hike will be quick, it’s best to be prepared and have lunch on you.  It gives you the flexibility of staying at your destination as long as you want (and let kids skip stones to their hearts’ content) without having the hungry grouchies force you to rush back to your vehicle to eat lunch.

• Wet wipes.  You will find a myriad of uses for them on the trail.

• Keep Jackets or sweatshirts handy.  I purchased backpacks with bungee straps on the back so we could easily tuck our an extra layer in them when we were warm and get the layer out when we were chilly. Glacier had a heat wave the week we were there, so we hardly needed our jackets (although early mornings in the forest are always cool), but Grand Tetons and Yellowstone were chilly, so we were glad to have them!

 

• Consult a day backpacking site and pack the stuff they recommend.  The compass?  Yep.  We never needed it, but the kids loved using it.  In fact, I thought they would, so for a couple bucks a piece I bought each of them small compasses with carbineers to hook on their backpacks.  Of course make sure to pack the first aid kit (with large bandages), sun screen, bug spray, bear spray (if applicable), etc., etc.

• Get a cheap pocket guide for animals/birds/whatever natural your child is interested in, so they can look the info up while going to and from hike locations or as you take little breaks on your hike.  It gets them more knowledgeable and excited about what they may see that day.  I had purchased an “animals of the northwest” book that my kids enjoyed, but the best/most popular resource was at the first house we stayed in.  They had a book called, “Who pooped in the Park?”  Our 11 yr old boys ate it up and trust me, you see a lot more scat than live animal on trails.  Our boys loved being able to figure out which animal had left their mark!

• If you rented a cabin or house to save on food expenses - have supper waiting for you when you get home.  I planned lots of crockpot and quick grill meals for us so we could sit down and eat quickly.  The last thing I wanted to do after a day of hiking was deal with supper, so I made sure I didn't have to!

Finally, if at all possible, do an all day or half day local hike before your big trip.  A couple months before our big trip we went to Starved Rock for the day.  We don’t typically do big full day hikes, so it was invaluable to hike 6+ miles at a stretch and learn from it.  Our big take-aways from that day were to slow down and enjoy the hike itself, not just the destination and make sure we had plenty of food and water on us (not just in our vehicle).

(Starved Rock a couple months before we headed West)


I’d love to hear any “hiking with kids” tips you have to make our next trip even better!

Glacier National Park Day 2

Our first big hike.  We chose to drive 2+ hrs under GNP rather than drive 2+ hrs on the Going to the Sun Road to get to Many Glacier and hike to Grinnell Glacier.  While the GtS Rd is beautiful, it also has steep grades and is gravel in some places.  We hoped the road under GNP would be more friendly to our big van.  Thankfully we did not have the steep grades, but the road was very curvy, part of it was gravel and we were starting to wonder why we hadn’t just gone through the park when we saw:

Yes, we saw bushes, but before I took the picture of the bushes, we saw a bear!!!!  You can just barely see it in there if you look carefully.  It was running full speed along the shoulder of the road toward us.  We were SOOOOO excited!!  Then I remembered my camera, snapped a picture and got…bushes.  Major bummer.  But I was ready for the next animal.  This moose was really moving!
The Grinnell Glacier hike is roughly 10.5 miles round trip, and like many of the hikes at GNP, you hike the same trail twice – once heading in, and then to hike back out (so the actual trail is just over 5 miles).  It has nearly everything you could want in a hike – mountains of course, but right on top of beautiful emerald lakes, woods, narrow waterfalls and a glacier at the end.  Naturally, you don’t get all this beauty easily.  This hike has an elevation gain of 1,700 ft.  Not easy. at. all.  But awe-inspiringly beautiful.
 
While we did come across people occasionally on this hike, we had long stretches of being “alone” (if 7 people can ever be alone).  The solitary hiking led to some pretty humorous exchanges because the kids (and adults) felt comfortable being goofy, knowing no one would hear them.  It also lead to some pretty fantastic praise singing :).  Usually Kayla or Lucas would start up a Praise Song and a bunch of us would join in while we looked at the majesty around us.  Can it get any better than that?

We walked through woods, snow, & waterfalls.  We proved that 11 year old boys CANNOT walk past water without soaking themselves.
Now, scroll back to the mountain picture at the beginning of the post.  See the tiny waterfall on the right side?  Yep, this is it.  We climbed until we were above the incredibly tall waterfall and up to what looks like a snow bank, but is actually a glacier.

This is where I suffered my only disappointment in GNP.  I expected the glacier to be a massive ice mountain that I could virtually see my reflection in (probably due to watching too much Frozen).  I was bummed to just see lots of snow.  I was also exhausted.  I’m not used to hiking up 1700 ft at 7000 ft.  We stayed around to soak in the breeze off the glacier (it was 80+ degrees), take a bunch of pictures and eat some snacks.


You would think our return trip would be a bit boring because we’ve already walked the trail, right?  Actually, I found myself enjoying the views more for 2 reasons :
1) the hike was much easier because we were heading downhill.  And
2) we were at the highest part of our hike looking down at the mountains and lakes we had hiked past on our way there.  

Isn’t that just GORGEOUS!!?!!  And check out these beautiful flowers!!!

For supper we stopped at a local restaurant near Many Glacier that oozed loads of local flair – including indoor and outdoor displays of license plates from every state (and many countries inside) and a sign that my children loved:


Next up – Hiking with kids.

We LOVE Glacier National Park!

Just weeks before we left for Hong Kong last year, we learned that Andrew's company had begun a new policy of giving 2 weeks paid paternity leave for adoptions.  First we were floored!  Then we started planning :).  We decided to add one of our regular vacation weeks onto the 2 weeks and have an epic trip to the Northwest.  I spent a ton of time planning and researching and booking and finally early in the morning on July 26th, we groggily hauled ourselves into the big van and started driving.  First destination stop - Glacier National Park!!! DISCLAIMER - *****I apologize for the travel-logue-y-ness of these posts, but my goal is to remember what we did each day and help those who may be planning a similar trip (I’ve had a number of requests for our itinerary).  So, I most likely won’t be sharing Lucas stories and they’ll be pretty low on emotion….but they will be full of beautiful scenery pictures.  You have now been warned. *****
GLACIER Day 1 -
Glacier is in the far northwest corner of Montana.  It is home to the Northern Rockies Mountain Range and literally hundreds of miles of hiking trails.  It is chock full of God's beauty at its best.  Nearly every day we drove the Going to the Sun Road, but it’s impossible to complain about a commute when you see this all along your drive!
I just kept ooohing, aaahing and wowing and telling kids – “Seriously, you have got to be looking out the windows because this is just gorgeous!!”  I’m not sure they were into it as much as I was, but I heard some pretty excited voices coming from the back with every new turn in the road (ps. – stock up on Dramamine).
From the very beginning, we planned to do a lot of hiking on this trip.  We wanted to ease our kids in a bit, so we started with 2 smallish hikes our first day in the Park.  We drove up to Logan’s Pass and barely got a parking space.  True, this park is the least visited of all the National Parks, but it also has the smallest parking lots.  We quickly learned if we wanted a good parking spot, we needed to be at our destination by 8:30 or so. 

First hike - Hidden Lake Trail. This has to be one of the busiest trails in the park because there is little elevation change, it is right behind the Logans Pass Visitor Center and it’s pretty short (just under 3 miles round trip).  A view of the trail, and yes, we hiked through some of that snow.  This large Mountain Goat also thought the boardwalk portion of the trail was the easiest way to travel, so we just kept a respectful distance and enjoyed watching him :).

A little stop off as we hiked & watched a mom and kid -

Below is Hidden Lake.  Isn’t it just gorgeous!!!  We couldn’t hike down to the lake because of bear activity (they hung a rope to block the trail), which was a bummer, but we thoroughly enjoyed soaking all this in while we ate our lunch.

After lunch we hiked back down the trail to Logan’s Pass and grabbed a shuttle to the St Mary Falls Trail Head.  The St Mary & Virginia Falls trails are also about 3 miles round trip and have very little elevation change so it is also a busier trail, but again, it is beautiful!!!  First we hiked through a bunch of trees with this majestic mountain towering over us.  Before too long we heard, and then saw, St Mary Falls.


One of the nice things about sharing the trail with a few other people is that they are willing to take pictures of your family for you :).  Yet, there are few enough people that it is easy to get a picture without anyone else in it.
Virginia Falls -

Perspective – the top section of the falls is 50+ feet.  It is really beautiful!  We ate a prolonged snack and just enjoyed watching this waterfall for a good 1/2 hr. 
We ended  the day back at the house we had rented and wolfed down the crockpot meal that was ready for us.