This may be the shortest blog post you’ll ever read. Here’s my best advice for hiking with little kids:
Just don’t do it.
Wait, you still want to? You can’t resist the Pinterest pictures in your head of walking sticks and climbing rocks and leafy green forest everywhere?
OK … but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
A few weekends ago, the weather was mild and I had the brilliant idea that we should take a family field trip to Starved Rock State Park. We packed a picnic, filled water bottles, put on gym shoes, and headed out.
Four hours later, we all collapsed into the car exhausted and muddy, and I spent the long drive home Googling how many people die each year at Starved Rock.
Fun fact: It’s almost none. But as a parent, I truly don’t know how that’s possible.
After our hiking adventure, #DoneWithFun Daddy was convinced he had a hernia from hauling the toddler up and down canyons. I was convinced we should never do another family field trip again.
And then on Monday, when we were just barely recovering, my 5-year-old told his teacher that the very best thing he had done all summer long was “go rock climbing at that rock canyon place.”
Suddenly, this family field trip didn’t seem quite so disastrous.
Hiking with kids, at Starved Rock or anywhere else, might not be my favorite thing this family did all summer, but if you’re game for giving it a try, make the most of your adventure with these tips.
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read my full disclosure policy for all the boring details.
Tips to Save Your Sanity When Hiking with Kids
DO: Take your kiddos’ ages into account when planning. In hindsight, Starved Rock would have been more fun if we had left Sawyer with his grandparents for the day. Five years old is a good age to explore a state park with cliffs and no barriers and wilderness. Two years old, not so much. I pretty much existed in a state of pure panic from the moment we left the Visitors Center to the moment we got back into the car to go home.
DON’T: Bring a stroller. So you’re going to bring your toddler anyway? Leave the stroller at home. It’s tempting to drag the stroller along, and our double BOB made it admirably far along the path to the French Canyon. But there came a certain point where the stroller was completely useless and we had to leave it by the side of the path. Moreover, we spent a good part of our hiking time negotiating with one or both kids to either get into or out of said stroller.
DO: Choose the easiest hikes. We opted for a “Moderate” hike with the attitude of “How difficult can it possibly be?” Well, it wouldn’t have been difficult for two adults, or even two elementary-school kids. But a “Moderate” hike with a toddler on your hip is a whole new level of cardio and strength. See previous reference to my husband thinking he had a hernia. This is not an exaggeration.
DON’T: Wear sandals, even in the summer. Hiking with kids is still hiking, so wear socks and gym shoes. You’ll want the traction on tricky-to-navigate surfaces, and it protects your feet from mosquitoes. Speaking of …
DO: Spray everyone down with bug spray and reapply frequently. I have my crunchy-mama moments, but when it comes to mosquitoes, I don’t mess around. I use OFF! Deep Woods for my husband and I, and OFF! FamilyCare on the boys. There’s nothing worse than the misery of kids (or this complaining mama) with itchy mosquito bites.
DON’T: Plan for it to be a full-day expedition. Yes, you’ll probably be gone a full day, but the actual hiking part of your expedition should probably comprise 2 hours or less. Factor in time for snacks, and bathroom breaks, and whining, and tantrums, and running around the visitor’s center or in the grass by the parking lot. Two hours is just the right amount of time to get out in nature, take in the whole experience, and then go home before something catastrophic happens.
DO: Consider a toddler hiking backpack. And if you have an infant, wearing them is not even a question; it’s a necessity. Keeping your kids contained is key to success when hiking, for your peace of mind and their safety. We did not have a toddler hiking backpack to borrow and foolishly opted against stuffing Sawyer’s 40-pound body into the Ergo Baby carrier. But if we did it again, I wouldn’t make that mistake twice. Sawyer would be on someone’s back at all times, even if he was screaming in my ear, pulling my hair, and poking my face the entire time. At least I wouldn’t be having a continual panic attack that he was going to fall off a cliff to his death.
DON’T: Let your kids go too far ahead, and don’t let go of their hands. I’m an anxious person and as I remembered immediately at Starved Rock, I have a little bit of a heights phobia. That being said, I don’t think I was being unreasonable to make Easton hold my hand basically the entire expedition. (Possibly I was white-knuckling it a little bit too hard though.) When he wasn’t holding my hand, he was walking just a little too close to the edge, with not quite enough spatial awareness, for my comfort. Call me overprotective but I was having a mild heart attack even watching the older kids teetering unsupervised with their legs dangling over the edge. In this setting, I’d rather be safe than sorry.
DO: Bring Ziploc bags for your kids to collect treasures. I know you are supposed to “Take nothing but memories; leave nothing but footprints” when you visit the parks. But my kids love to seek out and pick up “special” rocks, leaves, sticks, and more when we explore. Confine their finds to one small Ziploc bag each, and then decide before you go home if you’ll be a stickler and make them put their all leaves back, or if you’ll break the rules and bring home that one perfect pebble. We like to sort through their collections on the picnic snack break and choose one favorite souvenir to keep.
DON’T: Forget your camera. Sure, your cell phone service might be so spotty you can’t post pictures to Insta or Facebook, but capture the moments for later. When you review the shots and see the pure delight on your kids’ faces, suddenly the in-the-moment anxiety fades into the background. (Somewhat.)
DO: Know your own limits. So, we learned that I still have a heights phobia. This is apparently increased by having my children, unconfined, at those heights with me. Although Starved Rock’s sandstone canyons were spectacular, I couldn’t relax and enjoy the beauty for longer than a minute. Next time, I’m picking a flatter hiking spot to explore.
As we were driving home, I told #DoneWithFun Daddy that while we may drive a Subaru now, we are never going to be a true outdoorsy Subaru family. But we agreed that in a few more years, when the double BOB stroller has long been sold and Sawyer is the age that Easton is now, we’ll give hiking another try. Until then, my trekking skills can be confined to Morton Arboretum or better yet, the outlet mall.
Have you hiked with your kids? Tell me how it went for you with #NeverDoneWIthFun!
