Back Country Adventures with Kids
There have been several great discussions on Expedition Portal recently about how to camp with children. I am not an expert, but I have kids and go camping a lot, so I thought I would share what I’ve learned along the way. Much of this is thanks to my wife, who is brilliant at this sort of thing. Here is a repost of my thoughts:
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My family started camping when my daughter was about 2, my son was 4 along with my wife, who had camped as a girl but not since then. Now we set out with her in charge of events as Mom instead of as just a child participant. It was a an eagerly anticipated moment for me. As luck would have it, it rained almost none stop for 7 straight days. The end result….they loved it! It’s all about attitude….and preparation.
Travel, Camping, Overlanding, and Trail Runs are distinctly different activities when it comes to families. You pack differently, prepare differently, and plan differently.
As Dad, it’s your job to listen. The stamina of others with you will dictate. Hiking almost to the destination is just as good as getting there, because the key is that you are out hiking with your family, right? Don’t over due it. Keep things fresh, that will keep the attitudes positive, and that keeps the memories of the trip positive, and that leads to more trips.
Before you know it, you will go from this:
Megan Hiking in Yosemite, age 3
To this:
Megan hiking in Eastern Sierra's
I am very fortunate to have married a brilliant mother. My wife makes travel fun for all of us, and is super intuitive on the kid’s needs and moods. It is my job to listen to her. I am working on it :-)
People have mentioned taking frequent breaks. The key really is “cadence”. There is a rhythm for these different activities. My house is about 11 hours to Moab, typically a one day straight shot, but with the family, it’s a two day trek. We will stop and go into restaurants, hit a few attractions/museums along the way, and quite frankly, enjoy the trip a lot more. Bring pillows, real ones.
The benefits of real pillows!
Bring stuffed animals, bring Magnadoodles, bring Madlibs, and all sorts of stuff like that. I personally don’t use the DVD player much, only on really long trips (like from CA to Colorado). Its more important to me to get them all playing with creativity, or looking outside, or singing, etc… Everything is a learning opportunity.
On the Trail, the kids need to get out of the vehicle frequently. There are typically a lot of opportunities for that. It doesn’t take much time to unstrap them and put them back in, as long as they obey you and come running back to the vehicle when it’s time to round everyone back up. This is important!
When Camping, kids love to get dirty, and often very wet! Bring lots of spare clothes, and spare shoes. Bring BooBoo candy. Teach them about which bugs are fun to play with, and what to avoid. For my kids, the challenge was to teach them to leave spiders alone. They are fascinated by them, but can’t distinguish from safe or harmless varieties. They are all off limits because of this. It is really important to lay down the law on stuff like this, and there needs to be penalties if they “forget”. With a few carefully established and heavily reinforced rules, you can relax so much more and just let them wander and play!
Letting your kids play with frogs, squirrels, lady bugs, dragonflies etc…that’s the magic right there. Climbing rocks, playing in streams, falling into those streams and getting muddy is what its all about. That’s what they will remember.
Trevor with Frog
Keep them comfortable. Warm sleeping bags are a must. The kids will be very adaptable, and after a full day of play (or travel) will sleep hard after an hour or so of running around like Tasmanian Devils, but pamper the wife! Listen to her needs when it comes to comfort. Those expensive sleeping bags are worth it! Make sleeping in the tent fun. Most families don’t sleep together in the house, so a shared tent experience can be special.
Playing while Raining
Megan happy as a bug in her warm sleeping bag
Be sensitive to altitude. I love life above 10,000 feet, but altitude hits everyone differently, and at different times. On one trip to 11,000 feet, I was hurting that first day with massive headache. Second day, all was well, third day in, my daughter succumbed to altitude sickness, announced by throwing up on MY sleeping bag. You need to adjust your itinerary to these things. Instead of fishing or hiking, she re-hydrated and slept most of the day. Fourth day was a blast for both of us. Learn to deal with this.
Megan feeling the Altitude
Prepare for the cold. Bring a lot more than you can imagine using, and be thankful when you have it!
Staying warm - toasting marshmallows!
Travel with other families if possible, or at least with other parents that have kids, even if the kids are not along with. They will understand your pace so much more!
Not too long ago we did the Mojave Trail with a few other families with kids all within about 5 years of age to each other. That is a long day of pavement, followed by 3 days of constant trail driving. A recipe for cabin fever with kids for sure. They loved it, want to go back. The key is to let them play. Rocks are plentiful, and they never tire of climbing them. On that particular trip, we let the kids play with the radios so that they could talk from car to car, and we were treated to a very interesting “radio theater” version of Star Wars. The other parents in the group enjoyed it in a wry, understanding sort of humor, and the non-parents were amazed and befuddled by it, but were gracious enough to tolerate it :-)
Trevor working the Radio
In closing, I will echo the repeat comment others have stated. Start now, get out and do it. You will not regret it.
Enjoying Yosemite's back country
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