O ur kids went on their first backpacking trip at 3 and 5 years old, a 3⁄4-mile forested hike to a beach on the Olympic Peninsula where we pitched tents on the sand and spent days hiking the shoreline and exploring tidepools. The kids carried their own packs — my 3-year-old’s backpack simply held his diapers and camp mattress — and quickly learned how to filter water, set up camp, and pee in the bush. Fast forward a decade.
Our kids, now 13 and 15, still join us for daytrips and an annual multi-day hike that’s long enough to require food resupply stops along the way. We’ve backpacked hundreds of miles over the past couple of summers, exploring mountainous trails near our home in Washington state to remote areas in British Columbia where we didn’t see anyone for a couple of days. We’ve had carefree moments of chatting along the trail and stressful times as we’ve traversed steep snowfields, forded raging rivers, and spooked a black bear nestled in a bush.
One 10-day hike included 27,000 feet of vertical gain (we slept well at night). Some of us have loved every minute of it. Others have wanted to get airlifted out (permanently or maybe just for a quick burger and milkshake).
We have learned a lot over the miles on how to make a trip work, even when not all of us want to be there 100 percent of the time. Read on for tips about hiking with kids. We didn’t want to stop doing what we loved — and we wanted our kids to enjoy the outdoors — so we never stopped .