Spending quality time with your kids is a great feeling, especially during summer. The dry season gives us many opportunities to do different activities for toddlers this summer, such as going to the beach, having a backyard cookout, or hiking in some national parks. If you are interested in going hiking with your kids, you need to prioritize their safety and other important factors to avoid any danger.
Before anything else, you should create a plan first before proceeding with your hiking activity. One of the main concerns that you should look after is the best hiking spots for your kids. Here are some of them for you to choose from.
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Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (Colorado)
You can find the tallest dunes in the United States are on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Colorado. The field has an area of about 30 square miles and reaches more than 700 feet in height. You and your kids will enjoy hiking on this field while running up the sand dunes and have an exciting slide or roll down. However, you need to follow preventive measures for everyone’s safety, especially during summer. The rise of temperatures will also heat the sand, which can be painful to our skin.
Mount Rainier National Park (Washington)
Another amazing hiking spot for your children is Mount Rainier National Park near Seattle. It has fantastic sceneries of the west side of Washington, especially the Sourdough Ridge Trail, where it provides a mini adventure for you and your family. The trail features a one-mile loop with a slight gain in elevation and goes through beautiful meadows of flowers. Hiking here will help your kids appreciate the beauty of the ridgetop and the feeling of fulfillment when they see the panoramic vistas of the Sourdough Ridge Trail.
You must also remember that this area has snow most of the year, so you should plan your hike with your kids during summer or early fall.
Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky)
Mammoth Cave in Kentucky
You can take your kids on a cave tour, but most of them are too long for young ones and have plenty of climbs and tight spaces to go through. One of the shortest cave tours you can take your children is the Frozen Niagara Tour at Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, which is a quarter-mile long and can take up only one hour to complete.
This can be an easy hike for your kids while they enjoy spectacular cave features like Crystal Lake, the Frozen Niagara flowstone, the Drapery Room, and the Rainbow Dome.
Find out why Bowling Green, Kentucky is a Surprisingly Awesome Family Vacation near Mammoth Cave.
Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona)
Arizona’s northeastern park is one of the great places for hiking for your children due to its wide-open space area. The park trails provide great scenery like the enormous “fallen trees” that are made of rocks. The Giant Logs Trail is a quarter-mile loop, short enough for children to easily traverse, starting at the Rainbow Forest Museum, the park’s visitor center. It leads to the largest log in the park: Old Faithful (an astonishing length of 170 feet and 9 feet across the base). Your kids will see how important it is to take care of our trees.
Assateague Island National Seashore (Maryland/Virginia)
If your kids love ponies, then the Assateague Island National Seashore will be ideal for their hike. It is a barrier island on the border of Maryland and Virginia that stretches for 37 miles. Your kids will be fascinated when they see small horses living here. Local partners brought the wild horses here on this island in the 1600s.
Hiking with your kids will teach them valuable life lessons. Apart from appreciating the beauty of nature, hiking on these trails will keep them healthy and strong. It will also help their sense of fulfillment when they reach the summit of your chosen hiking spot. Always remember to plan and prepare everything before hiking with your children to avoid accidents or danger.
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5 Tips for First-Time Hiking with Kids
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