I have small children, and would like to take them into "wilderness" areas (i.e. national forests) for light duty day hikes. Is this actually possible, or are the demands too great? Ages are 4 - 10. My aim is to get them into quiet, peaceful and remote environment and develop a healthy love and respect for the outdoors.

We live in SoCal, and are sick of concrete trails, and signs exhorting us to protect the gnats by not swatting at them.

Travel plans in the foreseeable future are CO, UT, and AZ. Any tales or experiences, or advice welcomed though.

Aloha anotherKevin,

I take my girls hiking along with other parents and their kids. My kids are 2 and 5. Kids can surprise you.

Just start mellow and progress from there. We take our kids walking pretty regularly, both around the neighborhood and to our local parks.

The girls first real hike was to Manoa Falls. It is about 1 1/2 miles. Hike is pretty much uphill to the waterfall and back downhill. Elevation gain was about 500 feet so pretty modest. But both girls made it up to the top under their own power. My five year old also made it down herself while the two year fell asleep at the top as we were waiting for the last mom and her son to catch up. I couldn't beleive we had to wait about 1/2 an hour. Then I had to carry my daughter down.

Here a link that has some pictures of Manoa Falls: http://www.hawaiiweb.com/html/hiking/manoa_falls_trail.html

Our next hike was Aiea Loop Trail. It is just shy of five miles and I think with more elevation gains and losses than Mano Falls. My two year old wanted to be carried for most of the hike, but my five year old and her buddies completed the hike.

Here is a link: http://www.hawaiiweb.com/html/hiking/aiea_loop.html

Of course, I was very proud of both my kids as well as the other children.

The hiking site is probably not the best around, but you get the picture.

Just take your kids out and have fun and let them explore and have fun too. But, of course, go equipped.

Your kids are plenty old enough to start enjoying the great out doors. Our daughter started camping with us at 2-years old. She's three now and loves going on nature walks with me. I've already taught her the whole "hug a tree, blow your whistle" routine if she gets lost and we practice it. She's learned which are "owie bugs" and which bugs she can pick up. ID-ing poison ivy is going slow but if it's around I point it out to her and explain touching it is worse than a bunch of fire ant bites. So far she hasn't touched it.

Sometimes I get a little frustrated when we are heading to a beautiful spot be she decides she wants to spend 20 minutes playing in a sandy part of the trail, but if it's fun for her she'll want to go back.

You need to bring a lot of water, snacks, sunblock and bugspray. Kids can seem fine one second and suddenly become dehydrated, low blood sugared, burnt and bit really fast. Keep an eye on them and they'll be fine.

-Blast

My son is 3 years old. I have been taking him on day hikes since he could walk (if not maybe earlier actually). We started off using a Kelty Kids pack kind of like this one and now he walks on his own until he gets tired (keep in mind that we're hiking in 100+ degree heat) then I put him up on my shoulders (which I consider great exercise). We both enjoy it thoroughly. He is constantly telling me "I wanna go in the woods" which brings a smile to my face. The main thing to keep in mind if your a seasoned hiker is that you're going to be going A LOT slower and A LOT shorter distances. If you're not a seasoned hiker then you have the advantage of not having preconceived notions of what hiking "should" be like. Sometimes it's a real stretch to even call what my son and I do "hiking". A more accurate terminology would probably be "playing in the woods". None-the-less we have a great time! We'll be out there at least twice this weekend. He won't let me forget that I promised we'd be going, and that's fine with me. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />