5 Kid-Friendly Trails To Bring Your Family Backpacking

My first backpacking partner was my mom. I was in middle school at the time, and had learned to love dayhiking in the sunny hills around San Diego, so my mother offered to take me on an overnight in Anza Borrego State Park. While most middle schoolers would scoff at willingly spending their free time with their parents, I happily accepted. I remember eating crunchy undercooked penne noodles for dinner (gross) and s’mores in a bag for dessert (delicious). Our time on the trail helped create a lifelong mother-daughter bond and shared sense of backcountry fernweh. Two years later, we invited my dad and brother along for our first full family backpacking trip, this time in Japan. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still carried a healthy amount of tweenage angst in those years. But every time I spent an outdoor weekend with my family, it just went away. Today, I’m closer to my parents and my brother because of our shared experiences on the trails. Although I don’t have kids now, if I ever do, I want to raise them on the trails. Where to begin though? When I asked my fellow editors at Backpacker and Outside, the following spots came up again and again.

High Lonesome Loop

If you’ve got an ambitious family, the High Lonesome Loop is a perfect backpacking trip to do together. This trail is the best of high-alpine hiking up the Continental Divide. Let your kids butt slide down the grassy slope during a sunscreen break, see a bull moose from camp, and hear elk bugle at night. 

Some people do this loop as an overnight—heck, some even do it as a dayhike—but we recommend two or three nights on this 15-mile trail. With views of the Front Ranges, alpine lakes, and other peaks in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, you’re not going to want to rush this one. Going counter-clockwise means hikers start with a long climb up the Devil’s Thumb Trail, then connect to the High Lonesome Trail along the Continental Divide. Most of the route takes you through dense forests, but the best part comes above the treeline, when you and your family can take in the views and bask in some well-earned peace. 

Tip: The parking lot fills up quickly at the Hessie Trailhead because it’s the entry point to lots of backcountry hikes. Skip the stress and take the free RDT shuttle from Nederland to the trailhead. 

Oregon Coast Trail

I’m not saying you should make your family thru-hike all 425 miles (although this isn’t the worst trail to test the waters of long-distance hiking); the Oregon Coast Trail has 10 sections that are family-friendly for slackpacking trips. This trail traces the entire coastline of the state, so there are plenty of lighthouses, rugged sea stacks, old-growth forests thick with ferns and douglas-firs, and scenic lookouts to sit and watch for marine life such as sea lions, seals, and humpback whales. 

Most of the trail is on the beach and through forest-shaded trails, but there is plenty of frontcountry access. Over 10 percent of the trail is on the shoulder of the U.S. 101 and on county roads or city streets. This means you can have quick, easy bailout points or ultra-customized mileages on your backpacking trip. You also pass through 28 coastal towns, where you can stop for warm bevvies and kid-friendly treats. 

Finding a place to sleep at night is easy; you just have to know where to look. Nearly every state park on the coast has tent sites in campgrounds with potable water, restrooms, and showers. Beach camping is also allowed in some areas, but you have to watch the tide calendar to avoid waking up to waves crashing on—or in—your tent. 

Want to know more? Read about the adventure Backpacker’s executive editor Adam had with his son on the OCT.

Bull of the Woods Yurt

Hike up to a yurt above the treeline in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, just under 20 miles from downtown Taos, New Mexico. Operated by the Southwest Nordic Center, this yurt is open year-round, so families can hike among the wildflowers in the warmer months and snowshoe in solitude in the colder months. (The yurt provides water in spring, summer, and fall, not in the winter.) 

Seeing the 2-mile itinerary to the yurt might make you think you’re going to be done by the time the kids are ready for a mid-morning snack, but with 1,500 feet of elevation gain starting from the trailhead in the Taos Ski Valley, you’ll want to take your time. Besides, your family will find conquering the steep terrain worth bragging about.

Got some older kids who want a little more hiking after reaching the yurt? You can follow the ridgeline to either Wheeler Peak—the state’s highest summit at 13,167 feet—or Gold Hill. 

Depending on the time of the year, you’ll be able to see native bighorn sheep scaling the same slopes as you. In the wintertime, hikers need to pay extra caution: Because the bighorn sheep population has suffered from poaching and disease, dogs are not allowed in the yurt this time of year. That’s because the bighorn sheep stay above the treeline during these months, and loose dogs could scare them away from their environment and harm their chances of surviving the winter.

Crystal Cove State Park

Looking for low mileage, easy terrain, and a big scenic payoff? This California state park has 2,400 acres of backcountry wilderness where you can hike among gently rolling cliffs in and out of deeply wooded canyons.

With campsites up to 4 miles from the trailhead, parents could carry toys to entertain young kids—it’s worth it to hike in burritos for dinner, too. These campsites aren’t on the beach, but they still guarantee views of the Pacific. Be on the lookout for migrating whales in the winter. 

Go to reservecalifornia.com to claim your spot at any of the 34 available tentsites in the Deer Canyon, Lower Moro, or Upper Moro campgrounds. At just 2.5 miles from the trailhead, Lower Moro Campground is the most easily accessible, making it a prime spot for families with little kids or first-time backpackers. Lower Moro also has restrooms, which is great for kids or first-timers squeamish about pooping in a hole on the ground. Want to hike a little more? Upper Morro is the second-closest campsite to the trailhead, and Deer Canyon is the farthest. 

This park also offers lots of educational guided hikes, geology tours, and tidepooling adventures, which are perfect for curious kids. Check the website for the program calendar. Note: Dogs are allowed on the paved multi-use bluff trail in the state park, but not in any of the backcountry hiking trails, so leave the pup at home.

Hugginin Cove Loop

Accessible via only ferry or seaplane, Isle Royale National Park in a source of rugged, remote adventure in the middle of Lake Superior. The best way to experience it all with your family is an overnight on the Hugginin Cove Loop, an 8.2-mile trail through the northwest corner of the park.

You can tackle this trail clockwise or counterclockwise. Either way,  you’ll have to go at a kid’s pace to navigate rocks and roots. Luckily, moss and lichen cushion a lot of these tripping hazards. You’ll stay in wetland for a large portion of this trail, wandering through a number of swamps and ponds. As you loop through the trail, keep an eye out for moose in their natural habitat.

At mile 5.1 (going clockwise), the trail passes through the secluded and scenic Huginnin Cove on the north shore of the island, a great place to camp and watch the sunset from the Lake Superior shoreline. Although it’s pretty, we recommend against taking a dip: The shore is rocky, and there aren’t any easy, kid-friendly entries into the water.