Hiking Games

Keep Kids Entertained on Trail

Make hiking fun and engaging for youth with some teachable moments, easy games, and brain teasers.
A hike can be a great adventure and a lot of fun for youth when they are challenged to think about their surroundings and given some guidance to explore. Take a look through WTA's Fun Handouts for Kids on the Trail or try the activities below the next time you are out hiking with kids.
  • Scavenger Hunt Challenge kids to find things that are fuzzy, small, rough, bumpy, smooth, big, soft, sticky, squishy, lumpy, wet, living, growing, round, triangular, moving, make noise, hard, smelly, etc.
  • Engage the Senses Stop and listen...how many birds do you hear in 60 seconds? Encourage kids to use their hands to explore the textures of nature... Rub your hand on the bark of a Western Red Cedar and compare it to the feel of Douglas fir bark. Let children get their hands dirty on a soft and squishy nurse log or feel the hard and bumpiness of barnacles and clam shells. Smell crushed pine needles. In the summer, encourage kids to taste red huckleberries and wild blueberries as nature offers a tasty treat along the trail. (Be sure to only taste test berries you can clearly identify).
  • Support the Arts and Imagination Bring along a small notebook and some markers, colored pencils, or watercolor paints. Take a few minutes to sit and observe the natural world. Youth have a very different perspective than adults and notice many things that adults simply pass by while hiking. Allow your children time to document their experience through drawing, painting, or written word. These will be meaningful memories they can take home with them and leave natural objects behind for the next hikers to enjoy.
  • Get up Close A small hand lens is lightweight and very handy for kids to take a closer look at critters on a stump or see the vein patterns in leaves. This is a great tool to take out when kids are showing signs of tiredness and may need to take a rest stop before continuing down the trail.
If you notice young hikers start to complain about the hike or boredom sets in try some of these activities to keep them moving down the trail, while distracting them from thinking about the remaining distance.
  • ABC's Start at the beginning of the alphabet and identify something on trail that begins with "A" then work your way through all the letters in the alphabet.
  • The Never Ending Story One person begins to tell a story and then passes it along to another person to continue the plot and so on....This has been proven as a successful way to keep groups of kids hiking together, laughing, and being creative.
  • Twenty Questions Think of a noun (person, place, or thing). Then the other hikers ask yes or no questions to figure out what the noun is. The hiker who guesses correctly gets to pick the next noun.
  • Rainbow Colors Try to identify things along the trail by the colors of the rainbow. Once you start looking closely for each color you and your kids will be amazed at how many colors are in nature.
  • Categories Think of a topic, such as professional baseball team mascots, countries that begin with the letter C, U.S. state capitals, etc. Each hiker takes a turn to identify something in the category. This continues to rotate through the group until a hiker cannot think of something or they repeat something that has already been said, then that person is out.
  • Riddles/word games Brain teasers are fun and entertaining for hikers of all ages. There are several resources on the web to find kid friendly riddles. Here are just a couple examples:
Q. What happens once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
A. The letter "m"
Q. What is round on both ends and hi in the middle?
A. Ohio
Q. What travels around the world, but stays in a corner?
A. A postage stamp
  • Minute Mysteries Similar to riddles, minute mysteries can keep a group entertained for quite a while on trail. Search the internet for minute mysteries to find numerous short mysteries to solve. Minute mysteries may be more appropriate for older children.
Q. A man leaves home, takes three left turns and returns home to find two people in masks waiting for him. Who are the people in masks?
A. It's a baseball game, the two people in masks are the catcher and umpire
Q. A cowboy rides into camp on Tuesday, stays three days and leaves on Tuesday. How is this possible?
A. The cowboys horse is named Tuesday
Q. A woman pushes a car up to a hotel and realizes she is bankrupt. How can this be?
A. The woman is playing Monopoly
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More Hiking Game Ideas
adapted from:
The Best Hikes With Children in Utah,
by: Maureen Keilty (pg 12-13)

TODDLERS-   Toddlers in backpacks can be easily entertained by letting them hold a pine-cone or pretty rock.  Talk to them and point out wild-life and beautiful surroundings.  Let him hold the "tickle wand" (long blad of grass with a tassle on the end) and tease mom or dad.  Sing sons or repeat Mother Goose rhymes. Remember those little ones in back-packs need a few breaks along the way to stretch legs and let some enery out too.
Little Miss playing with braided grass while in her pack

KIDS- The following ideas can be adapted to almost any age:
Magical Mystery Tour: as kids walk the trail, let the hikes destination be a mystery and let the sleuths discover the destination.
Color Match:  As kids hike encourage them to find colors in their surroundings that match their clothing. 
Fantasy Fun:  Skipp along the trail on the "yellow brick road", salute rocks gaurding the entrance to a canyon, compliment the creek for it's song, shake hands with the trees, sing to the sage-brush. 

Open House: look for homes that insects or animals may live in.  Watch for bird nests, spider webs, entrances to ground squirels home, insects under rocks or logs.
Little, Round, Red House:  Bring an extra apple in your pack and share this story during a break.  "Before showing them your apple, tell them a colorful version of this story.  One day a little boy had nothing to do, so he asked his mother for a game.  She told him to go outside and look for a 'little, round, red house without windows or doors, but with a star inside.'  Be descriptive about the places in the forest or canyon the boy visited.  Include the plnats and animals he spoke to, asking where he might find the little, round, red house without windows or doors, but with a star inside. (you could even discribe places you had just hiked or animals you saw) When the boy returned home, he stopped in an orchard and asked the wind to help him find the little red house.  Just then, the wind shook an apple from the tree.  The boy realized it was little, red, round, and i had no windows or doors.  (Present the apple.)  To find the star inside, he cut the apple in half (be sure to cut horizontally), and sure enought-there was a star (formed by the seed/core arrangement)!  Children enjoy eating segments of the little red house as much as the like listening to the story!

Duct Tape: Wear Duct Tape upside-down around wrist and ankles.  Let kids collect small pebbles, fallen leaves, insects, small sticks, or anything else they find interesting.  Will keep little hands free and eyes open to explore.
Camera: Let kids carry an old digital camera or a disposal camera and let the take pictures of the trip.  They will be excited to document the trip, be apart of the memory making, and enthusiastic about capturing their surroundings and family memories.
Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online.  You can find more information HERE.
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