These are the items we make sure to pack when heading out on a National Park adventure with our (now) seven-year-old son. Some are more specific for certain places and plans, but they are all something to think about when you begin to pack based on your itinerary. This is our list of the “must-haves” for adventuring with kids in National Parks.
Table of Contents
1. SMALL BACKPACK
Our son’s backpack has been awesome over the years. It is lightweight and very durable. I can even throw it in the washing machine after a trip to clean it up. It is small enough to fit in a suitcase but large enough to fit a few of our son’s favorite things on hikes. In reality, a young child is not going to carry a heavy pack hiking, but this allows him to keep a few things he wants to have access to in an easy place to grab them. It is much better than, “can I have my _________?” over and over when hiking! Our son loves how he can connect carabiners to the outside to make access to some items even easier! He even used this as his preschool backpack too! Shout out to Uncle Raymond for this rad gift.
Just another note I feel fits here – whether you carry it or your child carries it, please make sure to always have sunscreen, bug protection, and a first aid kit in you or your child’s pack. These are so important for adventuring with kids in National Parks. You don’t need a beautiful hike ruined because you don’t have a band-aid. We all know band-aids are a magic fix to so many things!
2. STAINLESS WATER BOTTLE
This is such an important item for us! Almost all National Parks have stopped selling plastic water bottles and now provide fresh water filling stations through the park. You will never find my son without a water bottle or water bladder in his backpack. In addition to the importance of hydration when hiking in general, our son has Cystic Fibrosis and can dehydrate easily. In addition, he takes over 40 pills a day with meals in order to digest the food he eats, so having water to swallow the 7 pills per meal is important.
Kids love these stainless bottles because the water can stay icy cold throughout a long day. I also feel better about them laying around in the sun being stainless versus plastic. Our son always tells us the water tastes better from a Hydroflask!
3. SUN HAT
We purchased this sun hat before our Summer 2019 Road Trip and it has been such a great purchase. It is not too expensive and very lightweight. It can be shoved in our son’s backpack and washed in the washing machine when we get home (ha – notice a theme here for me!). The cord allows it to be hooked onto his backpack and mesh gives him ventilation in the heat. It has UV 50+ protection and I love how the neck flap protects the back of his neck from the sun. So many kids fight sunscreen, so it is great to have an extra layer of protection when exploring National Parks with kids!
4. ADJUSTABLE HIKING STICK
This purchase started more as a souvenir in Zion National Park to make our son feel like a “real hiker,” but we quickly realized we were glad we had it. He uses it often to feel he’s “dressed the part,” but in Zion, it stabilized him in the water and rocks of the Narrows, and in Bryce National Park it helped keep him up as we descended into the canyon. We love how it is adjustable so if he is tired of using it, we can collapse it and hook it to our backpack versus someone always having to carry it. Our son’s hiking stick was from the Zion visitor center, but I linked one that is very similar – and cheaper! Ha!
5. BINOCULARS
These are just fun to have. I cannot tell you how many times we have used our binoculars and been happy to have them! Between looking for California Condors in Zion National Park and looking for whales from Cabrillo National Monument our son has used them all over! He watched climbers scale El Capitan and a bear cross a meadow in Yosemite. These binoculars have offered some awesome experiences. They are small, fit in his pack and allow him to explore the park even more. When a crowd is standing around watching a bear, he felt very cool whipping out his binoculars to have an up-close view!
6. DIGITAL CAMERA
My dad had an old Canon Power Shot and now that everyone uses their iPhone for photos, we thought why not let our son play around with it? He is old enough to take care of it in his pack, but I linked a camera that can take a little more wear and tear from younger kids. It is fun to see the trip through their lens when you get home. Sometimes we get 15 squirrel pictures, and other times we get sweet “family selfies” that we will always cherish. How many times have your kids watched you take a picture? They want to be a part of that too!
7. JUNIOR RANGER BOOKLET & JUNIOR RANGER PASSPORT
When visiting National Parks with kids, you have to check these out! I absolutely love the Junior Ranger program at National (and CA State) parks. It is free and enriches your child’s experience in the park. They learn about the geology, history, plants, and animals in the park. The park-specific booklets double as dinner entertainment and challenge your child to look, listen and explore the park in ways they may not have done without the activities.
My son has such pride when he returns to a park ranger, takes his oath, and achieves his badge. Some parks give out a beautiful wooden badge, others have a plastic badge. My son thinks the plastic with gold trim is the cream of the crop in Junior Ranger badges. We had fun making a display for his badges from cut-off jeans, three safety pins, a stick, and some burlap twine. The stick was not from a National Park! Your Junior Ranger will learn to take nothing during visits!
The Junior Ranger Passport is a lot of fun too! It is the child version of the adult National Park Passport, with the same categories only broken down into more pictures, space for stamps, and illustrations. There is space for your “date of visit” cancellation and your child’s “Junior Ranger” cancellation. This book will be cherished for years as every visit adds to the personalization of the booklet! I cannot wait to see the stamps grow over the years! This is a * must-have* if you see your family having multiple National Park trips.
8. NATIONAL PARK ROOKIE READERS
I love these little books! These are an inexpensive way for kids to get excited about your trip! Our son is seven, so they are aimed at the younger reader, but the idea is for them to have a book about the park that your child can adore. These books are great to read before we go, in the car on the way and during our visit. We make a point to check out specific things from the book (usually we are already going to most of them).
The inside cover of the books turns into a mini scrapbook from our trip. We use them to stamp his National Park Passport cancellations in, Junior Ranger stamps in, and place any stickers he may get from the rangers in the park. For $6, they are a great kick-off to your trip. Anything in the visitor center will be more expensive, so why not order ahead? I am linking the different parks here for your convenience. They have a variety of parks available at times, but current availability on Amazon is Zion, Bryce, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Great Smokey Mountains, Glacier, Everglades, Hawaii Volcanoes, and Acadia.
9. CARABINER FLASH LIGHT & CARABINERS
For some reason hanging things off my son’s pack just makes him feel like a true hiker. It is so easy to attach his binoculars or camera to his pack with a carabiner. We really love these flashlight carabiners as you never know when you may run out of daylight and they are tiny enough to always have attached to something. They are also a great light to hang from the top of your tent when you are getting things ready for bed! Carabiners are also a fun thing to purchase with kids from the National Park visitor centers as a souvenir!
10. THE RIGHT SHOES
This is so important!!! The wrong shoes for your child can RUIN your hike. You can plan away, pack all the right things, set out with the best of intentions and if you don’t have the right shoes everything will begin to spiral quickly. If you purchase new hiking boots for a specific trip, please make sure your child is able to wear them before the trip. Nothing is worse than a child with the wrong shoes, or shoes that are giving blisters because they have not been broken in. Our son LOVES these Merrell hiking boots for kids. They have had a lot of miles put on them and still are in great shape.
In preparation for the Narrows in Zion, I wanted to get him some water-friendly hiking shoes. Although the hiking boots are actually waterproof, I knew we may not have enough time between adventures for them to fully dry after the narrows. I found water shoes similar to these at the Merrell outlet and they worked great! I cannot recommend making sure your kids are dialed in with the right shoes before any big adventures!!
Hope this list of “must-have” items for kids in National Parks gets you started in your prep for an awesome family adventure! Always remember that a comfortable & engaged child is going to be a happy child! A happy child is sure to lead to a better experience for the entire family exploring the parks! Anything else you would add to the list?
Great tips!