Day Hiking Trails: Great places to hike with kids: County parks

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Great places to hike with kids: County parks

Photo courtesy of Atlantic County, N.J.

Most county parks are rural in nature, so there’s often a forest component to them. You also can find a number of short trails in many county parks.

While they don’t offer the majestic arches and mile-deep canyons of national parks, they are scenic in their own right and usually only a few miles drive from where you live.

An added benefit is that most county parks are free unless you intend to camp.

Read more about day hiking with children in the guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

Meet the Author

My name is Rob Bignell. I'm a long-time hiker, journalist and editor. My son Kieran and I have been hiking together for the past decade. Before Kieran, I taught middle school students in New Mexico and Wisconsin, served as an infantryman in the Army National Guard, and worked in newspapers. I've won several journalism awards, from editorial writing to sports reporting. In 2001, The Prescott Journal, which I served as managing editor of, was named Wisconsin’s Weekly Newspaper of the Year. Currently I own and operate an online editing business, Inventing Reality Editing Service. After spending several years in Southern California, my son and I now live in Wisconsin on the scenic Red Cedar River.