Friday, July 6, 2012

Great hiking activity for kids: Geocaching

Generally, exploring and discovery is enough for kids, but sometimes even they can grow bored with that and become restless. Remember that they naturally have shorter attention spans than adults.

Fortunately, there are lots of tried and true activities you can do on the trail that’ll keep kids from getting bored. Among them is geocaching.

The fun of this game is using GPS and orienteering to find a treasure.

Enter “geocaching” into a search engine and find out what the pastime is all about and how to get involved locally. For older kids, children, it’s a great way to turn the hike into a hunt.

Materials: GPS, printout of search instructions, an item to add to the treasure.

Ages: 12 and up.

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