Activity for hiking kids: Trail Greetings

"What to write, what to write...maybe 'Kilroy was here'?"

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 Trail Greetings.

Like pathfinders of old, leave messages in the sand or mud for hikers yet to come down the trail. Ask young children how they make such messages (A trekking pole or a stick found on the trail probably will work fine.), then decide what message should be left. Don’t carve messages into trees or write them on rocks, however.

Materials: Stick or trekking pole

Ages: 5 and up

Learn about more than a hundred other hiking diversions for kids in Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities.