Game for drive to trail: License Plate Talk

"My dog just jumped , Sally."

Once you’ve got your children excited about the hike, you next have to get them to the trailhead, probably in a motor vehicle. Sometimes those drives to a national forest, nature preserve or state park can be long. You can keep kids’ spirits up by playing games on the drive there.

One tried and true children’s game is License Plate Talk.

Definitely for older kids, this can be a challenging game. The object is to hold a conversation using the letters on passing vehicles’ license plates. For example, the first player might see the license plate WUF421. The player could say, “What’s up, friend?” The next player responds using the letters from the next passing vehicle’s license plate. For example, if the plate was 670NMB, the second player could respond, “Not much, buddy.” For advance players, the driver may want to put a time limit on the response time.

Materials: None.

Ages: 14 and up.

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