Day Hiking Trails: Fun game for hiking kids: Squirrel Count

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Fun game for hiking kids: Squirrel Count

Which side of the trail is this squirrel on? Photo courtesy
of Ohio DNR.

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 Squirrel Count.

This game works well if you have two children. As hiking, one child counts all of the squirrels seen on one side of the trail; the other child counts all of the squirrels seen on the other side. Squirrels appearing on the trail don’t count until they run off to a side (Sometimes they’ll run back and forth to both sides!). Upon reaching the next rest stop, he child who has counted the most squirrels wins. If hiking in the desert, lizards can be substituted for squirrels.

Materials: None

Ages: 4 and up

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

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.