Carry - but keep packed - that mobile phone on day hike with kids

Carrying a mobile phone always is a good idea one in case you need to make an emergency phone call. If possible, you always should call a responsible party to let them know when you’ve arrived at your trailhead. Be aware that a mobile phone may not have reception in many remote areas. In addition, there probably is no way to recharge your phone other than through your vehicle, so take care of that before leaving home.

Also, remember that you’re on a nature trail, not a city sidewalk. As Mark P., of Rapid City, S.D., notes, “When on the trail, put away the mobile phone. The object of the adventure is to spend time with your kids and to enjoy nature. Use it only for emergencies. If you must take a phone call on the trail, be discrete as other hikers may hear your conversations.”

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

Putting on gear during a day hike with kids

Once you arrive at the hiking area, you’ll want to strap on your own gear – and that’s not so easy to do when you’re also trying to watch little ones and making sure they don’t discard clothing or gear you just make sure they had.

Double check so you haven’t left something valuable in the vehicle that needs to be taken on the trail, such as maps you used to reach the site, your mobile phone, your wallet, and trail mix your kids talked you into munching on early. Once you’ve done that, get your gear on.

When putting on the backpack, tighten the waist belt snug, then shift the pack as high on your shoulders as you can and tighten the belt again. This will provide better stability when walking and keep most of the weight on your hips rather than your shoulders, which would be tiring.

If you have a baby carrier, put on your fanny pack first, then situate and buckle up the child in the carrier. Next, put on the carrier, grab the trekking pole, and gather the kids around to go over safety rules (more about that in an upcoming blog entry!).

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

Caves, sand hills await in Boquillas Canyon

Boquillas Canyon Trail

Caves the size of auto show rooms and grand views overlooking the Rio Grande await intrepid travelers who hike the Boquillas Canyon Trail in Big Bend National Park.

The park preserves more than 1,200 square miles of the Chihuahuan Desert along the international border with Mexico, marked by the Rio Grande. The trail takes you right up to the river border through Boquillas Canyon, one of park’s three largest canyons.

There’s a narrow window for visiting the park. During late spring, summer, and early fall, midday temperatures often climb above 100 degrees F, though even then walks can be comfortably taken during early morning hours. March typically is the driest month, and the days just before April typically are the best to visit.

Descending to Rio Grande
The trail sits in the park’s eastern side. From U.S. Hwy. 385, take Park Route 12 to Rio Grande Village (where there’s a visitor center, though it’s closed during the summer), then turn onto Boquillas Canyon Road. There’s a viewing point on the way to the trail that is worth a stop. The parking area is at the road’s end. You’ll find the trailhead at the parking lot.

The easy 1.4-mile long trail largely is a fine sand surface and takes you back into Boquillas Canyon. The beginning of the trail consists of wooden planks and heads through flat desert scrub. Look for yucca and prickly pear cacti with its fruits.

The trail then heads over a low limestone hill, descending to the Rio Grande’s banks. Watch for the Indian mortar holes. There is also archeological evidence of pre-historic human inhabitation in the canyon.

This riverside section of the trail is lush and green, a respite from the stark desert that you drove through to reach Rio Grande Village and the trail. A variety of birds call the river shore home, and with the area’s remoteness, you’re certain to hear any number of songs, including those of the ash-throated flycatcher, black phoebe, black-throated sparrow, blue-winged teal, canyon towhee, cactus wren, chipping sparrow, common raven, house finch, Inca dove, ladderback woodpecker, loggerhead shrike, meadowlark, mockingbird, rock wren, rough winged swallow, turkey vulture, vermillion flycatcher, verper sparrow, white-wing dove, and the yellow rumped warbler. And yes, you’ll likely spot a roadrunner.

Boca
The trail from here largely skirts the river. The clear water offers inspiring reflections of canyon walls. Don’t be surprised if you also catch sight of a river rafting group navigating its way into the canyon or a rider stopping to let his horse drink from the river.

At the trail’s end is series of wind-driven sand hills and a shallow cave. Your feet will sink in the sand hills, which can make for some fun sliding. The cave is a boca, or a weathered cliff, and stretches several stories high in sediment laid down over tens of millions years when this area was under a shallow sea.

Be forewarned: You are in a very remote area. There is no cell phone coverage. In addition, you’re walking through the desert. For half-day hikes, you should carry at least 2 quarts of water per person. Springs and tinajas – the depressions in rock where water collects – typically are unsafe to drink from.

The good news is that if you should be injured, someone likely will be along soon. Locals from Mexico often cross the shallow river to sell trinkets and handiwork. Technically, it is illegal to purchase their goods. It’s also illegal to cross the border into Mexico by fording the river (and in any case, fording a river with children is unsafe).

Learn about other great national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks guidebook.

Carry a wristwatch on a day hike with kids

A watch not only tells time but can serve as a makeshift compass.

A wristwatch may seem redundant in the age of mobile phones, but if your phone goes dead or is lost, a watch lets you know what time it is.

This can be valuable in helping you gauge how far you’ve traveled. For example, if you know your brood covers about half a mile every half hour, and only 15 minutes have passed, then you’ve probably traveled a quarter mile. If you’re lost, you’ll need to know how soon you should think about going into emergency mode and staying the night in the wilds.

Wear a watch with hands, not a digital one. While digital watches come with all kinds of gizmos, like a barometer, altimeter and compass, most of them require a battery, and batteries have a way of going dead just when you need them most.

In case your GPS dies or you lose your compass, a wristwatch with hands also can be used to tell direction. Simply point the watch’s hour hand toward the sun. Now imagine a line between the hour hand and the 12 on your watch; that line is true south. If you’re currently on daylight savings time (in the United States, this is from the second Sunday of March to the day before the first Sunday of November, except Hawaii and the non-Navajo sections of Arizona), you’ll need to pretend the hour hand is one hour earlier than it appears on your watch (so if the hour hand is on 11, pretend it’s on 10). If cloudy, simply line up the hour hand with the brightest part of the sky.

Finally, make sure your watch is waterproof or water resistant. You don’t want it to stop working during the rain or in case you accidentally take it into the water.

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