Find kid-friendly hikes near you today using these suggestions. These tips will help you find fun hikes to explore with your family.

I have spent a lot of time taking my kids hiking near our home.  Some days I know exactly where I want to go or the kids have ideas.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of days where I just couldn’t think of a hike to go on.  When that happens we may end up not getting out for a hike, which is a bummer.  Luckily that doesn’t happen often because over the years I have come up with ways to find hikes and I want to share them with you here.

7 Tips To Find Kid-Friendly Hikes Near You

Keep a List – As you find or go on different hikes you should keep track of all of them somewhere.  This could be a simple notebook or maybe in a document or spreadsheet on your computer.

This list should include the details of hike and your personal opinion of it to help you remember it. You can just try to remember them all, but inevitably you will forget about some.

Read Hiking Guidebooks – You should read or buy books that show local hikes.  Most areas will have more than one hiking guide to the area.  These could include a book of kid-friendly hikes, longer day hikes, etc…  Look through these books and mark the hikes that you are interested in or have done.  You can find these at local book stores, outdoor shops, or even the local library.

Look Online – I have often looked up different hikes that maybe I heard someone mention online.  In case you haven’t heard, the Internet is a great resource for information.  You can do a google search by area or hikes.

Talk to Friends That Hike With Kids – Another great source of finding fun hikes with kids is to talk to other parents that hike with their kids.  Find someone that is similar in personality to yourself and you will probably like the same hikes as them.  A bonus of this is that you will get their personal experience of the area.

Talk to Employees at Local Outdoors Store – People that work at outdoor stores are generally a great resource.  You can go into the store and browse the hiking guides.  Then find an employee and you can ask them to suggest good hikes with kids.  You can relate what you know or trails you have done and then they can offer good suggestions.

Buy a Detailed Map of Your Area – I love maps.  Buy yourself a detailed map of the local area that ideally shows trails.  Then you can put it up on the wall of your house and look it over to find a trail in an area that seems neat.  If you find a trail, you can then ask others about it or look in a guidebook to see what it says.

As you do hikes you will notice canyons or other trails near where you are that look interesting. Then you can find those on the map and see if a trail exists there or not.

Get Out and Explore – If all else fails, then you can always simply load up the family and go exploring.  You can check out that one canyon that you see on your drive to work and hope that you find a trail there.  This option can be a bit challenging and not ideal with kids, but you can do it with the right attitude.

These are the main ways that I, personally, find hikes in our area.  Do you have any other suggestions or tips?