Exploring on foot with kids isn’t just possible—it’s also completely doable (and totally fun), with a few key considerations and adjustments. The two biggest things you need to think about when you’re walking with young children are the physical challenges and the mental challenges of the trail.
Walking for several hours can be really daunting for a child, especially a small one. Just think of their short little legs and how much harder they have to work to keep up with an adult! A conservative estimate is that a healthy, active kid is typically capable of walking the mileage of half of their age, assuming there’s not a lot of elevation gain. That means you could reasonably expect a five-year-old to walk 2.5 miles (4 km) by themselves just fine; an eight-year-old should be able to cover 4 miles (6.4 km). Things start to change when a child reaches ten years of age—by that point, many kids’ limbs have lengthened and strengthened to the point that they can walk much farther. Regardless of how old your child is and whether you’re prepared to carry them and their belongings when they’re tired (this is easy with a very small child but much harder when your kid no longer fits in a carrier), you’ll need to adapt your chosen trail to what your child is physically capable of.
Also be mindful of the mental challenges your child will have on trail. Not all kids, especially young ones, have the attention span and patience to enjoy walking—or being in a carrier—for long periods of time. I like to recommend the Disneyland test: If your child can easily withstand a full day at Disneyland, they could be ready for a full day on trail—try a couple of long walks at home just to be sure. Regardless of how old or mature your child is, you’ll still need to tweak your ideal trail experience for it to be interesting to them. After all, most kids just aren’t interested in the same things adults are. They may not care about art, history or culture. What they want to see and experience is much more tactile: cool bugs, gigantic birds, furry critters—even other kids. So make sure to plan activities that they’ll enjoy, whether it’s geo-caching, trail bingo, wildflower identification or playground time with local kiddos.
Tip: One of the easiest ways to adapt your trail experience to match what your young child is physically and mentally capable of is to plan a trip that’s flexible. Rather than walking a long trail that has concrete daily stages, consider home-basing in one town and doing a variety of half-day or daylong walks from there. Because you’ll leave most of your belongings at your accommodations, you’ll have extra capacity to carry your little one when necessary, as well as the flexibility to choose shorter or longer walks each day based on how things are going.