500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up highlights 29 hiking, biking and riding trips throughout the world. The five picks below are all located within the United States park system and require little more than a good pair of shoes and the willingness to sweat a little.
What: Yosemite: Rock-Climbing Heaven
Who: Ages 8 & up
Where: Yosemite, California
Most folks visiting Yosemite National Park don't seem to realize that there's more to it than Yosemite Valley, where crowds of cars and RVs inch along the roads while their passengers stare at the 3,000-foot-high glacier-carved granite walls and the waterfalls that drop down them. Yes, you should drive past the awesome 7,549-foot-high sheer rock face called El Capitan; you should pull off the road to take the easy half-mile trails to view Bridalveil Fall or Lower Yosemite Falls. But don't stop there -- go up into the high country, where you can explore wilderness without the crowds.
The eastern half of 39-mile-long Tioga Road is open only in summer and fall, and the developed area around Tuolumne Meadows is much less crowded than Yosemite Valley; there's even a grove of sequoias, where you can enjoy the gigantic trees in much greater peace than you'll have at larger Mariposa Grove, near the park's south entrance. Coming from the west, Tioga Road rises up through towering pines and then breaks out on solid granite highlands dramatically furrowed by glaciers. Around Olmsted Point, the views become really dramatic -- look at a cliff jutting up in the distance, and you'll realize that the ants scaling it are actually rock climbers. Yosemite is the most popular rock-climbing destination in the United States, thanks largely to the Yosemite Mountaineering School (tel. 209/372-8344; www.yosemitemountaineering.com). The climbing school runs beginner classes daily out of its base in popular Curry Village, but in summer you can also take classes at Tuolumne Meadows. Kids as young as 14 are accepted, and the instructors will soon have your teenagers inching up the granite walls to heights of 60 feet.
Even children who are too young to scale a sheer rock face can get a little climbing experience in Yosemite's high country. From Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, a 4.2-mile trail leads to the top of Lembert Dome (take a shuttle bus back to the lodge from the trail's other end). Another option is off of Glacier Point Road, south of the Yosemite Valley loop. You'll want to drive this road anyway to get to that great Glacier Point overlook, the top of a 3,200-foot vertical cliff. But stop partway along Glacier Point Road at mile 13.2, where a trail head leads 2.2 miles round-trip to Sentinel Dome, one of many granite domes in the park whose rounded shapes were formed by glaciers moving over them. It's 8,122 feet high, the second-highest viewpoint into the valley. Taft Point is the same distance the other way from the trail head; it has weird and scary cracks as well as cliff-overhang views. The hike itself isn't threatening, but hold hands near the end.
Location: Entrances on CA 41, CA 120, and CA 140 (tel. 209/372-0200; www.nps.gov/yose).
Read more about Yosemite.
What: Joshua Tree: Praying Trees in the California Desert
Who: Ages 4 & up
Where: Twentynine Palms, California
In the winter, when it gets too cold in Yosemite, the rock climbers of California flock to this bizarre desert landscape near Palm Springs. If you think a desert is just one big sandbox, Joshua Tree's extremes will soon set you straight -- part mountainous Mojave Desert, part cactus-studded Colorado Desert lowlands, this national park is a mixture of lush fan palm oases and trackless sand dunes. Come spring, the arid landscape puts on a surprising wildflower display, including pale yellow blooms on the twisted yucca for which the park is named. Rock climbing is a brilliant way to engage with the tortured rockscape of this fragile ecosystem.
Eight million years ago, this landscape was rolling grasslands where horses, camels, and mastodons grazed, preyed upon by saber-tooth cats and wild dogs. But then came years of climate change, volcanic eruption, savage floods, and shifting tectonic plates, and the land was wrenched into jagged cliffs, boulders, and tilting rock piles -- sensational opportunities for climbers. The first climbing routes were laid out in the 1950s, and the sport really took off in the 1960s. Today Joshua Tree offers some 4,000 climbing routes, ranging from the easiest of bouldering to truly difficult climbs. November through May is the prime season. Beginners can learn the ropes, so to speak, at the Joshua Tree Rock Climbing School (tel. 800/890-4745; www.rockclimbingschool.com). Bring loads of water with you -- there are few places to buy it, and you can get dehydrated quickly in the desert.
If climbing's your focus, stay in the northwest part of the park, where popular features include Jumbo Rocks, with its array of rock formations, Joshua tree forest, and yucca-dotted desert; Wonderland of Rocks, 12 square miles of massive jumbled granite; and mile-high Keys View, on the crest of the Little San Bernardino mountains. Climbers congregate in the Cap Rock area; even if you're not planning to climb, you can follow the short paved Cap Rock Nature Trail and test your footing on the rocks.
One thing I especially like about Joshua Tree is its many kid-friendly nature trails. From Jumbo Rocks, a 11 ½-mile trail leads to Skull Rock, one of many rocks in the area that eerily resemble humans, dinosaurs, or monsters -- children get a kick out of spotting these. Near Hidden Valley, the Barker Dam trail visits a small lake tucked deep in the Wonderland of Rocks; kids can scramble atop the old dam and hunt for Native American petroglyphs on the base of cliffs. Down Pinto Basin Road, the Cholla Cactus Garden trail leads you through dense clusters of the fluffy-looking "teddy bear cactus" with its deceptively barbed needles -- look but don't touch!
Location: Oasis Visitor Center (tel. 760/367-5500; www.nps.gov/jotr or www.joshuatree.org)
Read more about Joshua Tree.
What: Walking the Appalachian Trail
Who: Ages 8 & up
Where: White Mountains, New Hampshire
For the ultimate family bonding adventure, nothing quite equals a hike along the Appalachian Trail. No, I'm not suggesting you do the whole rugged 2,100 miles of the Trail, which runs from Maine to Georgia. But you can conquer a segment of it, and one I'd recommend runs 56 miles through the White Mountain National Forest, where the nonprofit Appalachian Mountain Club (tel. 603/466-2727; www.outdoors.org) runs a unique network of eight huts, each a day's walk apart. Providing food and bedding, they let you travel light, reduced to backpacking essentials: some warm clothes, foul-weather gear, water, snacks. You'll be amid some of the most spectacular scenery in the East -- no trash, trailers, or loud music (the curse of overcrowded national park campgrounds), just room for kids to explore the world with new friends, kicking dust, balancing on fallen trees, and learning that when it rains you can't always change the channel.
My personal favorite family hike is a 3-day excursion up Mount Lafayette. Begin on the Franconia Notch Parkway (Rte. 93), about 71 ½ miles north of Lincoln, New Hampshire, where you'll find the signpost for the Old Bridle Path trail head. It's a sometimes-steep 2.9-mile hike from the road to the Greenleaf Hut, just above timberline at 4,200 feet, a warm, friendly place on Lafayette's west slope. When we last visited, the cook banged a pot with a heavy metal spoon at 6pm sharp, and we joined about 25 others -- a lively mingling of singles, couples, and families -- at long wooden tables for a very honest chicken-and-vegetable stew, with homemade bread and a mysterious pudding. After dinner, we sat on a rocky ledge and watched the evening mist flow through the valley below.
Next morning is your main hiking day: Climb 1.1 miles to the rocky, often windswept summit of Mount Lafayette. The payoff, on clear days, is the 1.7-mile (1-hr.) walk from Lafayette along a narrow ridge, with the whole Franconia range stretched below you, to Little Haystack. Retrace your steps to the Greenleaf Hut for your second night. On the morning of the third day, return to your car, an easy 2-hour downhill hike.
Other AMC huts that are popular with families are at Zealand Falls, a 2.8-mile walk to a choice four-season spot near waterfalls, perfect for moose spotting; and the even more accessible Lonesome Lake Hut, a painless 1.7-mile hike to a lake. Guided hut-to-hut trips can also be arranged.
More information: tel. 603/528-8721; www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/white_mountain
Read more about the White Mountains.
What: The Great Smoky Mountains: Backpacking in the Misty Forest
Who: Ages 4 & up
Where: Near Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Wilderness is all too rare in the Eastern United States, so it's a blessing to find a huge protected swath of it -- let alone a huge swath as gorgeous as Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Roughly 60 miles by 20 miles, Great Smoky is a thickly forested sweep of the southern Appalachians -- the oldest mountains in the world -- where you can hike through dense old-growth forest groves, past brightly flowering rhododendron, wildflower meadows, crystalline waterfalls, and chattering mountain streams. During all seasons, seeing the mist trailing poetically in the folds of the mountains, you'll suddenly get it -- oh, so that's why they're called the Smokies.
Some 10 million people visit this park every year, 70% of them doing no more than driving Newfound Gap Road, a scenic 32-mile route that snakes across the back of the mountains from Cherokee, North Carolina, to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Most of those who do get out of their cars take the same few short trail hikes, mostly to gape at waterfalls.
So it doesn't take much to escape the crowds and have the wilderness to yourselves. There's an astonishing variety of trees for kids to identify here (bring field guides), ranging from the lower elevations' hickories, yellow poplars, dogwood, and shaggy ancient hemlocks, to the midlevel beech and yellow birch forests, to the evergreens of the higher slopes, chiefly Fraser firs and red spruce. Come here in early October, of course, and the forests of Great Smoky blaze with fall color.
If your family has never tried backpacking, Great Smoky is an ideal place to start. There are about 100 backcountry campsites, many of them quite close to each other, so you can plan short hikes from one to the next. The park's trails include many loops, so you can plan a trip that returns to your car without covering the same trail twice. It's rarely cold at night in summer (and even in the fall), and although climbing a mountain with a backpack on a hot summer day is sweaty work, you can usually stop and dunk yourself in a creek to cool off. In any season, expect rain and mist -- that's what makes the Smokies smoky. Contact the Great Smoky Mountains Association, 115 Park Headquarters Rd., Gatlinburg, TN 37738 (tel. 865/436-0120; www.smokiesstore.org), for trail maps to plan your route. Also check out the Smoky Mountain Field School (tel. 865/974-0150; www.outreach.utk.edu/smoky) for naturalist-led outdoor expeditions on summer weekends specifically designed for families.
Location: Sugarlands Visitor Center, U.S. 441 (tel. 865/436-1291; www.nps.gov/grsm)
Read more about the Great Smoky Mountains.
What: Getting Past the Crowds in Yellowstone
Who: All ages
Where: Entrances at Gardiner & West Yellowstone, Montana & Jackson & Cody, Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park is one of the country's best places for families to go backpacking. Some beautiful campsites are just a couple miles off the road, and it only takes a walk of 20 minutes or so before you feel gloriously alone with the bison, elk, and other wildlife.
Every visitor to Yellowstone wants to see the park's signature attraction, the Old Faithful geyser, which erupts about every 90 minutes. You can drive to Old Faithful on the Lower Loop Road from the park's west entrance and join the crowds of tourists sitting on benches waiting for this baby to blow. Another popular drive-up sight is the limestone terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs, near the north entrance, where masses of bacteria and algae in the thermal water turn the rocks orange, pink, yellow, green, and brown. But these two sights only scratch the surface of Yellowstone's geothermal features. You'll have the geysers practically to yourself if you head for the Shoshone Geyser Basin, which begins a mile west of Shoshone Lake (find a trail head for Delacey Creek Trail on the road 8 miles east of Old Faithful; it leads 3 miles to Shoshone Lake). The North Shoshone Trail passes 26 campsites as it winds through a lodgepole-pine forest. The Bechler Meadows Trail in the park's southwest corner is rich in waterfalls, cascades, and thermal areas. If its wildlife you're after, try the Sportsman Lake Trail, which passes through sagebrush plateaus full of elk and a meadow popular with moose.
Some great family trails for day hikes include these: at Mammoth, the 5-mile Beaver Ponds Loop from the hot springs at Liberty Cap (go in the evening or early morning to see the beavers); the 6-mile round-trip hike up Mount Washburn, an alpine trail leading to a 10,243-foot-high view over much of Yellowstone (watch for bighorn sheep); and the Clear Lake trail from the Wapiti Trailhead, which wanders through beautiful rolling meadows to a strange body of water fed by hot springs.
The backcountry season here is short -- mid-June through the end of August, when the snow has finally melted off and streams drop to fordable levels. Contact the Yellowstone Backcountry Office (tel. 307/344-2160); their Backcountry Trip Planner details the process for getting permits and includes a map pinpointing all campsites. In peak season, it's wise to make a reservation in advance.
More information: tel. 307/344-7381; www.nps.gov/yell
Read more about Yellowstone.
This article is an excerpt from 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up, available in our Online Bookstore now. Author Holly Hughes has traveled the globe as an editor and writer -- she's the former executive editor of Fodor's Travel Publications, the series editor of Frommer's Irreverent Guides, and author of Frommer's New York City with Kids. She's also written fiction for middle graders and edits the annual Best Food Writing anthology. New York City makes a convenient jumping-off place for her travels with her three children and husband.
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