This is the Camping Kiddos story…

We’ve been taking our kids camping since the first one was just a couple months old. So it wasn’t unusual for us to be planning a camping trip last summer. What made this trip unusual is that it would take more than 5 weeks and cover over 6,100 miles.

We wanted to visit National Parks between Texas and Idaho. When we began planning our route it was surprising to see how many National Parks and Monuments there were to choose from. We started out by visiting each of the National Park Sites on-line to learn about each park and see which ones we were most interested in. My kindergartener started bringing home book after book on Mesa Verde so that became one of our first definite picks. Then my third grader started watching videos from Yellowstone and declared she wanted to see a wolf-site number two on the list.

Once all five kids were done giving their input our planned route took us to Carlsbad Caverns, Mesa Verde, Arches, Canyonlands, Hovenweep National Monument, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Parks. Having the kids help decide where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do while there helped them feel invested in the trip.

Upon our return we decided it would be fun to share out 20 years of camping experiences with others and started our camping blog www.campingkiddos.com We’d love for you to visit and share your camping adventures with us.