2014 Family Trips – California, Oregon, Montana & Utah

Father of the year award!
Great smiles!Thanks for sharing!

Very impressive. Have you considered Yellowstone/Grand Teton as a family destination? There is good hiking around the park and the park itself is a phenomenal place to watch wildlife if that is something your kids are interested in. You could rent packrafts or kayaks and paddle part of the Snake River too.

Alan, I am fortunate to have a family that puts up with me. Many of my friends are envious of that. Hopefully they will continue (the kids)… All in all I am the chief beneficiary, from the planning stage to the end.

Luke, Yellowstone and Teton is a great idea. My wife and I have only day hiked there some years ago. I wonder which park offers better moderate backpacking. Probably early in the season? Well that should be another thread in trip planning section – coming soon. Thanks for the suggestions! So many places so little time (and $$$)….

Dennis feel free to PM me about planning a trip if you'd like. I'll be there a lot of this coming summer so I could give you an up to date report if need be.
For me YNP is a place where I go car camping and relax between backpacking trips in other areas of Wyoming and Montana. I like to set up with a spotting scope and watch wolves or bears. A good tip would be invest in a couple spotting scopes before you go, rentals are a rip off and not that great anyway.
When you are ready to go hiking there are lots of options. For early season you could plan a hike in the lower elevation areas of YNP, maybe the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone. Once the snow melts a bit more there are the Tetons, Absarokas, and the Gros Ventre Wilderness area to name a few.
If you drive past Cooke City there is a dirt road up to a fire tower with great views. From there you can day hike along an alpine ridge. My little brother who has hiked in the Winds, Virginia and all over Colorado said that was the best hike he'd ever done.

What a trip! I aspire to something like that in a couple of years. I'm curious how much weight your kids carried and what your mileage was like. I'm also curious about the kids use of trekking poles. I just started using them. Do you think it helps your kids and do they ever get tired of carrying them?

Luke, I will take up on your offer and seek your input when the plan sets in place. My other hobby is astronomy so I do have a couple of high power binoculars and refractors, although they are not too portable. Do you pack your spotting scope?

Catherine, kids carried their sleeping bag/pad and my 10 yr old son carried a little bit of gears this year. I didn't weigh but I assume 10-15 lbs with the hydration pack. The Glacier trip was a little over 20 miles but with going over 2 passes. So 5-6 miles a day with up to 2000+ ft gain. They've done 10+ miles with 2500+ ft gain day hikes, but the key with backpacking with kids, I think, is keeping the mileage low and having fun. I also try to make it as comfortable and enjoyable possible, so there goes BPL for me for a while (l'd like to learn from others on this). As for trekking poles, they always wanted to carry them, but until this year, their poles quickly ended up on my pack. After couple of years they finally learned to use them. It was good training period since they were especially helpful in Zion Narrows and snowshoes trips last year. Catherine, it is so nice to be out as a family with kids!

I have not packed my spotting scope on a hike but the idea has crossed my mind more then once. You really don't have to go into the "backcountry" in Yellowstone to see wolves and bears living their lives however.

A lot of serious wolf watchers never leave the side of the road and they invest hundreds in not thousands in their scopes. So perhaps you might want to bring a big scope if you want to do something from the roadside. I spent $80 for a hunting style scope and $80 for a more stable tripod. My 3-5 pound cheapo scope was good because I move it around a lot (once I set it up on top of an SUV to watch a grizzly) and I could theoretically have hiked with it.

Dave C. has a small monocle he reviewed on his blog. I forgot the brand but I tried it out once and was pretty impressed with it.

Your kids must have been stoked! Very cool trips. Them catching the fish was great! How'd they taste????

Thanks Gordon! Kids were lucky to catch a couple of good size trouts at Gunsight Lake. It was perfect amount to accompany our meal and tasted great!