Family Adventure Resource Page
June 29, 2004 -- Here's a list of resources and information you can use to help you on your family adventures.
Camping Resources
Whether planning a day hike, car camping or backpacking, do a broad search, suggests Backpacker magazine's Dennis Lewon. National parks are stunning, but so are state parks, BLM lands, national forests and other public lands.
The U.S Park Service (www.nps.gov/), the Bureau of Land Management (www.blm.gov/nhp/spotlight/healthier_us/), the U.S. Forest Service (www.fs.fed.us/), Web sites such as the outdoor adventure site GORP (www.gorp.com) and About.com (usparks.about.com/cs/stateparks/a/bestparks.htm), the American Hiking Society's online Trailfinder tool, the Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.org, click on the Get Outdoors tab) and other sites are excellent sources for destination information.
Helpful Web sites include Backpacker's (www.backpacker.com); watch for their mega July/August issue, out later this month (June), with its special pull-out section on family camping. It includes information on gear and destinations for car camping and hiking all over the country.
The American Hiking Society (www.americanhiking.org) has important information for families seeking a primer on basics such as safety, hiking, interactive activities on the trail, packing lists and similar information at http://www.americanhiking.org/news/fact.html. It also recently released its top ten picks for the best family friendly hiking trails in the nation at http://www.americanhiking.org/news/press/press_rel.html.
There's a plethora of how-to books for family camping and hiking as well, from Camping for Dummies and the L.L. Bean Family Camping Handbook to family-friendly guides by state or by region (such as the Adirondacks or the Rockies).
Driving Entertainment
Family adventures usually entail some driving, making in-the-car recreation something for parents to plan.
For games to play while driving, go to www.momsminivan.com. The site has printable Bingo games, ideas for maps (both actual and those drawn by your kids to highlight what's important to your family on this particular trip), travel journals, two variations on the old license plate game and plenty of other ideas.
As a back-up, there's always the portable DVD player. Their prices now have dropped to under $200 (www.mintekdigital.com) and accommodate headphones for two.
Volunteer Vacations
The world is the limit for volunteer vacations. Almost every state park in the nation has a volunteer program. Check your local listings by logging onto a search engine like Google.
The National Parks Service Volunteers-In-Parks (www.nps.gov/volunteer) is a 35-year-old program that works with families. Many parks are actively working to create more family volunteer opportunities, according to Joy Piepschmann, the program's volunteer coordinator. Families can go to www.volunteer.gov/gov to find out about NPS volunteer opportunities. Or they can go to www.nps.gov/parks.html, which lists all 388 parks in the system alphabetically as well as on a map. Then families can choose a park they're interested in and contact the park directly about volunteer possibilities.
For more, see our story on volunteer vacations, linked from our Family Adventure index, above right.
Rock Climbing
A few sites that offer ideas of where to climb include Climbing Magazine's site, www.climbing.com along with supertopo.com and www.thecrag.com (this requires you to sign up but is free).
The American Mountain Guide Association (www.amga.com) is an important resource. It's the place to go when searching for guides.
Fees can vary from $100 or $200 per person per day, so do your research.