I’ve dragged my kids through monsoon-soaked jungles, icy alpine meadows, and scorching desert canyons — but nothing has made their jaws drop quite like Olympic National Park. This place is genuinely three parks in one: ancient rainforest draped in neon-green moss, rugged Pacific coastline littered with sea stacks and tide pools, and wildflower-covered alpine ridges … Read more
I have dragged a stroller up granite slabs, bribed a three-year-old across a meadow with fruit snacks, and ugly-cried at a waterfall view while my six-year-old asked if we could go back to the car — and I would do every single minute of it again in Yosemite. This park is, without exaggeration, one of … Read more
I’ve hiked with a cranky toddler on my back through Patagonia and navigated a double stroller across cobblestones in Portugal, but Great Smoky Mountains National Park still holds a special place in my heart — because it’s the one park where my kids have consistently been more excited than I am. Misty ridgelines, cascading waterfalls, … Read more
I’ve hiked with a squirmy toddler strapped to my back and a six-year-old who needed snack bribes every half mile, and I’m here to tell you: Zion National Park is one of the most spectacular places on earth to do exactly that. The towering red canyon walls, the sparkling Virgin River winding through the valley … Read more
The first time I strapped my then-two-year-old into a carrier and walked the edge of the Atlantic at Acadia National Park, I cried a little — partly from the wind, mostly from the sheer magic of it. Acadia is one of those rare parks that genuinely delivers for every member of the family, from the … Read more
We were somewhere above 9,000 feet on the trail to Emerald Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park when I looked back at my then-10-month-old strapped into the hiking carrier behind my husband — her little face tipped up toward a cloudless Colorado sky, completely unshaded, squinting in that blissed-out baby way that made me simultaneously … Read more
We were about two miles into the Emerald Pools Trail at Zion National Park when my six-year-old, Theo, announced he was “dying of thirst” — except his water bottle was bone warm from sitting in the sun, and he flatly refused to drink it. My three-year-old, Lucia, had already squeezed her pouch dry and thrown … Read more
