On the trail
Kids safe, engaged
Christine Tanner didn’t appreciate hiking until she started taking her young kids — at ages 4 and 5 — on nature trails to explore the desert.
Hiking is now this north Phoenix mom and teacher’s passion. She and her teenage kids have since graduated to longer, steeper trails across the Valley and even hiking vacations.
“It’s such quality time for us. There’s no TV, no phones. It’s just us,” Tanner says, adding that hiking is educational, entertaining and great exercise. “I feel like it’s a lesson learned each time.”
Last summer, Tanner took her daughter, Maddie, now 13, and son, Callen, now 14, on a three-day hiking trip to the Grand Canyon.
The trek was a huge challenge, and Tanner says her kids were in awe of breathtaking landmarks like Havasupai Falls and learned to appreciate life’s necessities, like water.
“You definitely have to take enough water,” she says.
Jon Mincks, gear specialist at the Arizona Hiking Shack in Phoenix, says you have to do two things when hiking with kids.
“Best advice? Make it fun, and take lots of water. We live in a desert,” says Mincks, who insists there’s no minimum age for hiking.
“I would say start them young so they appreciate it. I made the mistake of not starting early enough with my kids. By 10 or 12 they were such city dwellers, they had a hard time appreciating it until they were 16 or 17.”
Mincks says he also learned kids need hiking trails with a payoff: a good view, a great destination or something fun to do. Badger Springs Trail near Mayer, within the Agua Fria National Monument, is one good example.