13 Super Fun Family Outdoor Adventure Ideas

I’m always trying to come up with new adventure ideas for the kids. Which then always leads me to trying to find fun things for us to do together on the weekends. The kids like to help with trying to find fun family adventures. This time we came up with a list of 13 family outdoor adventure ideas!

What can families do outside together

I am constantly looking for creative ways to spend time with my family outside. We all like spending time outside, some more than others. Some of us are fair weather outdoor adventurers. But when the weather is nice, we could be outside all day.

We have come up with a list that we all had an input in. These are a few of our favorite family outdoor activities.

Family Outdoor Adventure Ideas

13 of the best family outdoor adventure ideas…

Off-roading and pack a lunch

This by far, is our favorite. We love to go off-roading in our Jeep Gladiator. We go as a family. Even though off-roading is primarily a dude/dad thing… girls and families do enjoy this activity too. Our kids would like to see more kids on the trails. They love to be involved in the ‘Jeep Wave’.

We usually will pick a trail that has some type of fun feature. Then once we reach that area we will have a picnic lunch. We have advanced to a camp stove and cook lunch on the trail. We might have overdone the typical picnic sandwich thing…

Pack a picnic and go to the park

Even though my kids aren’t fan of sandwiches, we still will pack a cold lunch and go to the park or lake or even the Zoo.

Going to the park and bringing lunch adds to the fun factor of the adventure.

Go hiking

We love hiking. We go hiking about once a week, sometimes more. We do have one kiddo that is younger, so we tend to stick to the ‘family friendly trails‘ so he doesn’t get tired. We try to stick to a hiking trail about 1-3 miles round trip. Or we will go about 2 miles on a longer trail then turn around. We’ve been known to do that too.

Play in a lake/beach/river/creek

We love a fun creek to play in. The dog loves the water too. Even if the water is too cold to swim in you can still have a fun day splashing around in it.

We have even made stick boats to see if they float down the creek when it’s cold out. We have also visited nature preserves in the winter just to see what ponds have frozen over and if we can see any fish.

Visit a U-Pick Farm

We used to live in Missouri. They had so many U-Pick farms…. In the summer. We would visit them and come back with so many berries!

Now that we live in Colorado they have wild flower U-Pick farms! That’s crazy! You can go and pick wildflowers! And they also have Christmas tree farms as well. I really enjoy these types of places.

Take your bikes to a trail

We live in the suburbs. You’d think that would be a perfect place to take a family bike ride. Sometimes it is, on a day that all the street parked cars are at work or you can ride on the sidewalk without having to move over for the lady walking her dog, who doesn’t like bikes. It can get a little challenging as well, if you have a kiddo who is still learning how to ride a bike, or one that is a little wobbly since the training wheels came off, or you live on a busy street like us…

It’s nice to just load up all the bikes and go ride on a paved trail with lots of room to spread out. And no parked cars to run into. Yes, that has happened to one of our kiddos.

Rope Course/Rock Climbing

The boys love rope courses. They have no fear when they are up there climbing along ropes. It can get windy if you are at an outside facility. The kids love rock walls too. It seems that they are in their element when they are tied up with harnesses and ropes.

Geocaching

This is a fun hobby we picked up once COVID hit. We love looking for hidden treasure. We especially love the ones hidden on a hiking trail. We really feel like we are on a hunt for burried treasure.

If you happen to be at Garden of the Gods, we have one hidden there. We also wrote about our experience geocaching, which prompted us to hide our own. We hope you check out our hidden treasure the next time you are around there.

Ziplining

This is our oldest favorite. The kids really feel such joy when they are harnessed up and high above the ground. Some places don’t allow younger kiddos to zipline under the age of 6. We have run into that many times when looking for places for the kids.

Fishing

Another all time favorite outdoor family activity. Our daughter is very good at casting far. And she is good at catching teeny tiny fish. It’s a family joke that she’ll always catch the smallest fish.

Our oldest son wanted to go fishing for his birthday so we surprised him with a camping/fishing trip. He is the only one that caught something that day. Lucky birthday boy!

Paint Rocks and hide them at the park

The kids love rocks. The boys hide rocks in their pockets. I find them in the dryer… tumbling around. So we decided that if they are going to keep rocks, that we should paint them…and then give them back!

Now that we live in Colorado, we have rocks all over the place. We paint them and then hide them at the parks.

Canoeing/Paddleboarding

We do not have a kayak or paddleboard but talk about buying one all the time. We even saw one that is a kayak and paddleboard in one. But buying your own, it can set you back about a grand. That is not in the budget at this time. 😉

There are many lakes that you can rent them for an hour or so. Lots of family outdoor fun to have on one of these.

Camping

Camping is another family favorite outdoor activity. We go about once a month in the warmer months. We have so many plans in the works for future camping trips too.

We also like cabin camping as well. We have stayed in a few over our family adventures together. Some even allow dogs. one thing to watch out for, some cabins have you bring your own bedding. Meaning they will not provide the sheets for the beds. Keep an eye out for that!

**Related Post: 10 awesome outdoor family adventures to have at home

Wrapping up the list of outdoor adventures

The kids and I had fun making a list of our favorite family outdoor adventure ideas. I hope that it gives you some ideas on what you and the family can do together outside.

Have you tried most of these on the list? Have your kids?