One of our favorite hikes is up in Rocky Mountain National Park called Lily Lake. It’s a very easy to navigate hike with great accessibility. It’s one of my go-to trails when it’s just me and the kids because I know it’s safe.

The main loop is just shy of a mile and can be navigated with a stroller.

Back in 2018 Cory made it around with our double stroller and a busted Achilles in a boot.

Now the kids hike on their own!

We brought lunch to enjoy while watching all the wildlife. I LOVE summer in the mountains so much.

We choose to add some elevation and distance by going up over the ridge. There are many other trails that connect to the main Lily lake trail so you can add distance if you like. You can also paddle on the lake and the kids want to bring our boards next time.

If you are in the Estes Park area we can’t recommend this trail enough! We have also visited in the fall and winter….all beautiful!

Previous years:

We had such an amazing adventures in 2022 and hiking is always something we love to do when we travel and close to home. It was really hard to choose but here are my top 5 hikes from 2022:

Plan de l’Aiguille to Mer de Glace – Chamonix, France

Plan de l’Aiguille to Mer de Glace

When in Chamonix we rode the cable car to Plan de l’Aiguille then hiked part of the way to Mer de Glace, we would have loved to do the entire hike but it’s 8 miles one way and the kids aren’t ready for that big of a hike (yet, next time!). This area is so incredibly beautiful, this takes the #1 spot for me.

5 lakes hike – Zermatt, Switzerland

5 lakes Hike

The 5 lakes hike above Zermatt, Switzerland comes in second for it’s views of the Matterhorn and delicious mountain top restaurants. Why do we not have these hiker rest areas in the US, they are amazing. It was a bit brown given the time of year we were there, I would love to see it in the spring/summer with all the wildflowers! This is a 6.8 mile hike but it’s mostly down hill. Easy enough for our 4 and 6 year old kids.

Emerald Lake – Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Emerald Lake Hike

We love hiking to Emerald Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s a bit tricky because the best time to go is in the summer or early fall when everyone else also wants to go. You have to get a special reservation to get to this part of the park and it is hard to come by. That said it is totally worth it. You pass three other alpine lakes before getting to Emerald Lake and the entire hike is gorgeous. It’s only 3.2 miles out and back but I would rate it as moderate difficulty given the altitude and steepness.

Broken Arch Trail- Arches National Park, Utah

Broken Arch Trail

We love visiting Arches National Park in Moab Utah, we are usually at least once a year. It’s hard to pick a favorite hike because they are all spectacular but Broken Arch Trail won out because it has interesting things to see and do all along the trail. Also Sand Arch is along this trail and it’s the kids’ favorite. The trail is an easy 1.7 mile trail and good for almost all ability levels.

Crescent Beach Trail – Cannon Beach, Oregon

Crescent Beach Trail

We LOVE Cannon Beach doing anything on the Oregon Coast is amazing, and you can’t really go wrong hiking any trail here. We choose to go into Ecola State Park because it has beautiful trails, beaches and views of Haystack Rock. This is an easy 3.2 mile out and back hike. You can see the kids are dressed for rain and wind and this was July, Oregon coast weather can be cool even in the summer.

It was SO hard to pick just five, honorable mention goes to:

Tulum Ruins – Tulum, Mexico

Not sure if this counts as a “hike” or just a tour of an historic site, but we walked over 5 miles and loved it so much! A place in Mexico deserved at least a mention here.

Lastly this is not a specific hike as there are many and you can’t go wrong. The “waterfall corridor” in the Colombia river gorge is a dream to hike in.

Please tell me some of your favorite hikes!

We can’t wait to return to some of our favorites and find some new ones in 2023.

It has felt like winter for more than a month so Emmy is very confused by today being the first day of winter.

We went to NCAR for a hike to celebrate the winter solstice. It was a bit cold and very windy, I was shocked that the kids didn’t complain at all.

We love this hike in the summer and winter time! You just need to be careful this time of year because ice can be hiding under the dirt in shady places.

Last year when we hiked here it was a struggle to get Emmy to hike more than a mile and now she is loving doing 3-4 miles.

We have lots of hiking/adventure trips planned this year and are going to work on getting up to 6 mile hikes.

We would have liked to go even further but we had to get ready for our upcoming storm and I had a doctor appointment in the afternoon.

we aren’t even getting that much snow but with windchill temperatures could drop to negative 50 and we just aren’t used that that. Cannon’s holiday school party and performance have been canceled and Emmy’s friend’s birthday party also had to be postponed due to the cold weather. We just aren’t used to it being THIS cold!

It was 50 degrees when I went into my appointment and when I left 50 minutes later it had dropped to 14 degrees!

Are you getting hit with frigid weather right now too?

Did you do anything to celebrate the solstice? We usually try to get out in so something to celebrate the changing of the seasons. Summer Solstice Hike