Camping with Young Children - Teaching with Faith

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This past week we went camping with our young children, 2 year old and a 4.5 year old. We had a blast. We learned a lot too not just about camping, but how to survive with two little ones! I did not want to camp in a tent because I had two requests: air conditioning and a bathroom at night! So we rented a camper. That process wasn’t too bad and it came out to about how much it would have been to stay in a hotel, but we were outside way more than we would have been in a hotel and we cooked more meals.

Here is what we did everyday and what we learned along the way.

Sunday-Travel Day

A boy is climbing stairs on a playground while a little girl walks towards the stairs fixing her baseball cap.

Today we spent the day traveling. We left our house and drove towards Scottsbluff, NE. We stopped for lunch around noon at McDonald’s in North Platte. I also downloaded the app, PlaygroundBuddy and so we found a cool playground in North Platte for a small play break. It turned out to be extremely hot so we didn’t stay too long, but it was a great way for the kids to get some energy out before we got back on the road. The park had a huge slide equipment area. There were at least 4 slides on it. There was a tunnel and even some monkey bars. There were also a few “ride on” pieces as well. D had a blast on the blue car. He loved to pretend to drive it while it moved forward and backward. There was even a metal wagon the kids could climb all over. It was too hot for them to really climb so we will definitely try and come back when it isn’t soo hot. This stop was about halfway on our trip (4 hours or so of driving on either side of the stop due to pulling the camper and going slow)!

A little boy is sitting in a fake car at a playground. The car is blue and has rocks on the "hood." He is rocking the car forward and backwards while turning the fake steering wheel.

We ended up getting to our campsite right at dinner time. After we got settled in and bought some firewood, we started a campfire and cooked hot dogs for dinner. The kids loved exploring our campsite that night. After dinner, we took a quick walk around the area to check everything out. Then we setup for the night and all went straight to sleep!

Monday-First Full Day Camping with Children

This is the view from on top of Scotts Bluff National Monument. There are rocks on the bottom of the picture that show the edge of the cliff. Out past the cliff you can see grass and a city in the distance. — View from the top of Scotts Bluff

Today was our first full day of camping with our children. We started our morning by going right outside and cooking breakfast. We made bacon, sausage, and eggs. We got ready to go on our first adventure: Scotts Bluff National Monument. Scotts Bluff National Monument is a United States National Park. It was named after Hiram Scott who died there around 1827/1828. If you want more information about Scotts Bluff’s history please visit the US National Park Service or Carfulofkids.com (They have some great information for your child to learn more). We ended up driving to the summit to make it easier to walk around with our kids and dog. We did a small trail up on the summit so that we could get some different views. It was amazing up there. After a small snack, we went back to the headquarters. We decided to do a small hike down the Oregon Trail for a little bit. At the start of this trail, there was an old wagon with reenactors showing life on the real Oregon Trail. C was a bit scared by these people and nervous so we didn’t stay long. After a short walk, we decided we could head on back to camp for lunch.

A wagon made to look like a wagon on the Oregon trail is the main part of the image. There are boxes with items from that time period are around the wagon. There is also a reenactor dressed like a pioneer woman in front of the wagon.

After lunch, we tried to do nap time, but D was not having it! We finally got him to sleep on our bed and C to sleep on her bed. Once they got up, we had a snack and started to find a place where we could go swimming. We found a park ranger that drove by to ask about good swimming areas. He recommended a small little area right close to our campsite so that we could take the dog with us. Once the kids were dressed and ready to go, we headed over there. Oh my goodness, this was perfect. The kids could play in the water and on the sand a bit and Meredith loved the water!! We played there until dinner time. We went back to our campsite to cook dinner over the campfire.

Tuesday- First Adventure While Camping with Our Children

There is a trail marker on the right side of the image that says, "Monument View Trailhead." There is a gravel trail leading off to the distance next to the sign with grass and tress surrounding it.

Today we had a real adventure while camping with children. We started the day with pancakes for breakfast cooked over the campfire. It was good! Then we loaded up and went to Wildcat Hills State Recreational Park because it is part of the Nebraska Passport 2021. We drove up to a higher parking area and did a small hike to the Monument overview. This was a fairly easy hike for C and the dog (I carried D in my backpack carrier because he didn’t want to walk which probably was for the best). We ate a small snack on the peak which was fun. It was cool to see Scotts Bluff National Monument from this angle. We went back down and back to the park headquarters for another snack before heading back to our campsite.

A little girl and little boy sit on a trail at the top of a hill eating a snack. In the background you can see another bluff and trees. — View on the top of the Monument View Trail at Wildcat Hills State Recreational Park

This afternoon, we took a rest and then started to look at the weather because my husband had gone into town to get some work done with internet. There was a storm that was supposed to come through that night. So we had a decision to make, stay and possibly have a horrible storm or move. We decided to move for the night. It ended up not being a bad storm at our original campsite, but we did go through some pretty descent storms while moving to our next campsite. But we know that if we had stayed it probably would have gone through there instead…oh well. (We learned a very valuable lesson that night that I will talk about later). So we spent our late afternoon and early evening packing up and driving to the new campsite.

Wednesday-Back to Our Campsite

A little boy and a little girl are standing inside a lighthouse looking out of the top. There are windows in front of them with bars on the windows. Outside the windows you can see the water of the lake and trees and grass around the lake. — Looking outside the top of the lighthouse

Today we got up around the same time, but where we ended up staying had no fast food and we didn’t have a way to cook, so off we went back towards our original campsite and stopped in Scottsbluff for breakfast. (It is never ending flexibility when camping with children.) We ended up stopping at McDonald’s and right across the street was a park. So we headed over there for a morning picnic. Once we got back to Lake Minatare we went over to the lighthouse. Yes you heard me right, there is a lighthouse at a lake!! It was built during the Depression to be a beacon of light to all those that could see it. You can read more about it here on the Nebraska Game and Parks site. It was super fun. The kids loved it. It was a tight squeeze going up and down but we did it! C went up it twice today because she loved it so much. Then we started to walk around and found a small beach right beside on an old boat ramp. It was perfect. I ran back to the campsite and grabbed all the kids swim suits and other supplies while they played in the sand with daddy. We stayed out there until lunch time.

After lunch we just hang around the camp site for a bit and then we went fishing! The kids love to fish with their daddy and it was a perfect time. We went over to another close lake because we were told it was the better fishing lake. It was fun. I even did some fishing with D! We had a good system to double team casting. Daddy caught 2 baby fish. We fished for about an hour or so before both kids were tired and off we went to cook dinner.

A little girl is casting out her fishing rod into a lake. She is standing on the shore right at the edge of the lake.

A little boy is standing on the shore of a lake fishing with his fish rod in the lake.

Thursday- Last Day at Campsite

We started the day with campfire breakfast. This was a tradition when I was a camp counselor in college. You roast a sausage over the fire and once it is warm, you wrap a biscuit around it. You cook the biscuit over the fire as well. It takes a long time which can be difficult when camping with children, but it is super fun. It was a hit! C ate two of them, while D ate 2 or 3 sausages (the boy loves his sausage). After breakfast we decided to head back over to the beach we went to on Wednesday for one last swim. C had a blast. Meredith had fun too and even played a game of run away from us for a while- this was not fun for me or my husband who has to chase her. D just played on the beach until like 5 minutes before we needed to leave and then didn’t want to leave.

A little boy and girl are playing at a museum. The girl is walking around looking for something to load into a pretend wagon. The boy is loading a bag of goods into the wagon. They are trying to see how much they can take on a trip like a pioneer would take.

As you are camping with children, you have to adapt and change plans to go with the flow of the day. So we decided that we didn’t want to drive 8 hours in a day along with another stop so we decided to head on out after lunch. We started toward another Nebraska Passport 2021 stop, Chimney Rock! This is another part of the Sandhills that was a major landmark during the pioneer days. You cannot walk out to it now, but there is a really cool museum out there that the kids and I went through. The best part of the museum was a wagon that you could load to take everything you needed on your trek across the country as a pioneer. The kids had a blast, they even weighed themselves (they would have been too heavy for the wagon)! Check out the museum and find out more information about Chimney Rock here at History Nebraska. After we left Chimney Rock, we headed towards North Platte for the night. There was another round of storms that was supposed to come through, so we decided to just get a hotel room and be done! We grabbed dinner and headed to the hotel room. The kids got to watch a bit of TV and then we all went to bed.

A little boy and girl are standing on a porch at a museum looking towards Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock is in the distance. — Looking at Chimney Rock

Friday-Travel Day

A little girl is standing behind a piece of wood that is painted to show a bison on the plains. The girl is sticking her head through a hole in place of the bison's head. — One of the photo opportunities at Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park

Today was our last day on our camping trip. We started our morning with breakfast at the hotel (big perk of a hotel is not having to cook our own breakfast). We then headed over to the Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park and met some friends from Instagram. This was Buffalo Bill’s Ranch in North Platte which was his house from 1886 to 1913. This ranch is super cool. We also got to see some baby bison. I am pretty sure this was one the most loved part of our camping trip as our children love baby animals. C had so much fun with the other family and really connected with their oldest daughter. C was super sad when we had to part ways, but the mom and I decided we might try and meet up again for some other Nebraska Passport stops. After we left the ranch, we headed home! We got home and unloaded the entire camper. We had to clean it so that we could return it on Saturday.

What We Learned While Camping with Children

Well we learned a lot on our trip. We learned we could pull a trailer with my car and it wasn’t too bad. The wind was pretty descent so we fought it the whole time, but we did it! We also learned we could survive a week camping as a family. Camping can be stressful, as any travel can be, but we did it, one day at a time. Each day we started with a plan, but we were also super flexible.

We also learned a lot about actual camping. So if you camp all the time these will probably be no-brainers, but this was our first trip as a family. Make a list of everything you need to pack. I had a couple of lists, but we still ended up forgetting some stuff. I found multiple websites with packing lists and combined them all. I didn’t double check all my lists right before we left so I left a few things behind. Luckily we camped pretty close to a good size town so I was able to run into town and get supplies. Also, if a storm is approaching and you want to leave, just drive away from the storm and figure out a place later. We ended up driving into part of the storm since I had already booked a place. If we had just stayed going south for a few more miles we probably could have found something and been out of the storms completely.

We learned a lot and had a lot of fun. We are already looking to plan another camping trip with the kids. It was a great way to spend some time as a family and also see some great places in our state. Check out the links below to help extend any hikes or camping trips that you are taking with your family and make them into full learning experiences.