Favorite National Parks with young kids

These have been some of our favorite US National Parks during our RV adventure this year

White Sands National Park, Oljato-Monument Valley, Death Valley National Park, Badlands National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, White Sands National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Hot Springs National Park, Redwood National and State Parks, Big Bend National Park

• White Sands National Park in Alamogordo, United States

  
  • amanda.t.dwyer added this place

• Oljato-Monument Valley, United States

  
  • amanda.t.dwyer added this place

• Death Valley National Park, United States

  
  • amanda.t.dwyer added this place

• Badlands National Park, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Great park with some fun, kid-friendly hikes. We especially liked the Door Trail: safe-ish way to climb out over the rocks with young kids!

• Arches National Park, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Like nothing else we'd ever seen or experienced! We all loved hiking along the Windows Trail (about 1 mile roundtrip) and the kids especially loved Sand Dunes Arch (0.3 miles roundtrip). We went to see the famous Delicate Arch (from the Utah license plate) but only from the easily accessible viewpoint: 3 miles on slippery rocks didn't sound like a great idea with little kids!! This park is also very easy to get to from from downtown Moab.

• Canyonlands National Park, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Much less crowded than the Grand Canyon but still spectacular views and more kid-friendly hikes available. We only had time for two: Mesa Arch (about 0.6 mile roundtrip) and Whale Rock (about 1 mile roundtrip). Awesome!

• Grand Canyon National Park, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Our first view of this amazing place was at Mather Point. When our daughter kept saying, "Wow, it's so beautiful!", I knew we had found a special park! Because our kids are pretty young (and our youngest is terrible at listening right now), we sadly didn't hike down at all but we did stop at several vista points and then walked around Desert View Watchtower.

• Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Huge area to explore with a great walking path along the road. We loved Lake Mead RV Village. Bonus: short drive to Hoover Dam!

• White Sands National Park, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Awesome experience sledding down the sand dunes! Thankfully we were there in January as it must get crazy hot there in the summer.

• Carlsbad Caverns National Park in Carlsbad, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Our young kids loved the Natural Entrance Trail, a 1.25 mile hike down to the base of the cave and still had some energy left to see some of the Big Room. Thankfully we were only able to take the elevator back up or we might not have gotten out!

• Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Great downtown park with lots of access points to touch some hot springs. Loved their Junior Ranger program!

• Redwood National and State Parks, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Magical! We were all in awe of these amazing trees. It was simply amazing. Great easy hikes at Fern Canyon, Big Tree Wayside, Trillium Falls Trail and Lady Bird Johnson Grove.

• Big Bend National Park in Big Bend National Park, United States

  
  amanda.t.dwyer

  Lots of great easy hikes for kids, aside from Santa Elena Canyon where our 4 year old started walking backwards towards the cliff's edge! Mountains, deserts, canyons, Rio Grande, dinosaur fossils and more! One of the least-visited parks because it's far from most anything but totally worth the trek! Stay at Roadrunner Travelers RV park in Terlingua. 👍