Hey, just looking for any advise from the seasoned campers out there. This will be my family's first longer camping trip with the new truck. We have done shorter trips here in New Mexico (1-3 hours away) but have never traveled into the northern states. We will be heading from Albuquerque and staying a couple of nights in Cheyenne then on to Yellowstone for 5 days. We will be traveling with our 4 kids (7-12-14-16) and thankfully got the truck with the entertainment system for the drive.

We are looking for some kid friendly activities that will keep the kids wanting to be outdoors and disconnected more. We will be there in early spring and have seen that there will probably still be snow arround and that will be a nice change from the lack of moisture here.

Any advise from those who have braved the family vacation and lived to tell about it!!

Thanks in advance!!!

 

bikes if you can for one. Also hiking gear and cameras.

We have a football and baseball/bats. Also freezbee's.

Don't forget some board games in case it rains.

Also don't forget some tools to carry along in case you need to make some repairs along the way.

 

3 years ago, I towed a 25' TT with an Excursion from Salt Lake City, up around lake Michigan, over the Mackinac bridge, down through Michigan and back. Just over 3,800 miles and I averaged 7.1 mpg! I had my wife and 4 of 5 kids for 11 days and it was an absolute blast. Pulling the trailer provides so many options to be spontaneous. Just take your time and enjoy the ride.

We had a good routine of assigning certain chores to each child to take care of during the trip (someone in charge of emptying out the trash from the car at each stop, trip recorder with camera duty, navigator to keep everyone posted on where we were and if anything is interesting about the area, setup and clean up for meals, etc.) We found that the kids really took to these kinds of "responsibilities" and it was nice to not have to even worry about those things. The kids weren't responsible for actually doing all the work in their assigned areas, just to make sure it got done. This allowed them to horse-trade with each other to mix things up.

You'll have to come up with a movie rotation so you don't watch too many of the same types all the time. We also used the buddy system so no child was ever left alone no matter where we went. On the other hand, we made sure the kids also had free time to veg out occasionally. Take lots of board games, card games, road games and movies. What an awesome time you'll have!

 

We did it a lot in the 80's & 90's before children had to be entertained all the time. Don't plan on driving for long periods of time but take breaks often, we would get up early and drive for a couple of hours then stop for breakfast. after a couple of more hours on the road we would try to find something of interest to check out or just a place for the kids to get out and run. We would also stop around 3:00 p.m. for the night, it gave them and us time to unwind, relax, plan the next day and enjoy the camp ground. As they got older we gave them maps to follow along with and see where we were at and where we were going. Yes we did not log many miles a day but all enjoyed the trip and the new sights.
Happy Camping

 

Great tips-we are the "wierd" family around our neighborhood. We try to keep our family as unplugged as possible-the kids don't have phones or game boys or ipods plugged into their ears all of the time and we do most everything as a family so most around here think that we have been too hard on our kids without all of that stuff and don't let them have enough stuff-most don't understand how we can live with out cable tv.
I know how a.d.d I am especially on long trips and just want to keep things as civil as possible inside the truck.

 

No one mentioned books...lol
Also you could look up all of the places that you plan to stop at and get them "hyped" about what will be there and what they are going to see and experience while there.
If you already do most things as a family you will be fine. Just enjoy each other and the places you go!