Camping for Kids over night trip with Stacy Boone, register now!

Stacy Boone is owner of Step Outdoors LLC and our outdoor specialist at PagosaSprings.com. Search our archives for Stacy and see many other adventures and mountain knowledge. 

Course Description:
Camping for kids is an overnight trip where tents are tucked between a stand of ponderosa pines and the toilet is a nearby tree. We will play games, learn a few nature secrets, sleep in the outdoors and share stories (and s’mores) by a campfire.

This is all fun!! Camp will be pre-set with tents, sleeping bags, etc., allowing for flexibility in games and pace as the day progresses.

Departure is 10:00 am on Saturday. Pick-up is 12:00 pm on Sunday. Meet location will be provided to registered students prior to the course start.

Includes:
Price includes all essential equipment and gear as well as all in the field meals. In the field meals begin with lunch on Saturday and concludes with mid-morning snack on Sunday. Food for the course consists of kid’s food to ensure that hungry bellies do in fact eat. No one will be hungry. Drinks will be water and juice. If you child has special dietary needs please advise Stacy prior to camp. Sample menu listed below.

Saturday Lunch – monkey bread with cheese and pepperoni, grapes and chocolate chip cookies
Saturday Snacks – twisted fruit and goldfish
Saturday Dinner – macaroni and cheese (Annie’s), hot dogs, carrot sticks and s’mores
Sunday Breakfast – cinnamon bread and bananas
Sunday Snacks – peanut butter and apple

See complete discription click here.

The following is an essay about a previous Camping for Kids by Stacy Boone.

 

Look Ma, No Television

Do you remember when you were a bit younger than you are today?  That may have been 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years ago.  In those days we were sent outside each morning to play and that meant coming home at dusk with dirt on our necks, grease beneath our fingernails, a kool-aid stain on our upper lip and grass stains on our pants.  I don’t even remember eating back then but what I do remember is playing hard – riding my bike for miles, running around the bases, catching fire-flies and building forts. 

 

So much has changed.  Subdivisions have gotten bigger and the boogy-man more prevalent.  Sometimes I wonder if playing outside is a thing of the long ago past.  But then, just when I think the joy of playing in the dirt is a lost art, a group of tiny people remind me that given the chance playtime is just as dirty, stink filled and tiresome.

 

26-hours is not a significant time to perpetuate a positive impression on young minds.  But, it is more than ample time to bore them to a glassy eye foursome that thinks less of the effort than of the experience.  In the out-of-doors, you win a few, you lose a few.  The competition is a wider arena than ever before with i-pods, cell phones, hand held computers and video games.  This adventure had nothing that connected to a cord or battery.  It definitely didn’t involve a television screen.  The scenery and sensation was o’natural and at the conclusion resulted in a “win” mark in the history books! 

 

An overnight hike/backpack trip for four young adventurers – ages ranging from 12 to almost five – was planned.  A crib sheet of 20 nature-based activities was neatly stashed in my pocket just in case I grew weary and couldn’t pull “another” entertainment from my sweaty brow.  Then, we took our first steps.  Jumping cactus, elk poop, grasshoppers, a swirled rock of red and cream, a doe track, the hip socket of a cow, acorns forming on the gambel oak … the list goes on.  We were only a 100 yards into our hike.  The stage was set for FUN!  We wouldn’t need an adult’s guidance to “see” the outdoor wonderment.  Six hours, one lunch break and snacks on the go.  We travelled a mile, made a nature cookie, danced to the choreographed Thriller of Michael Jackson, played cow patty baseball, constructed a chipmunk trap (no success), hung a bear bag, built a fort, wrote in our journals, compared various scats and collected rock of no small sizes (LOTS of rocks).

 

As each young one finally grew weary enough to fall to sleep in their individual bright orange sleeping bags beneath ponderosa pine and overlooking the meadow where a black bear had sat the night before I realized, an opportunity such as this could be a splendid first step to a lifetime of outdoor practice. 

 

About Step Outdoors, LLC

Step Outdoors wants you to go outside and we lead individiually inspired one foot in front of the other adventure pursuits to get you there.  Whether you are interested in a first time overnight backpack or a more challenging multi-day hiking adventure, we will tailor a trip just for you.  Perfect for mothers and daughters, families, co-workers or a group of friends, we provide a 100% guarantee of fun. 

Check out our blog at http://stepoutdoorscolorado.com/blog/.