This post was written by Joe Filbrun, the West Seattle blog’s previous administrator.  Joe has since moved on to take a position as facilities manager at the Ballard Campus.

Over at the Mars Hill Outdoors blog, Janelle Baarspul has started a series of posts with great hiking information for families with kids.

If you have young kids, like I do, you may find that you need to start with small hikes. And living in West Seattle makes that pretty easy. Here are a couple of my kids’ favorites.

Sometimes we’ll drive over to Lincoln Park and deliberately park at the South end of the park. From there, you can “hike” down to the beach, look for shells, throw rocks, or make driftwood forts for a while, then take one of the stairway trails and wind your way through the wooded areas toward the playground. The kids get a little reward for their good attitudes, and they learn to hike a little along the way. After 20 or 30 turns on the zip-line and a rousing game of “Daddy chase me,” you have an easy walk through the grassy areas back to the car. Of course, by this time, you’re probably going to be more tired than your kids, but they’ll still want a piggy-back ride.

Another favorite of ours is Camp Long … it’s a great spot for a quick hike, not far from home. There are also guided hikes and other events that go on there, too. Last Summer one of our first outings as Seattle residents was the “Crazy Campfire,” which included a pretty long hike at dusk down to a beaver pond, then a campfire, complete with stories, singing, and snacks (s’mores, banana boats, and more). The kids loved it, it was a 6-minute roundtrip drive, and the cost was somewhere around $20 for the whole family. So, check it out!