This is a great, fun resource for parents and the caregivers who want to take their kids out on a hike!

50 Hikes with Kids Utah and Nevada is an engaging, accessible, and very useful guide to family friendly local hikes in Utah and Nevada collected by Wendy Gorton and Hailey Terry. Released 17th Oct 2023 by Hachette on their Timber Press imprint, it's 280 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

This handbook is full of ideas for planning family hiking and finding opportunities to experience nature together. It's specifically aimed at kid friendly areas with practical suggestions for planning, choosing, and executing trips. The general introductory chapters contain numbered key tables with both names and features of each hike separated by state: Utah and Nevada. Readers can look for general locations, plan an itinerary, or choose destinations based on geographical or historical features.

The hikes are arranged geographically and are in separate chapters for Utah and Nevada. Each trip guide includes maps, points of interest, length (important!), elevation gain, difficulty, seasons of interest (many are year-round), directions, fees, facilities, extra treats and features, and contact information for the sites.

The book is beautifully illustrated throughout, with topographical and local maps, color photography, and line drawn illustrations. There are beautiful clear photos of local nature and wildlife as well.

This is a valuable guide. It is part of a series of hike/destination planners for different areas of the USA from the same publisher. It would be a great choice for home use as well as library acquisition.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This exceeded my expectations. This guidebook begins with good general information about hiking with children. Planing power-up spots, preparation with snacks and hygiene needs, activities like scavenger hunts and journaling. The 50 hikes information includes length, elevation gain, difficulty rating, best seasons, if there are restrooms and fees. I love that there are color maps and photos and plants and animals to look for along the trail.

I don’t have small children but being in my 60s I like that these are trails I can realistically walk and hike (although some are challenging). In fact, two are within 15 minutes of my house. I have done several of the hikes listed in the book, especially those near me and the ones in Utah’s beautiful National Parks. And I’m familiar with some of the ones in Nevada as well. This is a pretty and easy to understand guidebook and would be useful to anyone living or visiting either state. I’ve already chosen a few new hikes to do as fall approaches.

Thank you to NetGalley and Timber Press for the temporary ARC and I am leaving a voluntary review.

This is a very fun yet informative book to help young adventurers and their grown-ups begin to explore natural spaces in Utah and Nevada. I particularly liked the map and “adventure profile” included for each featured trail. I thought the mini scavenger hunts were also a fun touch.

The states covered in this book have a lot of fun outdoor spaces and I’m sure it was extremely difficult to whittle it down to only 50 trails for this book. I’ve personally explored a couple of the featured trails myself. A few favorite places include Valley of Fire State Park, Great Basin National Park, Zion National Park, and Kodachrome State Park.

Overall, this is a great book to help parents, youth group leaders, homeschoolers, etc. plan out and prepare for kid-friendly hikes. It’s also a great resource to get kids started with reading maps, planning short trips, and exploring the natural world.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. This was a fun read with great photos along with interesting facts. I liked that the book had the shape of the trail along with how many miles and back,weather conditions, and great places to eat among other pertinent information.

This is a great addition to the series as well as a great hiking guide to some good kid-friendly hikes, at least around Utah. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to test out any of the Nevada hikes as our vacation was only booked for Utah. We did do a couple in the book, both were easier hikes as I have health issues as well, but they were gorgeous. Based on these, I would definitely recommend this book if you’re interested in exploring a bit in the area with a child in tow.

I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

50 Hikes with Kids, Utah and Nevada, is a comprehensive and well organized guide to kid-friendly trails in Utah and Nevada. You can pick trails based on length (all under 5 miles), elevation difficulty, location, or highlights (ie caves or lakes), depending on the ability and interest of your group. There is a general prep guide for less experienced hikers and a section about digital tools, such as apps that offer lots of inside info.

There are maps, tons of info about each trail, flora and fauna you may see, and much more. There is so much information here, and tons of beautiful pictures. This should be in libraries to encourage kids to healthy hobbies, and any family vacation that is visiting this area should include this useful guide!

[Thanks Netgalley and Timber Press for the opportunity to review this eARC in exchange for my honest review on the book!]

The perfect guide to find great trails and hikes this summer! My favorite thing to do with my 3 nieces is go for hikes on Saturday mornings, and this had all the information we needed. Great details including levels of difficulty, distances, bathrooms, etc. The photos are gorgeous, and there's a great variety of places so you can pretty much find a location no matter where in the two states you're located. I'll definitely be ordering a physical copy that we can use as a bucket list guide! I also want the Oregon one for when I go home to visit!!!

This book is organized by length, difficulty,highlights, starting points. It then explains the features and best seasons to hike. There is a lot of information in the book and it is meant for avid hikers.

I liked the way this book was laid out. It gave a short description of the trail, pertinent information, as well as a scavenger hunt of things to look for. It's great for both kids and adults honestly.

I love this handy guide! I already picked a Utah hike to do tomorrow.
I hope the library gets a copy of this one because I will need to go through and pick a few others going forward. This is just wonderful. It has everything and it is put together in a super cute and useful way.

The cover of this book had me thinking this was going to be an illustrated guide but it actually uses real life photography. The hike information gives you maps and details things like how difficult each is and what you can expect to see on your journey.

This book series would be good for families who like adventure, travel, nature and the outdoors 🌲🪨

The invisible title for “50 Hikes With Kids (Utah/Nevada)” should also be “50 Hikes With Grandma & Grandpa” since, well, we older folks just love moderate hikes and scavenger hunts, too, when the out-of-state kids come to visit.

This is such a delightful, beautifully illustrated book for active parents who want to introduce their kids to the love of the outdoors. The organization of the hikes (by state, central location, difficulty and length) is well done, but the addition of organizing by features (“waterfalls — we want to see waterfalls!”) and by season (wildflower/fall color time!) are brilliant additions. As these young mom authors assure you, no hike is longer than 5 miles or has an elevation change of more than 1200 feet (see, perfect for the grandparents, too!) The individual trail maps that highlight features (look — there’s a bench coming up where we can sit; or trail splits — stay right) are more unique elements usually not seen in handbooks. Each trail adventure has a scavenger hunt — not overly complicated — a flower, a geological site, a bird — but something that will keep the entire party engaged beyond “are we at the end yet?”

I just loved this handbook and I realized that Wendy Gordon already has a similar book for California (where our kids are). Also looking forward to an edition in the Midwest (Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan) where we visit other relatives. This is a terrific series! 5 stars!

Thank you to Timber Press and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

The amount of thought and time that went into this book is incredible. If you are wanting to get outdoors with your kids but don’t know where to start, this book gives every bit of information you need. Not only does it have maps, directions, parking information and trail difficulty, it also includes a scavenger hunt for your kids to keep them entertained. I absolutely love everything about this book. Definitely recommending to everyone who has kids.

This was a very good look at local Southwest trails that are easy enough for kids and families to hike together. The author included thorough information on the trails, equipment needed, and sights that can be seen along the way. This resource will be a huge help when traveling and should accompany any hiker, but especially those with kids.

This is an excellent resource for anyone with kids who love the outdoors or adults looking for shorter, easier hikes. Some of them look pretty difficult though!

I loved the format of describing "Your Adventure", breaking down the details of how long, elevation, difficulty, best season to go, if there are restrooms, fees and nearby food.

Each hike has a scavenger hunt with pictures which my kid would really enjoy and I'm glad they included this piece.

I have a long list of hikes to do with my 6 year old thanks to this book!

This is a really cool book and super well put together! The design is perfect with a description of the kind of bike/adventure, a trail map with info about how difficult the hike is (length, elevation…) and each hike has a scavenger hunt of cool animals/plants… to look for on the way. Such a great way to help kids get excited about hiking and time outdoors! We are moving back to Nevada this summer and I can’t wait to use this on our travels around the state! I will have to make sure to have it with me for our travels to Utah as well!

5 stars
I loved this book. It had a beautiful layout, and tons of great pictures. I liked that it had directions to each location, as well as scavenger hunts while you’re there. It also rated the hikes from easy to difficult and how long they were. It mentioned camp grounds and local restaurants as well as parking fees and so much more!
As a Nevada native I was a little sad to see most of north and west Nevada left bare. We have a ton of great spots.
Otherwise this was a perfect book for families looking to explore our gorgeous areas.