🌟 Our Family RV Bucket List: Kid-Friendly Adventures We Can’t Wait to Take

We’ve been RVing with four kids long enough to know how much planning matters — and how fun it can be to dream big. We love everything about RV trips, and plan our adventures with the weather, destination and kid-friendliness in mind. Our kitchen rides with us, so our plant-based meals are conveniently-tailored to our family’s tastes and travel days, whether we’re pulling together quick lunches on the road or cooking dinner at a campground. This is our running list of places we want to experience together. We’ll keep updating this list and linking to blog posts as we check destinations off.

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🗺️ The Bucket List - National Parks We’re Eyeing

Southeast

Destination	Best Season	Landscape/ Activity
Bryce (UT)	Spring-summer	Hoodoos, amphitheaters, rim & canyon hiking
Capitol Reef (UT)	Spring-fall	Red canyons, domes, orchards, scenic drives
Arches (UT)	Spring-fall	Arches, fins, desert slickrock
Canyonlands (UT)	Spring-fall	Mesas, canyons, Needles backcountry
Zion (UT)	Spring-fall	Canyons, big walls, shuttle access
Grand canyon (AZ)	Spring-fall	Rim-to-canyon terrain, vast views
Petrified Forest (AZ)	Spring-fall	Painted badlands, petrified wood

Why these are on our list: Utah and Arizona are packed with iconic red-rock landscapes. Hoodoos, canyons, and arches make this region feel otherworldly, and most of the parks here have trails in the 5–7 mile range that deliver big views without committing to backpacking. These are high on our list because they balance family adventure with scenery you can’t find anywhere else.

Rockies/ Mountain West

Destination	Best Season	Landscape/ Activity
Mesa Verde (CO)	Spring-fall	Cliff dwellings, canyons
Glacier (MT)	Summer-early fall	Alpine lakes, passes, wildlife
Great Basin (NV)	Summer-early fall	Bristlecones, caves, alpine lakes, dark skies
Lassen Volcanic (CA)	Summer-early fall	Peaks, hydrothermal areas, alpine lakes

Why these are on our list: The mountain states pull us in with their alpine lakes, cliff dwellings, and volcanic peaks. We want hikes that climb into the mountains or wind past ruins, and this region gives us both. These parks mix natural drama with history and a sense of space that’s harder to find in the more crowded Southwest parks.

Pacific Northwest

Destination	Best Season	Landscape/ Activity
Olympic (WA)	Summer	Rainforest, coast, alpine
Mount Rainier (WA)	Summer	Meadows, glaciers, ridge loops
North Cascades (WA)	Summer	Steep, rugged peaks, alpine lakes and glaciers. Far less crowded.

Why these are on our list: Rainforests, glaciers, and rugged coastline—all in one region. We’re drawn to the variety here: one day you can be hiking under moss-draped trees, the next surrounded by wildflowers and glaciers. The Pacific Northwest parks feel like a chance to pack several bucket-list landscapes into one trip.

Coastal/ Florida

Destination	Best Season	Landscape/ Activity
Dry Tortugas (FL)	Spring	Island fort, coral reefs, snorkeling
Biscayne (FL)	Spring	Reefs, mangroves, paddling
Everglades (FL)	Spring	Wetlands, wildlife, boardwalks/boats

Why these are on our list: Not every national park is about hiking. Florida’s parks made our list because they offer ecosystems totally different from what we usually see: mangroves, coral reefs, and wetlands full of wildlife. They’re less about long trails and more about giving the kids a chance to explore water-based environments we can’t experience in the mountain west.

What matters most when choosing a national park with kids?

Change Image

• 0%Wildlife viewing
• 0%Scenic landscape and hiking trails
• 0%History & culture (ruins, dwellings, forts etc)
• 0%Unique ecosystems (rainforest, alpine, desert, swamps)

Not every park made the cut for us—at least not for now. Parks that are heavily backcountry-only or focus on activities we can’t do with kids (like technical climbing) are on the ‘maybe later’ list. For example, on our recent trip to Alaska, my husband and I were dreaming about visiting Katmai and Gates of the arctic. Going there is made available nearly solely by airtaxi (Katmai) or with an all terrain vehicle (Gates of the Arctic), which is so costly or irrelevant when you're traveling with an RV, plus, bear viewing in Katmai might not be as safe and simple with young kids, so we passed. It's definitely on our future bucket list, but realistically, this cannot happen anytime soon. We’ll stick with places that balance adventure with safety and accessibility for a family with young kids.

When we narrow down our list, we focus on variety (deserts, mountains, canyons), manageable logistics (not having to book an air taxi or haul gear miles into backcountry), and kid-friendly access. That means some parks naturally rise to the top for us right now, while others get saved for a later stage when the kids are older and we can handle more remote or technical adventures.

If you’re planning your own family bucket list, think about what’s realistic for your season of life. What works with toddlers may not be what excites teens, and vice versa. That’s why our list is a mix of “right now” parks and “someday” parks.

I’d love to hear what you’d add or leave off your own list. Which parks are your family’s non-negotiables, and which are you saving for later?

And if you want a peek at how we’ve already started checking off our list, here’s our Colorado-Wyoming-Utah RV trip, our last summer Rving through Alaska and a few other RV trips we've taken, for inspiration.