My Favorite outdoor Apps!

All Trails: Website | iOS app | Google Play

I love this app for so many reasons, but the most important one is that it helps me find trails I'd like to explore in any location I'm searching. I can filter by location, difficulty, length, and whether it's suitable for kids, families, or even strollers. Additionally, you can also filter by activity, such as hiking, mountain biking, trail running, and more!

Once you find the trail you'd like to explore, you can get driving direction to the trailhead, and from there, use the "Navigate" feature to start tracking your steps. I love that it can also keep track of my progress along the trail, not miss any turns, and provide the way back to my car. Although I do rely a lot on the app it is also very important to develop your own navigational skills just in case because you never know when your phone will run out of batteries. The only thing I don't like is that I always forget to end my hike and save it. I end up in my car driving home before I realize, "oops, now it shows I've hiked 30 miles!" And then I can't edit it. Ughhhh, so frustrating! But at least I made it safely back to my car.

There is also a yearly membership for $35.99 with extra features such as getting more detailed information on hikes, downloading offline maps ahead of time for locations with no service and still be able to monitor where you are, and removing ads.I love the upgraded version because it also alerts you with wrong turns! Use code adventuremama30 for 30% off you 1year membership.

All you have to get started is download it on your phone and create an account. Once you do that, you can start searching for trails that you'd like to explore by inputting your location or where you'd like to explore. One feature I also really like is creating lists of trails that I like. This comes in handy when I'm ready to hit a trail - I look up my list, see which hikes I haven't completed, and can quickly head in that direction without having to do any last minute research. It's a great way to save time and more quickly be ready to hit the trail!

Another great feature is the reviews left by recent hikers. I use them to check current trail conditions especially after rain or snow, as sometimes park websites are difficult to navigate and not totally up to date on the conditions of a trail.

Seek by iNaturalist: Website | iOS | Google Play

This is a nature identification app that always gets my kids, and even myself, excited to identify almost every plant, bug, fungi, and even animal we see on the trail. There have been many times we wanted to make sure if a plant was a blackberry bush or poison oak, and it was so useful to have that peace of mind on the trail! It has been really fun for all of us to use on the trail and inspire curiosity about the world around us. We can identify the class, order, family, genus, and species of the plant or animal while on the trail, then go home and dive in even deeper!

Using Seek to identify the type of Ferns

You also earn badges the more you identify, and there are challenges you can do which makes it really fun for the kids to do and stay busy on the trail and when outside in nature. It really helps encourage the kids to learn about plans and animals and whether they're native or invasive to the area and continue that education at home. Sometimes it can have a hard time zeroing in on the specific species we're inspecting, but it never fails to open up our minds.

These are just 2 of my favorite apps to use when outside in nature, I hope you can use them to inspire you and your kids to get outside, get exploring and enjoying the trails in new and exciting ways!