Field Notes: 5 Winter Adventures in California You Can Bring the Kids AND the Dogs
For Ruffwear
Arthur and Lola get ready to Snow Shoe in Hope Valley Sno-Park, California.
Finding fun on the trails for little ones both with and without tails can sometimes be challenge. In today's Field Note, Ruffwear Pack Member Natalie and her family accept the challenge and report back on their discoveries.
We're a blended family of the human and canine variety. We're always on the lookout for spots we can enjoy together. This includes my husband, two kids (Arthur, 4, and Marley, 11 months), and dog named Lola.
We currently live in a 700-square-foot apartment in Long Beach, CA, a city about 20 miles outside of Los Angeles. Long Beach is great: beaches, bike paths, and playgrounds galore. But, every few months we get the adventure itch, and yearn to be exploring the mountains we can see faintly in the distance on a clear day.
To escape our teeny apartment together this winter, we rented an even smaller apartment on wheels (more commonly referred to as an RV) and took off on a California road trip.
Here are our top 5 kiddo- AND dog-friendly spots we discovered along the way.
SLEDDING IN SHADY REST PARK, MAMMOTH LAKES
We rolled into Mammoth Lakes on our first day of our road trip, about four hours later than planned. We knew we wanted to get some wiggles out in the snow, but didn’t have enough daylight to go too far. Luckily for us, we stumbled upon Shady Rest Park.
Located just off the main road through Mammoth, you enter the park along a gently winding drive that meanders through a magically green forest. After just a few minutes, we start to hear laughter, and dotted between the trees we see other kiddos shooting through openings on various kinds of sleds. We parked in the furthest lot by the playground (which in a December was covered in a blanket of snow) and chose a smaller hill in the open to test our sleds.
The space was perfect, and we enjoyed an area that Lola (nice and cozy in her Powder Hound™ Jacket), Arthur, and Marley could get their yips out unleashed and unfettered.
SNOW-SHOEING AT HOPE VALLEY SNO-PARK
We found Hope Valley Sno-Park completely on accident, and it couldn’t have turned out more perfectly.
Halfway through a detour to get into Yosemite that took us just south of Lake Tahoe, we were looking for a dog-friendly place to take a break and play outdoors. After a little research, we discovered all California Sno-Parks were dog-friendly, and with an astounding bit of luck, we were about to drive right past one.
With the sounds of snow-mobiles humming in the distance, we were greeted by a huge, open, sunny winter wonderland and the perfect amount of snow. Stoked was an understatement. As it was mostly flat, we decided to test out our snowshoes, and enjoyed ambling round a small loop while Lola smelled all the smells and did her best to fill up on snow for lunch.
As another surprise, I discovered the Crag™ Leash also makes for a great toddler sling in a pinch after Arthur had snow-shoed until he could snow-shoe no more.
Read the full article: https://ruffwear.com/blogs/explored/5-winter-adventures-in-california-you-can-bring-the-kids-and-the-dogs