Walking Games – Hiking and Trail Games: At Hillwalk Tours, we know that hiking is a very enjoyable and rewarding pastime through both the mental and physical benefits, as well as the fantastic scenery and nature. Sometimes though, hiking is about grinding out the next few kilometers on a unremarkable track with nothing particularly spectacular to look at. This is where trail games come in to play.
There are many hiking games for adults – in fact, even just talking to your hiking buddy can help you get past the not-so-exciting parts. If you’re hiking on your own, trail games can come in very useful as a way to pass the time between inspiring viewpoints. Below are just a few trail games and hiking games for adults (or children!) that you can play on your next hike.
[expand title=”Click here to try some of these games on our hikes“]
[/expand]
Names Games
Name it
Just name everything. What are the 32 counties of Ireland? What are the capital towns of those counties? What are those counties called in Irish?
Category Games
To make it more challenging, pick a specific category and name things within that category that only begin with the letter ‘P’, for example. If someone goes over the 5 second time limit, they’re out! The winner is the last man standing.
Alphabetic Celebrities
The first person names a celebrity. The next person then also names a celebrity whose first name begins with the same letter as the first celebrity’s last name. Confused?
Michael Jordan. Jennifer Lawrence. Larry King.
You can, of course, limit the category to make it easier or harder!
Trail Hide and Seek
In Ireland, we’re quite safe playing this one as we don’t have bears roaming around. It’s best to be careful in places where there are wild animals so that you don’t disturb them!
This trail game involves one person running ahead on the trail and hiding within a 10-metres of the trail. If the seeker walks past the hider, give a little bird call to let them know they’ve gone too far.
Scavenger Hunt
This trail game requires a little preparation beforehand, but is still a great hiking game for adults and children while out on the trail.
Make a list of things that you are likely – but not too likely – to see out on the trail.
The first person to collect all of these items wins. For a more ‘Leave No Trace’ approach, the first person to spot all of these items wins.
Bingo
Similar to the Scavenger Hunt, this trail game needs a bit of prep. The difference between Scavenger Hunt and Bingo is you can’t use the same item twice in Bingo.
If one person sees a hiker with a walking pole, the rest of the players have to see a different hiker with a walking pole. This adds a little bit of an extra challenge to this trail game!
Twenty Questions
The classic twenty questions. This is a perfect hiking game for adults while out on the trail.
Choose a category, think of a person/place/thing and get people to ask you twenty questions to try and figure out what you’re thinking of.
If the game seems to be over far too quickly, perhaps set a rule that there must be at least five questions asked before people can start guessing.
[expand title=”Click here to try some of these games on our hikes“]
[/expand]
