Can anyone tell me if they have gone on this type of trip with an 11month old. We want to take our daughter, but since we are flying from Florida, i wasn't sure how she would react to traveling that far/time change. Besides that hurdle, I thought since most of it's scenic she would be ok. I'm not planning on doing much hiking except maybe along an easy trail.

Any input would be appreciated. We are definetely a traveling couple and very much want to include our daughter in these experiences (eventhough she wont remember them).

We don't have kids, but we have been on trips to Yosemite with people with little kids and the kids always did fine. I think places like Yosemite are great for little ones because you don't have to keep to any type of schedule or anything like that - just whatever you want to do.

Our friends like to rent bikes in Yosemite with kid trailers and ride around. They also do well with backpack style carriers and those rugged stollers with the big spoke wheels and knobby tires.

There are several trails you can go on with a good stroller, plus there are paved walking and biking trails all over the valley.

A fun thing to do is the tram ride which leaves from the Lodge. It's an open air tour through the valley, narrated by a park ranger. We went on it last year and our group really enjoyed it. There were people of all ages on our tour - from tiny kids to seniors - and everybody seemed to be having a good time.

For flying with kids advice, there have been several threads on this topic - do a search to see if you can find them. I'm sure there was some good advice from parents.

Although I have no kids, I have a feeling that the time change will make no noticable difference for daughter. You're probably noting that she sleeps and wakes up almost irrespective of what time it is, or whether it's day or night!

As a mother of 2, I think this is the best way to start travels with a child: a park. Of course, for a first trip I'd pick something closer to home, but you know better if she'll be OK on a long flight. Don't worry about time change, just get yourself ready to get up a little earlier. In Yosemite the food is no problem, not sure about diapers.

darlingbella,

DH and I also loved to travel on road trips and didn't want to give it up when we had children. We did a 3,000+ trip when our first was only 7 months old. We put him in a backpack and did Carlsbad Caverns. Yes, he slept most of the time, but doing things as a family is what is important.

As the years go by the boys look forward to these special times with Mom and Dad.

Utahtea

ttt

It's a great time to start traveling your daughter. We started my son out when he was around 6 mo. old with a flight from CA to Hawaii to visit family. It was a little work, but well worth it! ***kim***

We did our first park trip with our daughter when she was about 14 months old. She was fine in the daytime but became very homesick at night and could not be comforted. We ended up driving around Yosemite Valley at 2 a.m. as she was screaming so loudly we were afraid we were disturbing other guests. Now, I hope she was the exception to the rule, but thought I should mention it. We decided to skip family trips until she was older. (She is a great traveller now by the way.)