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Reading Time: 9 minutesLast Updated on October 3, 2025 by Paul Clayton
Table of Contents
6 Ways to Make Hiking Fun for Students
Key Takeaways
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- Stress Reduction and Health: Hiking is a beneficial hobby that offers regular physical activity and serves as a powerful antidote to college stress and burnout through its connection with nature.
- Accessibility and Cost: It is an extremely beginner-friendly activity that can be adapted to any fitness level, and it is largely free since short, easy trails require little to no specialized or expensive gear.
- Work-Life Balance: To ensure time for this relaxing activity, the article suggests utilizing resources like professional academic writing platforms to manage heavy coursework and assignments, thus facilitating a healthier work-life balance.
- Manageable Time Commitment: Hiking doesn’t have to be an all-day event; even manageable trips lasting just 2 to 4 hours are highly worthwhile for beginners and offer plenty of time for exciting activities.
Hiking is a fantastic hobby for people of all ages and physical abilities. It is active, adventurous, and nature-centered. If you want to share your passion for hiking with fewer outdoorsy friends or want to get into it yourself, this guide is exactly what you need.
What Makes Hiking Great for Students?
If you already love hiking, your motivation might be sharing the fun with friends. They may love it as much as you do as a result. Yes, it isn’t very easy to convince a non-outdoorsy person to get outside. Yet it is possible with the right mindset and a couple of tricks up your sleeve.
You might also want to take on this hobby, but worry that it would feel like a chore. In such a case, you need to reshape your perspective on hiking. It is an incredible activity that offers a great deal. Of course, finding time for hobbies is challenging for college students. They are often overburdened with duties and assignments. Who will write my paper while I am on the hike? – One might wonder. Well, the answer is professional academic writing platforms.
They offer help with any part of college coursework, including all kinds of papers. There, you can hire experienced authors who will edit and proofread your work. Alternatively, they can do it entirely from scratch, so you do not have to worry about anything. It is a perfect opportunity to achieve a better work-life balance. Collaboration with experts is also a learning opportunity, as it provides valuable insights.
There is always help out there. So, there is literally no reason to postpone the hiking adventure. After all, it is a hugely beneficial hobby for college students because:
- It addresses the importance of regular physical activity. And you get to choose the trail for your level of fitness;
- It is open to beginners and accessible to almost anyone. It can be a smooth walk and a thrilling adventure. The more you do it, the more strenuous the trails you can choose.
- It is free. You will surely need some equipment. Yet short and easy trails do not require something out of the ordinary. But you might already have everything you need at home;
- It is relaxing because you get to connect with nature. Nothing reduces stress better than being outside, watching animals and plants, and basking in the sunbeams. College students often face a significant amount of stress, and having a relaxing hobby is crucial to avoid burnout.
Hiking doesn’t have to be very long and difficult for beginners. There are trails for 2-4 hours, which is very manageable. And there are several ways to make this time exciting.
How to Make Hiking Fun
Observation & Focus Games (Mind Sharpeners)
These games are designed to sharpen your environmental focus and turn the natural landscape into a fun, competitive visual puzzle. They encourage everyone to slow down just enough to appreciate the details of the trail as they move forward.
Trail Alphabet Game
This game challenges hikers to spot objects that correspond to every letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, in sequential order. You might start with an Acorn, then search for a Bridge or a Boulder, and you can’t move on to the next letter until the whole group agrees on the current find. To make the hunt more competitive, assign higher point values for difficult letters like Q, X, or Z, and require a quick photo for proof if you spot something truly rare.
Trail Bingo/Scavenger Race
Before hitting the trail, quickly generate a list of 10 to 15 specific items, ranging from the common to the slightly tricky, like a heart-shaped rock or moss growing on the north side of a tree. The goal is for a team or individual to be the first to cross five items off their list in a row, much like traditional Bingo. This requires consistent teamwork and collaboration, as everyone must visually confirm the item before it officially counts toward the win.
Nature I Spy (The Technical Edition)
Put a college spin on the classic “I Spy” by using technical or scientific descriptors instead of colors or basic shapes. Instead of saying, “I spy something brown,” you must use terms like “I spy something that is decomposing” or “I spy a coniferous plant.” This transforms the casual observation into a lighthearted and informal quiz, ideal for students studying ecology, geology, or general science.
For someone who does it regularly, it sounds fun as it is. However, if you are a beginner or work with beginners, you might consider adopting a couple of ideas to make everyone more excited.
Creative & Verbal Games Like Storytelling
These games leverage your collective imagination and verbal wit, making them ideal for long stretches of trail where the scenery is consistent but conversation needs a boost. Laughter is guaranteed, and you’ll end up with some truly bizarre shared memories.
Fortunately/Unfortunately Chain
The objective here is to craft a continuous, twisting narrative that alternates between positive and negative statements. One person sets up a good event with “Fortunately…” (e.g., “Fortunately, we found a perfect, smooth skipping stone in the river!”), and the next person delivers a resulting catastrophe with “Unfortunately…” (e.g., “Unfortunately, the stone was actually a petrified dragon egg and now it’s hatching!”). This rapid-fire storytelling is great for comedic timing, and anyone who breaks the chain or takes too long gets a hilarious penalty.
One-Word Story
This collaborative challenge requires intense focus and quick thinking as the entire group works together to tell an epic tale, adding only a single word at a time. The goal is to build a coherent, fascinating, or completely absurd narrative that only exists because of the group’s collective input. You’ll find that the story quickly develops a ridiculous life of its own, often centering on whatever goofy hiking topic the group chooses to focus on.
Hiking History Rewrites
This verbal game is a great way to showcase your knowledge of pop culture or history in a lighthearted, thematic manner. The challenge is to re-explain a famous movie, historical event, or classic book plot using only vocabulary and concepts related to hiking and the outdoors. For instance, you could describe Hamlet as a prince navigating poor wayfinding after his father’s mysterious death, forcing the group to think creatively about how to apply familiar concepts to their current environment.
Try Fishing
If you live in an area with lakes or rivers, fishing could be an 
amazing option to enhance the adventure. First of all, fishing is entertaining in its own right. You can take portable rods and make it a competition. Who will catch more fish?
Additionally, if permitted, you can cook your catch over an open fire. What can be more adventurous than catching your own dinner? It’s also a bonding experience. Alternatively, you can take the catch home and cook it there. In any case, you can feel like a real hunter who brings food to the table… literally.
Fishing is also easy to start with for beginners. However, be sure to check beforehand if there are suitable bodies of water for that. If fishing isn’t your thing, you can watch fish in the water and try to guess what kind of fish it is.
Consider Geocaching
If you are not planning a smartphone detox, you can enjoy geocaching with your friends or family. It is a lot like a scavenger hunt, but for adults. The idea is to get coordinates and find a hidden treasure. So you are not on a walk but on a mission now!
It is exciting and engaging. To get started, you can download the Geocaching app and find coordinates with hidden treasures. Check out if there are any hidden spots around the area you are heading to. If several are in proximity, it can also become a competition. You can split into two teams and go for a victory. Or you can all work together to find all the treasures.
The items are often disguised as something regular, like a flashlight or a birdhouse – something you wouldn’t suspect immediately. The treasures are fun as well. Sometimes, you can find a toy, a snack, or some piece of gear.
Plants, Berries, and Animals
Additionally, you don’t have to look for something particular to enjoy your surroundings. Those who want to reconnect with nature can consider such options as:
- Looking for specific plants or recognizing the ones you come across. It can be a game of bingo if you want. Alternatively, you can pay attention to the environment and discover the most fascinating plants.
- Foraging for berries. You can also snack from a bush, especially during the fall. Looking for berries is exciting. But be sure to check beforehand what berries grow in the area and which are edible.
- Collecting mushrooms. You do not need to be a hunter or a fisher to find dinner in the woods. If the area is known for mushrooms, you can pick them up together. Also, learn which ones are safe to eat and collect. And research whether it is allowed to pick mushrooms in the area. But imagine cooking them on an open fire with meat the same day!
- Watching birds and animals. It depends on the local fauna. But you can also try to spot various animals and birds. You can take pictures or simply gaze at them. Who spots more wins the race.
Those who are into crafts can gather leaves, acorns, or flowers for their next creations.
Swim Together
While it is still warm, you can go for a swim. If the trail goes to a safe lake or river, this is a fantastic opportunity! Be sure to pack swimsuits and a change of clothes. Now, you can swim after a walk and feel refreshed.
And it might be better than a day at the beach. It is less crowded, and the experience is new. Take some snacks and enough water to rest near the body of water.
Incorporate Photography
Most of us love taking pictures. Some enjoy portraying nature; others love to 
photograph people. In any case, there will be plenty of outstanding opportunities on the hike.
Take a camera or use your phone and encourage photography. For instance, you can capture plants you’ve seen. Or you can create an album about your first trip together. First of all, it creates beautiful memories that you can go through later. Secondly, it makes the adventure more creative and artistic.
Talk about reviewing the pictures together later. You can even host a presentation night and share your trip experiences with others, or show them photos of your trip. It is a simple yet enjoyable addition to hiking.
Outdoor Dining
If you really want to make someone love an adventure, add excellent food to it. You can take something premade from home. For instance, if you are into baking, you can prepare baked goods for friends.
Another option is to go for outdoor dining options on the trail. Many popular routes have rest stops with fantastic cafes and restaurants along the way. In this case, you do not have to bring anything and carry additional weight.
Research the options and add a food stop to the trip. You can take a break for an hour and regain some energy for the next step. Sharing a meal together is also an ancient bonding experience, so there are no downsides.
The third option is to cook your own meal on an open fire. Those could be steaks or kebabs, accompanied by marshmallows for dessert. Food cooked on a fire tastes better. And you can all work on dinner together. But it requires bringing some equipment and ingredients with you. It could be a bit too much for a beginner.
Open fire cooking is an outstanding option for camping, as you can all gather around the fire and have a great time. You can laugh, chat, or give advice about the best research paper writing services to try. In any case, it will be an unforgettable adventure.
Final Thoughts
Hiking is a fantastic hobby for college students. It is accessible, easy to start with, and free. Whether you want to bring friends along or try it yourself, you can use these six ideas to make the hike more entertaining. Remember to stay safe and always check the rules. Start easy and small if it is your first time – you can go for a more extended trip in the future.
