Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

Fresh air, lovely weather, quality time – All some great reasons to organize some safe outside time with an outdoor scavenger hunt. Here are some ideas on how you can organize a scavenger hunt for friends and family in the outdoors.

Nature exploration outdoor scavenger hunt

Work with the world around you and allow people to explore sights that can already be found with this outdoor scavenger hunt. This can be either done in the backyard or during a walk on a predetermined path. Ensure that you have checked the path beforehand to ensure it is safe for guests to follow.

With a nature exploration scavenger hunt, the goal is to allow people to find things that already exist around them and let them take photos or collect items from a place. So clues can be very specific such as:

• Take a picture of a bird (and get extra points if you know the name!)
• Take a picture of yourself near the river
• Get a leaf from the biggest tree on the path
• Collect an interesting looking stone

Once you have these pictures, you can combine them into a lovely shared album or scrapbook either offline or online. Find some creative ways to store these memories.

Download and share this graphic for your scavenger hunt

Treasure map outdoor scavenger hunt

Have you ever seen one of those movies or shows where the characters find a treasure map that leads them to a secret hidden treasure? What a fun experience to recreate! For this scavenger hunt, use the outdoors to create a fun treasure scenario for your participants. Draw a map either on paper or using computer software. The map can be as simple as it needs to be and does not need to have accurate distances. What is important is that the clues are noticeable landmarks that you can indicate on your map such as a big tree, a fountain, or even the front door. Ensure that your map leads to an interesting final treasure (This can be a secret)!

Example Treasure Hunt Map

Here is an example of a treasure hunt map and clues. This map below is very simple and suitable for kids to explore an area on their own. At each point along the treasure hunt path, participants find a piece of candy such as an Easter egg or candy bar. The final clue is a larger more valuable prize. Maybe its a box of toys, or a larger pack or candy for everyone to share. Get as creative or as personal as you like for your participants!

Flower pressing outdoor scavenger hunt

There are some beautiful things that can form great memories outside. People find flowers particularly special. Combining the art of flower pressing with a scavenger hunt can be a great way to create even more meaningful art with what people can find around them. In order to get this done, people need to be able to actually find flowers and a variety of plants around them so make sure guests have access to a place with plants and flowers around them. If they are within a city area with no plants, you can invite people to do the scavenger hunt in a park together or in their own time. But if they are in an area with plants in their yard, they can also complete this scavenger hunt at home in their own time.

Time to find some flowers

For the scavenger hunt, in addition to being able to get flowers and plants from outside to work with, participants will need to know how to press flowers and have white paper and either tape or a plastic sleeve to create their flower pressing card.

Once your participants have this ready, you can allow them to take part in the scavenger hunt part of this activity. Tell your participants to collect a specified variety of single flowers and plants. Your scavenger hunt can look like this:

Collect the following items to include in your flower pressing
1. One bright colored flower
2. One white flower
3. One long leaf stalk
4. One round leaf
5. A leaf from a tree
6. The biggest and most beautiful flower that you can find

Once participants have collected their items from the scavenger hunt, allow them to arrange their flowers on a page. They should then place a heavy object like a book on their flower arrangement for 7 to 10 days. Once the flowers have been pressed and dried out for this time, let participants stick them to a piece of paper and either tape them to protect them or place them in a plastic sleeve. Then have a show and tell where people share their beautiful arrangements and talk about the things they found. You can take this further and allow people to try to identify the scientific names of the flowers and plants to make this an educational experience.

Need more ideas?

Visit our page here for more ideas you can incorporate in your scavenger hunt: https://www.treasure-hunt-clues.com/ideas/