If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside.Learn about Outside Online's affiliate link policy Before our daughter AJ arrived, my wife and I braced for the end of an era. We figured our adventurous lifestyle would be long gone (or at least forever changed); our family trips would revolve around nap schedules instead of trails; and our days of spontaneity and exploration would grind to a halt.
Turns out, we couldn’t have been more wrong. At eighteen months, our daughter has probably logged more trail miles than the average adult. She’s joined us on ridgeline hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, alpine lake loops in the Rockies, coastal walks in New Brunswick, red-rock rambles in Arches and Zion national parks, and plenty of urban outings around Chicago.
And all the credit goes to the unsung hero of our gear closet: the hiking child carrier. While she loves to explore the trail on foot in short stints under a mile (for now), we’ve found that she’s most content at longer distances taking in the view from above our shoulders. And when we’re lucky, she’ll even doze off for an afternoon nap mid-hike.
We’ve tested several kid carriers on dozens of hikes, looking for the ones that balance comfort, fit, and storage. These are the ones we reach for again and again on our hiking adventures. We take a lot of hiking-centric trips, and packing for them with a toddler is already a puzzle.
Between a Pack ’n Play, a car seat, and a week’s worth of diapers, there’s not much bandwidth to lug along a bulky carrier. The Osprey Poco LT is the exception. At five pounds, nine ounces, and a whopping twenty-five liters of gear storage (nearly double what you’ll find in the Kelty and Deuter carriers below), its weight-to-capacity ratio stomps the competition.
Its internal aluminum frame keeps the pack light but provides enough structure and strength to carry a toddler up to forty pounds. There’s a massive lower zipper compartment that fits extra layers or a change of clothes, a soft cooler with snacks, and diapers with room to spare. And a built-in UPF 50 sunshade unfolds and clips to keep the sun off our kid’s sensitive skin.
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