What’s in a name

Yes, Bonfire is spelled wrong. But it’s intentional! We chose the name BondFire because we believe that spending time outdoors with family and friends really does bring us closer together.  

About US

Kevin, Christine, Zoey, & Maisie

Hello!  We are a family of 4 from Golden, Colorado. 
As adults, we’ve competed in week long mountain bike races, backpacked, climbed 14ers, skied in the backcountry, and explored new forests, mountains, and countries together.  But doing any of these activities with a young family was a scary idea.  This website chronicles our journey and offers useful tips, tricks, and guides to help you start enjoying the outdoors with your family too.


Why we started this blog

It was the summer of 2020 and like most of the world, we were at home without much to do. Traveling during the early days of the Covid pandemic didn’t seem safe. We were bummed. Our goal was to always get our kids out and about, introduce them to new people, new places, and new experiences. But with Covid rapidly spreading around the world and with so many unknowns it seemed those plans were dashed. So, we looked for thing to do closer to home and got back to our roots. We live in Colorado and still had full access to the outdoors. We started hiking in new places, splashing in rivers, and going to parks we had long forgotten about.

Soon it became clear that our plans didn’t need to change. We could still introduce our kids to new people, places, and experiences without getting on planes bound for far flung places. We could accomplish all of this by staying close to home. And so we did.

We loaded our girls up and started camping, hiking, fishing, swimming, SUPing, and just…exploring. It was intimidating and stressful. But our goal was to get out and learn together. We realized we don’t have to have all the answers as parents. We can learn and grow with our kids. Doing so builds lasting bonds, hobbies, and memories. As long as we were learning something new and finding our way together we were happy.

And now, with many trips completed and many nights spent outside we want to share all that we’ve learned so other people can experience the same joy we have.