Field notesWalk ideas
Walk ideas for the whole family
Ways to get everyone out the door, from ten minutes around the block to a whole afternoon in the park. Every find on the way is a catch.
Walk guides
Each guide works on its own, with or without a phone. When you want a game, there's a way to keep score with PocketPetal.
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Christmas · Printable
A Christmas scavenger hunt for the whole family
Thirty things to find on a December walk, twenty Christmas lights to spot after dark, and riddle clues to read aloud. Print both lists and score them with rarity rolls.
Get the lists -
Winter · 14 ideas
Winter nature walk ideas for the whole family
Evergreens, bark and buds, frosty mornings, a holiday lights walk and a rainy-day hunt indoors. Plus the Evergreen Hunt, December 11, 2026 to January 10, 2027.
Read the guide -
Any season · Printable
A nature scavenger hunt for the whole family
Thirty things to find on any walk, from something taller than you to a plant growing through a crack. Print it, tick it off, and score it with rarity rolls.
Get the checklist
Want a flower to look for this month? Every month's birth flower has a page of its own, with what it means and when it blooms: birth flowers by month.
Five quick walks
For the days when fifteen minutes is all anyone has.
- Around the block
- Count the street trees between your door and the corner. At the end, everyone votes for the best one, and that's the one you catch.
- The crack hunt
- Find three plants growing out of cracks in a sidewalk, a wall or a parking lot. They're the most stubborn plants in town.
- Color match
- Before you leave, everyone names a color. The first to spot a plant in their color gets to catch it.
- Same tree, new roll
- Catch the same tree on two different days. Rarity is rolled fresh on every catch, so the second one might beat the first.
- The window walk
- Raining? Hunt indoors instead: houseplants at home, at the library, in a café or at a garden center.
Three rules for every walk
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1
Look, snap, leave it be.
A photo is the catch, and the plant stays where it is. No picking, no tasting, no touching. Hands in pockets is a good habit, and in winter a warm one.
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2
A grown-up comes too.
Younger children should always explore with a grown-up nearby. It's a family game, so bring the family.
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3
Paths and public places.
Snap gardens from the sidewalk, ask before taking photos in shops, and keep people out of the picture. Point the camera at the plant.
Where the game comes in
One catch at a time, with a roll of the dice on every one.
PocketPetal is a plant-collecting game for iPhone and iPad. Point your camera at a plant and snap it, and it's caught. Image recognition puts a name to it, and it's often wrong, so every catch shows a match % for how sure it was. Then the game rolls a rarity from Common to Mythic, and the catch joins your collection with XP toward your next level.
Rarity is pure luck, with the same odds for every plant, so a toddler's dandelion can beat a grandparent's oak. Free players get 5 catches a day. Players under 13 play in kid mode, with no usernames, friends or sharing; our guide for parents has the details, and how to play covers the rest.
Look, snap, leave it be. PocketPetal is a game. Plant names come from image recognition and are often wrong, so never eat, touch or use a plant because of what the app says.