Baby Trend Expedition Review

A big slope down to the water, and a bit muddy along there, but it was no problem.

Sharing my love of nature with my kids is super important, but I have a toddler and a bad back that can't handle any kind of carrier for my 2-year old. So long hikes are not really possible right now. But my kiddos and I really need our vitamin N (nature)! So I wanted a stroller that could do some off-roading. My stroller could not do any off-roading. It was strictly for mall-walking.

I looked at some strollers rated for hiking. Some of them were $400 which does not fit in this single mom's budget. Yikes! Sticker shock. Then I stumbled upon the Baby Trend Expedition which had pretty good reviews on Amazon, but wasn't too expensive for me. It's about $100, but at Amazon I even found a pink and black one for just over $70. Now that I can afford. Sold!

The stroller has a pretty full canopy, cupholders and a little box with a lid for my keys. It has a basket below that could be bigger and sturdier, but it is sufficient. With the addition of some stroller hooks it will be just fine. On our zoo treks the stroller drives so smoothly and rolls with the slightest touch.

Probably the only thing I don't like about this stroller is the mechanism that allows the seat to recline. It is basically just a cord with a clamp on it. So it works for the two year old, but if one of my older boys wants a ride, his weight pushes the clamp back down and the kid ends up lying down. I worry that the clamp might loosen over time. I might try to McGuyver something to hold it if that happens, but it's sad they didn't do something more solid for this.

Now that the weather is good again I finally got to try it out for some off-roading. We headed out to the Hassayampa River Preserve. This place has a gravel parking lot, dirt paths with some areas of deep sand, a little mud, and some rocks, tree roots, and fallen branches.

The Expedition happily bounces over the lumps and bumps in the trail without slowing down. It hopped right over tree roots and small logs in the trail and it smoothly rolled my little sweetie up and down little hills without me working too hard.

My old stroller would have gotten stuck on this!

It was easy to get the stroller over this log.

My old stroller would have been lost forever in this sand.

The stroller did great on deep sand. It was slower and a more effort than on hard ground but it did it just fine.

Marvelous! We had a lovely day in nature and it's all because of this stroller. Yay! I can get back to adventuring with my kiddos!