Washington
Don't go up, go around. Rainier's Wonderland Trail loop offers the marathon hiker two weeks of backpacking bliss.
Swap summits for sand scrambling along nearly 18 miles of quiet coastal terrain.
Be the first to thru-hike an exploratory route from Portland to the Pacific.
What's better than hiking every weekend? Hiking every day. Here are the best big-city escapes from New York to Los Angeles. Plus: Bill Donahue explores the remote reaches of Portland's Forest Park and discovers secrets even locals don't know.
Online or via your cellphone these trips are ready to be downloaded and explored.
The perfect metro-area trail: close, wild, uncrowded. Here are 10 major city options.
Tackle a challenging, rocky route in the shadow of America's most famous volcano.
Washington, Arkansas, and Georgia are host to these three life-list phenomena treks.
For our 2010 Readers' Choice issue we want to know your favorite trail in America.
Our editor in chief digs through his years of trips, trails, and tales to share some of his adventures in the wild, from the Grand Canyon to Mount Rainier.
Sharing is for kindergarten. Take one of these 30 hikes and you can have the wilderness all to yourself.
Alternative routes, where to find solitude in the Lower 48, and avoiding the crowds in America's most crowded park
Find real solitude amid the crowds at these secret stashes.
Stroll through wildflower-filled meadows to a frozen slice of the Cascade Range.
From the best guiding service to ultimate summit routes, Washington's highest peak is still the greatest.
Ten perfect summits for your next group hike
Get big views and rack up long miles with these close-to-home adventures.
Does your kid want to be an ice climber? How about a thru-hiker, or paddler? These cities have just what you need.
Which towns offer the ideal mix of accessible trails, inspiring teachers, and great recreational resources? We worked with The Outdoor Foundation to identify America's top 25 places to beat nature deficit disorder.
From Boulder to Juneau to Bozeman, see which cities made the cut for the best place to raise an outdoor kid, and why.
Time to cool down. Hike to these refreshing swimming holes and settle right into summer.
See glowing plankton, mushrooms, and bugs on these brilliant adventures.
Take your pick of mountains, rainforests, deserts, or the ocean–or experience all four zones in a single day–one advantage of living the outdoor dream along the west coast of America.
Use our comprehensive city-specific pages to find hikes near your hometown or in a city you're planning to visit.
Two years after hurricane-force winds and rain ravaged hundreds of miles of trail in Mt. Rainier National Park, the true damage is finally becoming clear. And what it's telling scientists is alarming: Bigger, more frequent–and more destructive–storms
may be coming.
Pack snowshoes for these nine epic treks to snowy solitude in the Pacific Northwest, Rockies, and Northeast.
Like your life and limbs intact? Then you'd better get skilled before visiting these trails.
Where winter strikes year-round
A gym teacher's speed hike becomes a five-day bushwhack in Olympic National Park.
Test your self-arrest skills on Mt. Adams's 12,276-foot fractured glacier.
See one of the sea's keenest hunters as you paddle San Juan Island.
We've got a selection of cozy shelters and trail-side restaurants from Washington to Maine. Check out these hikes in the Rockies, the Northeast, and the Northwest.
Want a backcountry room with a view? Climb these lookouts from Vermont to Washington.
From the West Coast to the Rocky Mountains to New England, we've got nine epic ridgewalks just for you.
Finding total Southwest solitude
Exploring a high, wild corner of the North Cascades
Floating a liquid maze in the Northeast's lake-riddled forests
Rambling a granite redoubt
Ready to dial up the adventure meter? Try out your digital skills–and go places most people can't–on these life-list journeys.
New legislation could make the volcanic monument a national park. But is that a good thing?
How Cold War weapons sites are becoming America's most unusual new preserves.
Only an hour from Seattle, this Cascades gem offers killer Rainier views.
Trek the best spring blooms from the Ozarks to the Olympics with these two, three, and four day treks.
There's a science to why we love waterfalls: When water crashes earthward, it releases negatively charged ions that--you can't make this stuff up--some researchers think can reduce anxiety. Spring is when cascades' spigots open full bore, so head off on these three beguiling treks for a dose of nature's backcountry Rx.
In the Elwha Valley, tidal rivers collide with towering old-growth forests, creating an outsized multisport playground. You'll need a bike, a kayak, and a boatload of stamina to join Sara Gagnon, an area native and co-owner of Adventures Through Kayaking, on this rollicking tour.
Head to Hawaii for three of the tallest
Add Olympic National Park to your to-do list.
Trek into the wilderness but sleep in comfort with these hut treks
Like crowded campsites and easy trails? Then by all means avoid this deafeningly quiet expanse of rugged, wildlife-rich mountains and forest in Washington's North Cascades.
Get ready to feel puny--and profoundly grateful--on three hikes through ancient forests.
16 wild ways to find backcountry solitude and big-time scenery. All this, and you can bring the ice chest, too.
Appreciate Seattle's fresh and saltwater beaches, plentiful forests, and the 27-mile urban path as much as locals after a long, wet winter.
Coming soon to your city: far-out adventures that are shockingly close to home.
Stop dreaming, start planning with our top tips and picks for boots and gaiters
Push yourself on any of these challenging hikes
To hike from Mexico to Canada and back, a man needs strength and speed and luck. He needs something else, too. If only he knew what it was.
Get to the top and you'll hear a joyous echo
Snowshoe to a scenic high balcony
Take a stunning ridge walk in this glacier-clad wilderness park
On this trip you'll find everything from alpine meadows to ancient rainforests
You'll never get a bad view of Rainier's glacier-clad slopes.
The Cascade scenery on this hike can only be compared to those of the Alps.
Learn the weird science behind our addiction to waterfalls, and the location of the best trails in North America.
City life got you down? Head for the quiet hills of southeastern Washington, where the air is clean, the water clear, and bighorn sheep outnumber hikers.
Follow the Pacific Crest Trail through Washington's volcano country and discover the high life.
A trip along Washington's Olympic Coast is one whale of a day at the beach.
Our comprehensive guide to the best backpacking you can find in Washington.
Hike to the edge of the Cascade Range in this forgotten corner of the Washington wilderness.
In Virginia, a miracle occurs and hikers get some new wilderness, thanks to The Priest.
Washington's Elwha Trail is a rain-forest classic: green, primeval, spongy soft, and wonderfully wet.
Everything you'd want in a long trail.
It's the longest stretch of virgin coastline left in the Lower 48. But that's just one of many reasons to hike it.
Mind-bending views, close-up wildlife encounters.
The best way to honor a wilderness-minded senator is to hike the Jackson Wilderness.
Washington's gentle "forgotten mountains" -- The Kettle River Range -- are ignored by those in a hurry to reach the Cascades.
Olympic National Park is pristine and isolated -- rare commodities these days.
Majestic peaks rise in all directions in Washington's Boulder River Wilderness -- elegant, jagged, draped in snow.
Only have a short time to tackle the Pacific Northwest Trail? Our guide will give you the best the PNT has to offer.
In a region known for soggy times, Juniper Dunes is a warm sandbox where you can dry out.
As autumn closes in on the larches, the green bleeds out of their needles, leaving a towering spire of gold.
Okay, so the weather stinks and so does the hiking. Change both by heading down the road to where the sun shines and the trail beckons.
In every backpacker's life, there comes a time when you stare awestruck at a mountain and wonder, "What's it like to climb that sucker?"
The William O. Douglas Wilderness is a monument worthy of a great man.
Who needs Everest when you can have these eight summits, all hikeable, all close to home, no sherpas or yaks required.
A hidden spot in Washington's popular Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
The best way to see all Olympic has to offer is on the grand Valley Loop.
Hike this crown of North Cascades National Park, Washington.
You'll find North Cascades beauty minus the rain in Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness.
Tundra hiking in the shadow of Washington's ice-cloaked behemoth.
The 50-mile-long Massanutten range in Virginia may be D.C.'s top-secret hiking getaway.
When temps warm but the going's still snowy, strap on snowshoes to reach Washington's hidden camping gems.
Explore Washington's storied old-growth forests plus an authentic ghost town.
A trek through the blast zone of a restless volcano raises questions about a father's legacy and a child's future.
