Glacier
Discover Glacier's historic lodging.
Empty White Mountain summits. Tourist-free Yellowstone geysers. Rarely hiked Yosemite ridges. Rangers, guidebook writers, outfitters, and ultra-hikers dish their favorite routes for the first time.
Park your tent in one of these 10 spots, and you'll be happy in the morning. Guaranteed.
More than 150 of you entered our contest to become a BACKPACKER field scout. Meet the winners here, starting with Colleen Contrisciane-Lewis, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. She earned the all-expenses-paid grand prize: an assignment to hike—and report on—her dream trip. Read about her 85-mile, weeklong transect of Glacier National Park on the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail.
Iconic scenery bolstered by serious solitude? Get them both on this weeklong traverse.
More than 150 of you entered our contest to become a BACKPACKER field scout. Meet the winners.
Visit a glacier with millions of extinct grasshoppers entombed in its ice.
After a season of backcountry skiing, hiking, and climbing everywhere from the Rockies to the Andes, we took the year's best winter gear for a final shakedown in Iceland's remote Glacier Fjords. What we found: awesome ice-carved terrain and the sweetest boat-in camping and skiing on earth.
Rule #1 when planning a hike through this iconic park: Let your ambition match the scenery.
Go ahead, look again. And again. These images are worth a third, fourth, and then a tenth gaze.
The undisputed local experts—you—chose the top parks, trails, campsites, and weekend getaways from Alaska to Alabama.
Your favorite parks, weekend getaways, peak ascents, campsites, and more in the Rockies.
Trek through grizzly terrain in Glacier National Park.
Hike lake to lake through bear central in Glacier National Park.
We've covered 245,591 miles of trails in our 37-year history. Here are our 20 all-time favorite trips, plus—shocking!—20 routes we never covered.
Hike a forested, fire-scarred trail between two iconic pools.
In Glacier National Park, summit a mountain that feeds three oceans.
For 20 years, Harvey Locke has fought to protect the park's Flathead River.
What makes a backpacker a backpacker? It's not the garage full of gear or piles of guidebooks--it's the experiences, from thru-hiking a long trail to pushing your personal envelope to inspiring a child's love of wilderness. Here we present BACKPACKER's new Life List: 10 experiences to add to your tick-listnow--and the key skills you need to nail them.
Score wildlife sightings daily, choice views hourly--and at least one juicy burger--on this weeklong circuit.
The perfect dozen: Embark on one of these 12 treks, and turn America's most iconic preserves into your own private paradise.
The next best thing to hiking Glacier National Park's Flathead River Valley? Seeing the movie! Watch a trailer for Flathead Wild by the Epicocity Project.
Score wildlife sightings daily, choice views hourly--and at least one juicy burger--on this weeklong circuit. Northwest editor Michael Lanza shows you how with a GPS tracklog and Google flyover video..
We've collected the best hikes, most amazing photos, and mind-blowing videos for the ultimate National Park planning center. Get inspired and get hiking now!
Disappear into Yellowstone's forgotten peaks. Bag Colorado's most exciting Fourteener. Hike Utah's unknown long trail Our field editors pick 24 epics for your Rockies life list.
See the best of Montana without the crowds.
Gaze into the world's most beautiful labyrinth.
Relax in an effervescent bath far from the dayhiking crowds.
Trip through kaleidoscopic color amid high-alpine splendor.
Get big payoffs on an easy hike.
Thru-hike America's highest trail.
See the park's famed glaciers from a high mountain pass.
Barrie Imhoff tempts fate in Glacier National Park.
Live longer, take the North Circle Route. Glacier's highcountry views and crisp alpine air are rumored to add years to a backpacker's being.
Lost? Murdered? When the wilderness swallows people without a trace, who's to say what happened?
Catch these highlights from
The National Parks: America's Best Idea, then download maps to hike to them yourself.
On the eve of his much-anticipated documentary, Ken Burns discusses the heroes and history of America's most precious wildlands–and the new challenges they face now.
Check out the world's hottest hydrothermal fumarole, Glacier's grizzlies, and a venus flytryp in North Carolina.
You know that the big-name parks draw big-time crowds. But each of those outdoor icons has a lesser-known replacement that offers some of the same classic features and epic scenery–and you get it all to yourself.
Discover the best hike in every state, as voted by BACKPACKER readers. Plus: your essential gear, most desirable tentmate, worst-ever adventure movie, and our picks for the best reader-submitted photos.
Fatten griz for winter
Traverse the wildest part of the lower 48's last great grizzly hideaway.
Coastal views, mountains, and fjords await on the Long Range Traverse in Newfoundland's Gros Morne National Park.
The system was rigged, says a former ranger. Here's how to beat it.
Hike with grizzlies in this remote northern corner of Alaska's greatest park.
America's first national park is a playground for grizzlies, wolves, moose, and hikers (not in that order).
Explore two ecosystems in this hinterland of moss-draped forests, ancient trees, and snowcapped peaks.
Trees, trees are everywhere, but sometimes there isn't a dry twig in sight.
Graze blueberry patches, explore swimming holes, and tag the South's high points on this sultry hike.
Send him out on a work trip. Let wilderness do the rest.
Drop into America's belly on a little-known hike that dips in and out of four different canyons, each blessed with gurgling spring water.
Climb classic Sierra passes, ogle granite monoliths, and camp above treeline in John Muir's second home.
Scramble up class III peaks and cross late summer snowfields on this strenuous but straightforward trip through Montana's big-mountain country.
The ultimate vacation in one of America's iconic parks requires the ultimate hiking plan: classic scenery, no crowds, and secret campsites. Here's how to spend a perfect week in Glacier, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Olympic, Denali, and the Great Smoky Mountains.
The Ice Age left its mark from Acadia to Yosemite. Here's scenic evidence.
3-D hike videos, complete trip planner pdfs, our interactive ParkFinder tool, and more.
Glaciers sculpt mountains, dredge valleys, and remain an unending source of fascination for hikers.
Visitors to Montana's Glacier National Park can visit on the cheap or pay an arm and a leg -- but each way has its unique charms.
Our map team has been hard at work plotting the coolest hikes. Check out May's selections here.
On August 25, 2005, Johan Otter and his 18-year-old daughter, Jenna, hiked right into the worst nightmare of any Glacier National Park backpacker: a 300-pound mother grizzly protecting two cubs. Here, in his own words, the 45-year-old physical therapist from Escondido, CA, shares the incredible story of their life-and-death struggle.
Global warming is drying up Glacier National Park's rivers of ice. Learn how scientists are trying to prevent the Glacier demise from happening at other outdoor attractions.
Explore six new routes through the most rugged, scenic, and wildife-rich mountains in the Lower 48.
Write your own ticket to new adventures with these 10 territory-expanding skills.
16 wild ways to find backcountry solitude and big-time scenery. All this, and you can bring the ice chest, too.
Memorable panoramas of Glacier National Park's high peaks
The ultimate continental divide and a legendary mountaineering traverse
Get more Glacier hiking ideas in our online exclusive
3 hidden hikes in our readers' favorite backpacking park
The ultimate guide to greenhouse adventure, featuring 8 surprising new trips, acres of virgin terrain, and a peek at the future of North American wilderness.
The most-studied glacier in the park lets you see global warming in action.
Paddle blue inlets too new for any topo.
The Cascade scenery on this hike can only be compared to those of the Alps.
Some of the most classic glacier scenery is offered to all visitors of this national park.
Can anyone really know what lurks in the heart of a grizzly? In the wilds of Russia's Kamchatka peninsula, Charlie Russell believes he is beginning to find out.
Want a ceremony that reflects your passion for the outdoors? Here's everything you need to know to pull off a wilderness wedding.
Our comprehensive guide to the best backpacking you can find in Montana.
Where the words "wild" and "life" take on new meaning
The greatest backpacking parks in the United States, chosen for their scenery.
Glacier National Park possesses scenery that'll suck the breath out of your lungs, quiet so intense you'll wonder if your ears still work, and enough wildlife to make a zookeeper drool with envy.
Bears electrify an already incredible experience at Glacier National Park's Bowman Lake.
