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Rip & Go: Wheeler Peak Loop - Wheeler Peak Wilderness, NM
Connect alpine lakes and tag three summits on this wildflower- and wildlife-packed loop.
Your Daily Tread: Local Hikes Across the U.S.
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.
Free Maps! Our Contributors Favorite Local Hikes
Online or via your cellphone these trips are ready to be downloaded and explored.
Vote on America's Best Trail
For our 2010 Readers' Choice issue we want to know your favorite trail in America.
Natural Wonders: Ice Caves, Bison, and Huckleberries
Three treks to life-list phenomena
Weekend Planner: Quick Escapes
Get big views and rack up long miles with these close-to-home adventures.
America's Newest Wilderness
A quick guide to the best acres, trails, and views.
Hike It, Save It: Otero Mesa, NM
The threat to this 1.2 million acre wilderness? Oil Drilling. Hike to the top of 6,660-foot Alamo Mountain to see what's at stake.
Three Trips to Natural Wonders
Discover the world's oldest tree, America's biggest cavern, and Florida's largest herd of wild horses on these three treks.
Adventure Weekends: Luxury Hiking and Camping
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.
Ridge Runner
Undeterred by injuries that would cripple most men, a Colorado hiker nears the halfway point in a pioneering attempt to thru-hike the true crest of the Continental Divide. In this extended online interview, Dunmire talks about his gear essentials, near misses, and the challenges that lay ahead as he continues to trace North America's spine.
Top 3 Night Hikes
These dark-sky treks serve up perfect viewing spots for autumn's intergalactic bling in North Carolina, New Mexico, and California
Walking Bataan: The Hardest Miles
Survivors of the Bataan death march overcame one of history's most grueling walks. What kept them on their feet? and could you do the same? every year, more than 4,000 people hike through the New Mexico desert to find out.
Trip Finder: Wildflowers
Trek the best spring blooms from the Ozarks to the Olympics with these two, three, and four day treks.
Top 3 White Mountain Treks
No, not the famously wind-whipped peaks in New Hampshire. Explore some of the country's lesser-known Whites with these accessible spring summits in Arizona, New Mexico, and Alaska.
Trip Finder: Stay-Dry Spring Hikes
Stay dry on spring treks in Minnesota, New Mexico, and more.
The Continental Divide Trail Project
We sent 209 readers out to GPS the Continental Divide Trail, the biggest, baddest, long-distance path of them all. They brought back the makings of the first authoritative map of this American classic. Here, read the Backpacker Blog on the project, and view three exclusive on-the-trail video.
Preserving Ancient Artifacts
Looking to get more than scenic views out of your hikes? The U.S. Forest Service's Passport in Time program turns trekkers into weekend archaeologists.
Phenomenon: Valles Caldera
Hike into the epicenter of a cataclysmic explosion in New Mexico's Valles Caldera
Perfect Day: Gila Wilderness, New Mexico
Take a winter hike to the steaming pools of Melanie Hot Springs in Gila Wilderness, New Mexico.
Magellan, Muir, And Me: Backpacking the Pecos Wilderness
Invent your own hike, and go where no one (well, almost no one) has gone before.
Make Your Own Hikes
Invent your own hike, and go where no one (well, almost no one) has gone before.
High Points: Wheeler Peak, New Mexico
Bighorn sheep and golden eagles await you at this high point.
Hike New Mexico's Big Hatchet Peak
A seldom-visited peak on the Continental Divide Trail
Hike New Mexico's Alamo Mountain
Explore the past on Otero Mesa
Backpack New Mexico's Gila Wilderness
Celebrating wilderness protection where the idea began: the Gila Wilderness
Night Vision
Bats have nothing on this nocturnal hiker.
Best Backpacking In New Mexico
Our comprehensive guide to the best backpacking you can find in New Mexico.
Baca Ranch: The Southwest's Yellowstone
For years, hikers have dreamed of trekking in Baca Ranch's untouched, wildlife-thick backcountry. You'll soon get your chance.
Albuquerque's Magic Mountain
Albuquerque's backyard wilderness lets hikers perform a disappearing trick.
Quest For The Jackalope
Is the legendary jackalope the most endangered species in the Lower 48 or just an old cowboy tale that refuses to die?
Stargazing In New Mexico's White Sands
The lunarlike landscape and dark skies of this preserve make White Sands one of the best places for star watching.
El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico
Frozen fire shaped by cataclysmic forces and the footsteps of the ancient ones.
Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico
Watch for ghosts among the mushroom-shaped rocks in this weird, lovely landscape.
Columbine Canyon Trail, New Mexico
Thirteen miles in the spectacular Sangre De Cristos.
New Mexico's Pecos Wilderness
In New Mexico's Pecos Wilderness, it's just you and the bighorn sheep looking down on the world.
New Mexico's Latir Peak Wilderness
Hikers often overlook the the quiet meadows, wildflowers, and mountaintops of New Mexico's Latir Wilderness. Their loss is your gain.
New Mexico's White Mountain Wilderness
High, cool peaks rise over 7,000 feet above the desert flats in New Mexico's White Mountain Wilderness.
Texas' Guadalupe Range
If you think west Texas is nothing but tumbleweeds and cattle, you haven't walked 62 miles across one of the world's most famous geological formations.
Splendor In New Mexico's Mills Canyon
Mills Canyon is a hidden treasure where you can bushwhack through history.
