| NATIONAL PARKS QUICKLINKS |
Rip & Go: Jordan Hot Springs, Gila Wilderness, NM
Explore a slot canyon and soak in a warm backcountry pool in the country's first designated wilderness.
Local Hikes in the West — March 2013
Soak in a New Mexico hot spring, spot wintering bighorn sheep in the Winds, hike to a lost California oasis, and more.
Local Hikes in the West
Make a late-season hike to an aspen-dense Colorado mesa, spot bears in the Beartooths, explore gypsum dunes, and discover more fall must-hikes.
Top 3: Ghostly Hikes
Test your courage—and your quads—this Halloween on one of these spooky cemetery trails.
From the Field: BACKPACKER Trail Scouts' Top Western Local Hikes
Whether you want an uncrowded hike in Zion National Park or a five-miler through a gypsum dune field in New Mexico, our scouts have paved the way.
Killer Trips: Wildlife
Our favorite high-risk, high-reward adventures in North America.
Mountain Map: New Mexico - Sandia Mountains
Explore Albuquerque's backyard mountain range.
Rip & Go: Horseshoe Lake - Pecos Wilderness, NM
Navigate a long-lost trail to a remote alpine lake.
Local Hikes
Jump-start your hiking season on these spring-ready trips from around the country.
Readers' Choice 2012: Your Neck of the Woods - Mountain West Hikes
Scramble on red rock, camp at alpine lakes, cross a high pass, explore a trailless moonscape, and bushwhack to a peak.
Rip & Go: Alamo to Capulin Canyon - Bandelier National Monument, NM
Climb across mesas and up canyon walls to a cave full of pictographs.
America's Best-Kept Secrets
The only thing better than enjoying the life-list scenery in the country's premier national parks? Getting that same scenery, minus the crowds. Find it in these 10 backcountry hotspots, along with no-hassle permits, choice campsites aplenty, and solitude to match the world-class terrain.
Local Hikes: Mountain West
Hike Denver's lost wilderness, a twofer of peaks in Idaho, lava tubes in New Mexico, Zion's sneak route, and Bozeman's trout-filled lake.
America's Best-Kept Secrets: Gila Wilderness, NM
Readers' Choice: Southwest
Your favorite parks, weekend getaways, peak ascents, campsites, and more in the Southwest.
Trip Finder: Southwest
Your favorite Southwest hikes—from dayhikes to weekenders to multiday trips.
Less is More: 50-Mile Thru-Hikes
Ten point-to-point treks with the payoffs of a thru-hike, but hikeable in a week.
Best Hikes Ever: Chupadera Mountain Trail, NM
Rise from the desert floor to an airy, see-all perch.
Best. Hikes. Ever.
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.
50-Mile Thru-Hikes: Middle Fork Trail, NM
Trek along–and in–the Gila River.
Albuquerque Hiking
The best hikes near Albuquerque, NM.
Local Hikes: Mountain West
The best local hikes in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana.
Top 3: Ghost Town Hikes
Walk 100 or more years back into history--and deep into wilderness outposts now reclaimed by nature--with these routes to three abandoned frontier communities.
Top 3 Ghost Town Hikes: Glorietta Ghost Town, NM
Hike to a hotel with no visitors.
Local Hikes: New Hikes Near You
Our army of reader-reader scouts mapped 59 local hikes from South Carolina to Northern California. See their favorites, then learn how to download tracklogs and waypoints.
Local Hikes: Mountain West
Spot a grizzly, basecamp amid Fourteeners, and relax in secluded hot springs. (Click linked trips for GPS waypoints, photos, and more.)
Southern Rockies: Truchas Traverse, NM
Hit three 13,000-foot peaks in the wildest wilderness south of Glacier.
Ultimate Rocky Mountain Destinations
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.
Reader Essays: Yogi, Meet the Kids
Finding it hard to get the whole family out for a hike? Let Danny Griffs show you the way.
Southern Rockies: Wheeler Peak, NM
Climb to the crown of the Sangre de Cristo Range.
Top 3 Ansel Adams Hikes and Reader Photos
The legendary shooter once said that photographs were "usually looked at, seldom looked into." Take a look into three hikes that inspired some of Ansel Adams greatest photos, and take a few pictures yourself.
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.
Weekend Planner: Quick Escapes
Get big views and rack up long miles with these close-to-home adventures.
Natural Wonders: Ice Caves, Bison, and Huckleberries
Three treks to life-list phenomena
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 White Mountain Wilderness
High, cool peaks rise over 7,000 feet above the desert flats in New Mexico's White Mountain Wilderness.
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.
Splendor In New Mexico's Mills Canyon
Mills Canyon is a hidden treasure where you can bushwhack through history.
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.
