| NATIONAL PARKS QUICKLINKS |
Gear Review: Big Agnes Seedhouse 3 Tent
A lightweight tent that can handle 30-mph windstorms...and kids.
Chile: Private Patagonia - Five More Multisport Trips
Explore spectacular places by air, land, and sea.
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.
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: Terrain
Our favorite high-risk, high-reward adventures in North America.
Killer Trips: Wildlife
Our favorite high-risk, high-reward adventures in North America.
Killer Trips: Gravity
Our favorite high-risk, high-reward adventures in North America.
Best Day: Horseshoe Canyon
Wind through an isolated gorge with ancient art.
Canyonlands Adventure Guide (2012 National Parks Series: Part 4 of 6)
Our field scouts scrambled up airy ledges, trekked to giant arches, and dropped into deep gorges to bring you the best dozen trips in this slickrock paradise.
Best Week: Chesler Park to Salt Creek Canyon
Hit up the park's highlights--slickrock scrambles, mesa-top views, and hoodoo-dotted canyons--on this seven-day trek.
Best Weekend: Taylor Canyon to Upheaval Canyon
Circle through giant gorges and sleep at a riverfront campsite.
From the Field: West
Our trail scouts' top local hikes
Trail Mix: West
Your region's go-now guide
Life List: Buckskin Gulch, Utah/Arizona
Yes, all wilderness is sacred. But this mystically beautiful slot canyon is holier than most.
The Other Way In
Hike to life-list hot spots without waiting in life-list lines. These under-the-radar trails deliver everything but the crowds.
Life List: Buckskin Gulch, Utah/Arizona
Yes, all wilderness is sacred. But this mystically beautiful slot canyon is holier than most.
America's Best Campsites
Park your tent in one of these 10 spots, and you'll be happy in the morning. Guaranteed.
Ultimate Adventure Handbook: Drop into a Slot
Explore wildly sculpted rock.
Ultimate Adventure Handbook: Hike 30 Miles in a Day
See a week's worth of terrain on an epic dawn-to-dusk hike.
Ultimate Adventure Handbook
Tired of the same old weekend loops? Looking to create memories your grandkids will talk about? In this how-and-where guide, we serve up 15 extraordinary escapes that will shatter your expectations of "normal." From adventure moviemaking to canyoneering, we'll take you places you've never been—but will long to visit again soon.
Readers' Choice 2012: Top 3 - Mountain West Hikes
This region's top contestant in our Be a Mapper contest reveals his favorite off-the-beaten-path routes through canyon country and mountain refuges.
America's Best Backcountry Ski Tours
Upgrade your winter fun at these 8 beginner-friendly, expert-ready spots.
Online Exclusive: Readers' Choice 2012: Travis Lesicka's Wildlife Sighting Tips
This region's top contestant in our Be a Mapper contest reveals his wildlife sighting tips.
Backyard Everests: Pfeifferhorn
Bag a stout weekend adventure-and vistas from the big lake to the High Uintas.
Going to Extremes
Can you ever really have too much of a good thing? Once you've seen the biggest tree, largest glacier, and deepest canyon, nothing else compares.
The High Life: Hiking Utah's Highline Trail
Watch your step on Utah' Highline Trail. The nonstop views and rampant wildlife are distractingly spectacular. Plus: Gaze away on 9 more elevated hikes.
National Parks: Capitol Reef
Discover a private paradise by crossing the park’s convoluted Waterpocket Fold.
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: Dark Canyon Wilderness, UT
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.
Our Backyard: Glen National Recreation Area
Explore slots and marvel at arches in Glen Canyon.
Top 25 Winter Trips: United States
Find the best skiing, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and winter camping trips in the U.S.
Top 3: Rainy Season Hikes
Make the best of fall storms on trails that improve with soggy weather.
Best Hikes Ever: Willow Gulch, UT
Explore resurrected sandstone slots.
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.
Best Hikes Ever: Zion Narrows, UT
Sluice through towering walls of sandstone in Utah's Zion National Park.
Top 3 Rainy Season Hikes: Emerald Pools, UT
Explore Gushing, Rain-fed waterfalls.
Salt Lake City Hiking
The best hikes near Salt Lake City, UT.
Local Hikes: Moab, UT
The best hikes near Moab, Utah.
Local Hikes: Mountain West
The best local hikes in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana.
Natural Wonders: Pando Aspen Colony, UT
Meander through a sprawling forest of clones.
Natural Wonders: Giant Aspens, Devil's Tower, and Hawk Heaven
Visit the world's largest aspen colony, the Plains' highest skyscraper, and a raptor super-flyaway.
New Life List: Ultimate Family Paddling Adventure
World-class scenery, luxe camping, and easy paddling await your family on the Green River in Canyonlands. Your kids will remember this forever.
Zones: Canyons
Marvel at Mother Nature on these canyon hikes in Utah and North Carolina.
Secret Hikes: Zion National Park
Pack an extra memory card for what is, mile-for-mile, the most photogenic hike in the Southwest.
Secret Hikes of the National Parks
The perfect dozen: Embark on one of these 12 treks, and turn America's most iconic preserves into your own private paradise.
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.)
Canyon: Davis Gulch, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, UT
This picturesque Utah hike features natural arches and ancient petroglyphs.
Canyon: Narrows of the Virgin River, UT
Hike, swim, and scramble in this 16-mile slot canyon route.
America's 10 Most Dangerous Hikes
Like your life and limbs intact? Then you'd better get skilled before visiting these trails.
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.
Central Rockies: Highline Trail, UT
Discover Utah's best-kept secret.
Readers' Choice Mountain West Hike: Santa Maria Spring, Grand Canyon NP
Gaze into the world's most beautiful labyrinth.
Readers' Choice Mountain West: Mr. Bubbles, Yellowstone NP
Relax in an effervescent bath far from the dayhiking crowds.
Readers' Choice Mountain West Hike: West Maroon Pass, CO
Trip through kaleidoscopic color amid high-alpine splendor.
Readers' Choice Mountain West: Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain NP
Get big payoffs on an easy hike.
Readers' Choice Mountain West: The Colorado Trail
Thru-hike America's highest trail.
Readers' Choice Mountain West: Gunsight Pass, Glacier NP
See the park's famed glaciers from a high mountain pass.
Reader Essays: Bullfight!
John Joy goes fist-to-nose with an invasive species.
Natural Wonders: Tallest Hoodoo, Largest Gators, Lost Maples
These three treks to life-list phenomena will take you to Bryce Canyon, Florida gator land, and fall foliage in the Texas desert.
Top 3 Perfect Substitute National Forests
Get national park-caliber scenery without crowds (or entry fees!) in these dead ringers for Great Smoky Mountains, Zion, and Yosemite.
Where Solitude Rules - Lonely Summits
You won't find bottlenecks on these untrammeled peaks.
Rip & Go: Under-the-Rim Trail - Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
Dupe the daytrippers on this rugged trail to brilliantly colored backcountry cliffs and hoodoos.
America's Newest Wilderness
A quick guide to the best acres, trails, and views.
Hike It, Save It: Upper Desolation Canyon, Utah
Oil and gas development threaten these 65,000 acres. Float the Green River to see what's at stake.
America's Best Dayhikes
From dawn-to-dusk epics in Utah canyons to lazy-picnic blueberry strolls in Maine–plus hikes to peaks, redwoods, hot springs, beaches, and more–here are 100 ways to spend a perfect day on the trail.
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.
Master the Steeps: High-Angle Hiking Trails
First, check out our tips for healthy hiking on steep terrain in the May 2009 issue then, put them to the test on one of our favorite high-angle trails from California to North Carolina.
Readers' Choice Awards 2009
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.
Party Peaks
Ten perfect summits for your next group hike
Canyon Connections: Link Grand Canyon To Zion
Trek empty terrain all the way from the Grand Canyon to Zion.
America's 10 Most Dangerous Hikes - The Maze, UT
Lost in the labyrinth
Canyon Confidential: Utah's Grand Gulch
To discover the best-kept secrets in Utah's Grand Gulch, you need to start at the bottom.
America's 10 Most Dangerous Hikes - Buckskin Gulch, UT
Gambling in the slots
Land of the Lost: Native American Artifacts in Utah's Range Creek
Utah's Range Creek hides the most intact Native American artifacts in the United States. Get there now–while you can still play archaeologist.
Hike It: 4 Big Trips Made Easy
Ready to dial up the adventure meter? Try out your digital skills–and go places most people can't–on these life-list journeys.
Trip Finder: Stay-Dry Spring Hikes
Stay dry on spring treks in Minnesota, New Mexico, and more.
Big Trips Made Easy: Hayduke Trail, UT
Finding total Southwest solitude
Big Trips Made Easy: High Sierra, CA
Rambling a granite redoubt
Big Trips Made Easy: Glacier Peak Wilderness, WA
Exploring a high, wild corner of the North Cascades
Big Trips Made Easy: Allagash Wilderness Waterway, ME
Floating a liquid maze in the Northeast's lake-riddled forests
Learning About Survival Where Aron Ralston Outwitted Death
Follow correspondent Kevin Fedarko into the remote Utah slot canyon where Ralston famously separated himself from his right forearm.
Float the Green River
View redrock cliffs and spires as you float through Stillwater Canyon in Utah's Canyonlands National Park.
Three Southwestern Hikes to Test Your Senses
Joshua Tree, Zion, and the Guadalupe Mountains are three hike-worthy desert destinations.
Top 3 Easy Canyoneering Hikes
If you've always dreamed of descending into the center of the earth, try one of these creekbed hikes.
Blue John Canyon: Feeling Gravity's Pull
A pilgrim heads into the canyon where Aron Ralston lost his arm to pin down the meaning of survival.
Utah Hikes: The Case For Glen Canyon
Drought is giving Glen Canyon--and those who love it--a second chance. Here are four spectacular reasons why we should protect this Southwest wilderness by making it America's next national park.
60-Minute Fixes: Salt Lake City
Hike, bike, and climb in this Utah gem--much more than a skier's paradise
From the Grand Canyon to Canyonlands: Hiking At The Speed Of Sound
Seven national parks in 7 days--starring a ragtop, Red Bull, and one scary rabbit.
Glen Canyon Adventure Guide
An exclusive guide to five hikes that have been under water for 40 years
Preserving Paradise: Glen Canyon
Drought has brought the canyon back. Would national park status keep it that way?
ESCALANTE: A Complete Adventure Guide
When Utahans really wants to disappear, they head to the magnificent canyons of Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Top 3: Native Art Hikes
Explore burial effigies, seven-foot petroglyphs, and images etched in lava as you discover the ultimate mix of manmade and natural beauty.
High Points: Kings Peak, Utah
The mosquitoes make it challenging, but the towering sedimentary rock makes it worth it.
Hike Buckskin Gulch
This famous slot canyon hike in Utah and Arizona delivers broad views of the Colorado Plateau
Mountain Bike from Telluride to Moab
Prime time in the Rockies to explore the San Juan Hut System
Guide's Choice: Hiking, Biking, Paddling, and Sledding Adventures
From paddling Lake Superior to glacier-hopping in Alaska: 6 hair-raising, lung-busting adventures from America's top outfitters
Utah: Choprock Canyon, Escalante River
Enjoy a slickrock playground of your very own
Utah, Glen Canyon
Receding water levels mean more miles of choice desert hiking and kayaking.
The Needles, Canyonlands National Park
Don't miss these 200 foot candles carved from sandstone towers.
The Fiery Furnace, Arches National Park
Some of Arches' best sites come in short hikes.
Explore Utah's Paria River Slot Canyon
In the Paria River canyon, adventure and breathtaking views await around every narrow bend.
Best Backpacking In Utah
Our comprehensive guide to the best backpacking you can find in Utah.
Utah's Best Wildflower Blooms
Follow the hummingbirds in the Mt. Naomi Wilderness to the best high-country wildflower show in all of Utah.
Hiking Utah's Hayduke Trail
You won't find Utah's 725-mile rogue route on any map. But thanks to two passionate Utah hikers, you'll soon be able to search it out with your boots.
Utah's Grand Gulch: Along Ancient Trails
Cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, ancient pottery -- Utah's Grand Gulch is thick with history.
Birds In Utah's Canyonlands
Life in the high desert in autumn is sweeter and more irresistible than any place on Earth.
Skiing Utah's Tushar Mountains
Strap on the skis and glide across wind-sculpted snow into alpine solitude.
Utah: The White Rim, Canyonlands
A bit of nerve opens up the stunning canyonlands made famous by Wile E. Coyote.
Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands National Park
Where the shadows on the sandstone offer lessons from the past and there's not a soul to be found.
Kayaking Lake Powell's Glen Canyon
The hidden side of a watery Utah playground.
River Floating: A Current Affair
Why huff and puff to get to an isolated campsite? Simply grab a paddle, then let the current carry you to a secluded riverside trailhead.
Utah's High Uintas Wilderness
Head south to find the quiet side of the King.
The Devil Wore Sneakers
Last time you went looking for a new place to hike, you probably consulted a guidebook. We all do. So why is author Michael Kelsey getting lambasted for giving us what we want?
Utah's High Uintas: 600 Miles Of Trail
Tackling the High Uintas Wilderness from the east offers big paybacks.
Utah's Lonely Deseret Peak Wilderness
Deseret Peak Wilderness has everything the popular Wasatch Range does, except the crowds.
Grand Staircase-Escalante: The Last Best Place
Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante is huge, remote, controversial, and one of the finest destinations for backpackers in the Lower 48.
Utah' s Coyote Gulch
Go through the looking glass in Utah's canyon country.
Utah's Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness
Wilderness worthy enough to inspire any classical landscape painter.
Winter Utah: Canyon Solitude
Think slickrock in July and your throat clenches, your skin shrivels, and parched bones rattle in your subconscious. But in winter, the snow sends the tourists and dry desert demons packing, and the frosted wonderland is all yours.
A New Utah Adventure
Never heard of Utah's George Washington Hayduke Route, have you? That's because it's brand new.
