| NATIONAL PARKS QUICKLINKS |
Readers' Choice 2012: Top 3 - West Hikes
The region's best picks from our top field correspondent, who's notched more than 1,800 trail miles throughout the West and mapped 116 trips.
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.
Hike America's Long Trails
We know. You've always wanted to hike a long trail. Lucky for you, we've got the comprehensive guides to make your dreams a reality. Check out the best sections and dayhikes along the AT, PCT and CDT. PLUS: See how four hikers beat the recession...by hiking through it.
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.
Half The Weight, Twice The Fun: Hike The John Muir Trail
Find out what happens when four people hike the 221-mile John Muir Trail in just a week. Then learn how to bag the classic in more sensible lightweight fashion.
The Menu: Be an Ultralight Gourmet
No, it's not an oxymoron. You, too, can say buh-bye to endless energy bars and instant rice glop--and eat like royalty for less than two pounds a day.
The Skills: Ultralight or Bust
A 10-step plan for getting your base pack weight under 15 pounds
The Plan: Doing Ultralight Right
In 10 days, carrying just 25 pounds, you can pound through the John Muir Trail...happily. Get the plan.
The Gear: Cut the Fluff
Shave pounds from your whole packing list.
The Hike: John Muir In a Week
Got a few days off, a pair of healthy feet, and a pain threshold higher than Dean Karnazes? You can (possibly) blaze the length of America's Most Beautiful Trail
Can a Lime-Green Vegetable-Oil-Powered Beetle Save the Earth?
One writer ditches his S.U.V. for a vegetable oil-powered Volkswagon Beetle and drives into the Sierras to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and test his environmentalist platitudes
The Pacific Crest Trail's Sonora Pass
You won't want to miss this breathtaking 8-mile dayhike.
The Pacific Crest Trail's High Sierra
Some things are so inevitable there's no sense disputing them: death, taxes, and the unrivaled beauty of the Sierra.
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being Scott Williamson
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.
Epicenter: The Scene In Bishop, California
Hike and climb-and then kick back-in a High Sierra sweet spot.
A Hiker's Guide To Surfing and Snorkeling
Use your backpacking skills at the best surfing, climbing, trail running, and even paragliding spots
Luxury Gone Wild At Ahwahnee
A night in Yosemite's most famous hotel
Walk Through The Pacific Crest Trail's Alpine Wonderland
Follow the Pacific Crest Trail through Washington's volcano country and discover the high life.
Breathing Easy
A double lung transplant slows, but doesn't stop, Pacific Crest Trail hiker Dennis Coffey.
Hiking The Pacific Crest Trail
Everything you'd want in a long trail.
Giving Thanks At Washington's Jackson Wilderness
The best way to honor a wilderness-minded senator is to hike the Jackson Wilderness.
Robert Taylor: A True Trailblazer
Robert Taylor wants African-Americans to know "there's something great out there."
Oregon's Volcanoes In Full Bloom
Vast meadows of wildflowers sprawl across the ridgetops and valley bottoms of the Three Sisters.
Goat Rocks Wilderness: A Real Eye-Popper
Some say Goat Rocks Wilderness has the best scenery along the 2,600-mile Pacific Crest Trail. Decide for yourself.
