Published December 12, 2008 02:14PM
The U.S. is a land of many outdoor wonders, and all you BACKPACKER users in cyber-land know this. In a poll conducted on our homepage, 64 percent of you said you’d rather hike in the United States than go abroad to other countries to get your trail fix.
Can we blame you? For all its flaws, we’ve got one of the best national parks systems, geographic superlatives you can’t find anywhere else (like the Grand Canyon), and plenty of life-list locations that would make any international outdoor adventurer’s Greatest Hits list. Despite the environmental woes we’ve experienced in recent years, it’s still an embarrassment of wilderness riches.
But I gotta warn you—you might be changing your mind in the near future. Why? The magazine team here at BACKPACKER just wrapped up our February/March Adventure Travel Issue, and even from my small cage in the web dungeon, I can tell it’ll be a doozy. We’ve got expansive profiles of trips to Spain, New Zealand, Patagonia, Africa, The Alps, and more. After checking it out, I bet even the most provincial hiker will consider saying “arrivederci!” to our shores to pound some foreign trail.
In the meantime, plan a trip near your home or across the country on our Destinations page.
Where in the U.S. would you most like to hike? Where would you most want to hike internationally? Let us know in the comments section below.
—Ted Alvarez