Spend your life on the trail, and one thing’s for sure: You’ll come away with plenty of hiking stories. From survival stories to personal essays to stories to adventure tales from the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail, this is where you’ll find backpacker’s favorite yarns.
Spend your life on the trail, and one thing’s for sure: You’ll come away with plenty of hiking stories. From survival stories to personal essays to stories to adventure tales from the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail, this is where you’ll find backpacker’s favorite yarns.
Get backcountry spoils--snorkel-deep pow on remote Rockies peaks--with frontcountry comforts (warm fire and hot toddies, anyone?) in this famed hut system. More than 350 miles of trails wind through prime winter terrain, connecting the 31 full-service cabins.
Explore the Adirondack's valleys along New York's Northville Placid Trail, the most historic long-distance trail you've never heard of.
Explore resurrected sandstone slots.
Go from rainforest to glaciers.
Feeling small among the world's tallest trees.
Go high and wide in Wyoming's untamed range.
Traverse the first long trail in Vermont.
Watch a waterfall cascade from the sky.
Tackle an epic adventure in the far north.
Circumnavigate the West's most majestic mountain.
Aim upward for majestic views over an ancient canyon.
Trek a desert landscape under a purple sun.
Find private valleys, mountain passes, and riverside campsites.
Ascend a remote summit pyramid far away from civilization.
Skirt lakes to soaring Â’Daks views.
Find deep solitude where the continent crashes into a frigid ocean.
Hike through waterfall spray to a rarely summited grassy bald.
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.
Hike along bluffs and fern forests in total solitude on Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Sluice through towering walls of sandstone in Utah's Zion National Park.
Bag a little-known triple crown in New England's northern woods.
Weave around grassy meadows and mirror lakes.
Snag views of swaying prairie grass stretching to the horizon.
Traverse rolling hills to star-gazing meadows.
Forge your own route through the Rockies' most rugged corner.
Pick your pilgrimage through the backcountry Holy Land: Mt Eielson Loop or Kesugi Ridge.
Track through dense forests ringing with bugling.
Brave thick forest to reach rugged twin summits.
Emerge from crane-crossed coastal grasslands to pristine beaches.
Plumb the wild depths of the Big Ditch.
Traverse the nation's most photogenic range on the Teton Crest Trail.
After sifting through scores of submissions, we've chosen a reader who will be an official BACKPACKER field scout.
How to avoid an unplanned night hike and what to do if it happens anyway
Take the scenic--and sporting--route to New York's highest summit.
See North America's deepest river gorge, the west's most violent mating Display, and the Southeast's last longleaf pines.
Walk beneath trees that predate the Revolutionary War.
Witness bighorn rams' skull-bashing attempts to win a date.
Hike into North America's deepest river gorge--a canyon that could hold five stacked Sears Towers.
Cast a fly to land lunker brown trout.
Explore Gushing, Rain-fed waterfalls.
Rains summon salmon and slugs.
Make the best of fall storms on trails that improve with soggy weather.
Cross the Olympic Range on a forgotten explorers' path.
Trek along–and in–the Gila River.
See bears, gorges, and waterfalls on this 77-mile South Carolina hike.
This 39-mile Alaska hike offers big scenery without a bush plane.
Climb high (really!) in the Midwest.
Traverse a seldom-hiked national park.
Go straight to the top in the Range of Light.
Cross Nevada's loftiest range in 6-7 days.
A 59-mile "long trail" through Pennsylvania.
Check out Katie Herrel's author page.
The best hikes near Knoxville, TN.
The best hikes near Spokane.
The best hikes near Portland.
The best hikes near Anchorage.
The best hikes near Boise.
The best hikes near Portland, ME.
The best hikes near Rochester.
The best hikes near Burlington.
The best hikes near Philly.
The best hikes near Manchester.
The best hikes near Boston.
The best hikes near Pittsburgh.
The best hikes near Albany.
The best hikes near New York, as selected by the Big Apple's best hiking clubs.
Clear the schedule for next Saturday (and the rest of the year). We partnered with regional hiking clubs in 50 cities to bring you the country's top 121 local trails.
In Glacier National Park, summit a mountain that feeds three oceans.
Watch 10,000 birds take wing daily.
Meander through a sprawling forest of clones.
Visit the world's largest aspen colony, the Plains' highest skyscraper, and a raptor super-flyaway.
Video footage & backcountry skills tips from Backpacker's winter ski testing in Norway & Colorado.
Hike a landscape carved by glaciers more than 10,000 years ago.
On a thru-hike of the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail, two brothers get some perspective - on America's largest alpine lake, and each other.
Head to the White Mountains and meet the AMC hut keepers in this photo gallery. (Photos by Anne Skidmore)
Explore waterfall-filled Gorges with fossils preserved in the shale walls.
Climb a fourteener for a view across the continental divide.
Hike streamside near pacific northwest greenery and caribbean-blue eddies.
See ferns that play dead, then dramatically come back to life.
Witness the birthing of a species that shared the seas with dinosaurs.