Backpacking Canada, the Big Empty

Forget immunizations, visas, phrase books, and 12-hour flights. For an epic international adventure, just head north. Canada’s cred? The world’s longest coastline, 10 major mountain chains, more lakes than any other country, and five Alaskas worth of world-class wilderness. There are 3,000 miles of wilderness that stretch from Newfoundland’s fjordlike coastal cliffs to British Columbia’s rainforest and skyscraping peaks are brimming with every type of mountain, water, and wildlife adventure a card-carrying backpacker could want—crowds not included.

Our Rocky Mountain Field Editor spent two months exploring places we’ve never covered to assemble our most extensive guide to Canadian backcountry yet. He scouted eight challenging trips in four provinces, all easy to reach and close enough to major American cities that you won’t blow your budget just getting there. Or going back for more.

British Columbia

This west-coast province is larger than Washington, Oregon, and California combined. You could spend lifetimes exploring B.C.’s 81 mountain ranges, but first try this sweet trio of routes, including an ultra-wild high-mountain trek, a pair of gorgeous huts, and historic glacier mountaineering.

Drinnon Pass to Gimli Col, Valhalla Provincial Park

Routefind across precipitous ridges to an ice-filled lake.

Woodbury to Silver Spray Huts, Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park

Link two gorgeous cabins by scrambling through craggy alpine country.

Asulkan Valley, Glacier National Park

Hit four technical summits in the birthplace of North American mountaineering.

Saskatchewan

This Texas-size province north of Montana and North Dakota is known for its prairies, but more than half of it is actually a forested canoe kingdom (think Boundary Waters on steroids). Canoes are to Canada as covered wagons were to America, and they remain one of the best ways to experience Saskatchewan’s wild country.

Churchill River Canoe Route

Escape time as you glide through an endless chain of connected lakes.

Ontario

Canada’s most populous province is a land of lakes—Great ones. For an untamed taste of the world’s largest stretch of freshwater, check out Superior’s North Shore, where Ice Age glaciers and storm-tossed waves have sculpted the granite coastline into a wilderness of steep hills and deep gorges with a sprinkling of stunted evergreens.

Coastal Hiking Trail, Pukaskwa National Park

Hug pebbly beaches and cliffs along Superior shores.

White River Canoe Route

Paddle and portage fish-filled waters past wild cascades to the greatest of lakes.

Newfoundland

So far east it’s got its own time zone, this island is home to Gros Morne National Park, a world heritage site. We’ve scouted the best long and short options.

Long Range Traverse, Gros Morne National Park

Bushwhack up a glacier-carved fjord to a lake-spangled subarctic plateau.

Green Gardens Loop

Follow serpentine barrens and stair-steep tracks to a rugged volcanic sea coast.