Your dream backpacking trips are waiting for you. Find and explore new hiking trails and backpacking routes across the country with advice, adventure travel stories, topo maps, photography, and more from the experts at Backpacker.
Your dream backpacking trips are waiting for you. Find and explore new hiking trails and backpacking routes across the country with advice, adventure travel stories, topo maps, photography, and more from the experts at Backpacker.
Traveling 68 miles through Sweden’s Arctic backcountry, the original Fjällräven Classic is an anomaly: A wild trek dozens of miles from a trailhead that’s also feasible to tackle as your first-ever backpacking trip. Backpacker Executive Editor Adam Roy hits the trail to check it out.
After 25 years of hiking in his hometown of Boulder, guidebook author James Dziezynski reveals his all-time favorite treks in the area. Plus, he’s included downloadable GPX files, parking intel, trail beta, gear and weather tips, and more.
If you’re after an experience that feels like a real adventure, you’d be hard-pressed to do better than South Dakota
The next total eclipse will be in 2044. The best place to watch this year's? On these 13 trails within the path of totality.
Longs Peak can be a sufferfest if you're not prepared for what this imposing 14er can throw at you. Here are 14 tips to increase your odds of reaching the summit.
We’ve all heard of the redwoods and giant sequoias, but old growth is all around us—if you know where to look.
Elevate your family adventures from dayhikes to backpacking trips with these five trails.
Getting to Madeira, a Portuguese island off the northwestern coast of Africa, isn't easy. But make the effort and you'll find miles of rugged trails—and equally rugged views—waiting for you.
From a 41-mile day to thigh-busting climbs to exposed, high-mountain ridges, hiking doesn't get harder than this.
The ocean is calling your name. Answer it on these wild, remote beach trails in the Pacific Northwest.
Dreaming of doing a thru-hike? You can get a taste of the experience on these three-day treks that travel an entire trail, terminus to terminus.
Complete an entire thru-hike before fair-weather hikers lace up for their first trip of the year.
If you want to hike to one of these iconic destinations, you'll have to plan ahead.
Resolving to be more peaceful in 2024? With these trails, you'll want to keep your resolution going all year long.
Solo hiking is the best way to explore wherever you want, whenever you want. These six trails around the U.S. and the rest of the world are well-traveled enough to feel safe, but wild enough to change your life.
America’s national parks boast thousands of stunning trail miles, but some are just a hair more amazing. Find the top 101 miles in the entire system on these 16 hikes.
Dayhikes, backpacking trips, popular routes, remote backcountry trails, and more. No matter what you're looking for, Patagonia has it all.
Every day is a good day for hiking. But where to do it? Chase the best weather, dodge crowds, see superblooms, and more with our month-by-month hiking guide to 2024.
Not interested in thru-hiking? You can still have goal trails. These dayhikes have everything worthy of a spot on your bucket list.
We all have those trails with calls we just can't ignore. Here are ours.
Looking for a heroic adventure? Hike across an island, seek a rare beast, or complete three more quests on these life-list treks.
The Alaska ferry system is creaky and unpredictable. But it may be the best way to reach the wildest trailheads and abandoned shorelines in America.
Want to hike in Middle Earth? Turns out you just need to go to this park in Ohio. Plus: What we think could be the new Triple Crown trails.
Our editors do a lot more than write about hiking. We also walk the walk, literally.
At 2,795 miles, the King Charles III England Coast Path is on track to become the world’s longest coastal trail. Wild in some places and suburban in others, walking along it offers an incredible education in Englishness.
Check out these insider tips on how to take the road less traveled and visit Australia’s adventure epicenter
Think hut-to-hut hikes only exist in the mountains of Europe? These four trails in the states will prove you wrong.
If you're not doing fourth-season hiking, you're missing out on low-to-no crowds and completely transformed vistas from the season before.
A longtime backpacker discovers a whole new way to explore the Canadian Rockies.
You’ve heard of long-distance hiking’s Big Three, but North America has more amazing thru-hikes to discover. Find a new challenge—and a new perspective on the backcountry—on these incredible lesser-known trails.
Craving an escape, but don't want the commitment required to complete a months-long thru-hike? Try these fourteen-day-long adventures.
Australia’s Northern Territory is a must-visit destination for outdoor adventure—enter this trip giveaway to experience it for yourself
Ready to hike to the highest point in Hawaii? Ascend Mauna Kea's volcanic slopes to a summit high above the clouds. This challenging day hike is among the most spectacular on the planet.
Because willing to hike with you for 14 sweaty, stinky hours (and still have a good time) is the biggest green flag of them all.
A searching mother, a headless gunslinger, a mysterious light to show you the way: these national parks are home to hair-raising tales
With the summer temperatures cooling down and the leaves turning, it's high time for an adventure. Make the most of your autumn with recipes, trips, and skills stories for the third season.
California's Channel Islands are a wonderland of biodiversity just an hour or two from Los Angeles.
The annular eclipse is in the morning, so how else should you spend the rest of the day? By hiking, obviously.
Hike a long trail without spending a night in a tent or lean-to? It may sound silly. But a veteran thru-hiker says it’s more than doable—if you know where to look.
These week-long backpacking trips are the perfect length to squeeze into a vacation.
Find adventure out your own back door. Here are 10 urban hiking trails—each under 2 miles—worth exploring.
On a winter thru-hike of the Ozark Highlands Trail, Jeff Garmire contended with snowstorms, swam a river, and bushwhacked paths overgrown with bramble—and discovered the rugged heart of one of America’s lesser-known long trails.
Three locals are adamant that Germany’s mountains, coastlines, and forests are an outdoor adventurer’s paradise. Spoiler: They’re right.
Last year, Yosemite hosted 3.7 million visitors, with 75 percent between May and October. Don't fight crowds when you can have the same views minutes away.
Our national forests are brilliant, underappreciated, and uncrowded compared to most national parks. Here’s the intel on where to hike in these stunning landscapes.
If you think the Midwest is flat and boring, you'll think again after taking these trails for a spin.
With an abundant coastline, green initiatives guiding change on both peninsulas, and trail-filled forests that cover more than half the state, Michigan is made for eco-minded travelers
Only a lucky few can win the permit lottery, but anyone can hike these alternate trails that give you a similar experience.
Let your senses guide you to your next Maine adventure. Here's where to plan your escape.
Want to cross the finish line of a thru-hike but only have a handful of days to do it? From 40 miles to more than 200, these trails pack a huge punch in a small package.
Deepen your connection to nature by cowboy camping: spending the night outdoors without a tent. Here's where to give it a try.
Looking for a new national park to visit this summer? You're not alone. But, on the trails in these parks, you just might be.
If hot weather, hydrothermal pools, and alpine hideaways are your vibe, you’ll love hiking near Redding, California.
From Chamonix to New Zealand, this expert hiker reveals the most beautiful hut-to-hut hikes on the planet
Plymouth Gin is all about keeping our oceans clean and the martinis dirty
During the day, the trails are the main event in these six destinations. But at night? It's the star-filled skies.
An end-to-end trek of the AT takes a lot of time—but anyone with a free weekend or a few vacation days can experience the highlights. We asked longtime thru-hiker Liz “Snorkel” Thomas to pick her favorites hikes on the Appalachian Trail.
By many sources' reckoning, Mt. Fuji is the most-climbed mountain in the world. See why by hiking it for yourself.
Just say no to your routine this season. Break out with these trips and tips for your best backpacking summer yet.
What are the best hikes on the PCT that you can do in a weekend? We asked triple crowner and Backpacker thru-hiking columnist Liz “Snorkel Thomas.
Since its peak in the early 20th century, the Salton Sea has suffered from increasing salinity, fish die-offs, and general neglect. But on a pair of kayak camping trips, one paddler found surprising beauty there
Hike, splash, paddle and stargaze your way to warm-weather bliss on these trips.
With both "eastern-style" and "western-style" mountains, Oklahoma is a little-known hiker paradise.
Find bigger adventures (and smaller crowds) in America’s most under-the-radar national forest
This short shuttle hike explores the southernmost section of the Benton MacKaye Trail, which links the Georgia backcountry to the northern reaches of the Great Smoky Mountains.
With high snow levels making travel on the PCT unusually difficult, many Americans have canceled or postponed their thru-hikes. Not so for the trail's global hikers, who have mostly stuck it out.
The Green Mountain State delivers when it comes to year-round outdoor recreation and adventures with a uniquely Vermont spin
Looking for a hike that gives you a fuzzy, floating sense of calm? These trails are pure serenity.
Enough of Type 2 Fun. These six hikes give you that just-left-the-spa peaceful feeling.
Don't be fooled: The Heartland has plenty of steeps to get your heart pumping.
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
Montezuma Valley Market was a beloved stop for PCT hikers until a blaze—and a dreadful diagnosis—threw it into limbo.
Bask in the spray of these cascades at the end of a long day's hike.
From dense, moss-draped rainforest to misty, cliff-guarded beaches, the Oregon Coast Trail is 425 miles of pure Pacific beauty with a complicated story behind it.
Ah, spring. For some, it's the season of thawing relief and re-emergence after a long winter. For others, it's the season you slog through—through mud, specifically. We see the beauty in both sides. Not convinced? Check out these trails.
You only have a few weeks left until summer arrives. Better make them count.
You can hike one trail for the rest of your life. Which would you choose?
With heavy snow making mountain travel more difficult and hazardous than usual, a growing number of hikers are taking a less traditional approach to the PCT.
Up for a walk? A really, really long walk? We've gone big on the world's biggest trails, collecting the most important skills, gear reviews, trail guides, advice, and more for thru-hikers.
Club Med’s first four-season resort in Canada just might be the summer vacation your family needs