12 Little-Known National Park Hikes That Should Be On Your Bucket List

The perfect dozen: Embark on one of these 12 treks, and turn America's most iconic preserves into your own private paradise.

Author:: Michael Lanza
Updated:: Sep 22, 2019
Original:: Oct 18, 2018

With 330 million visitors last year, you might think that America's national parks don't have much solitude left. Not true: As these trips prove, even the most-visited preserves hide spectacularly uncrowded trails. From a weekend to weeks of hiking, tackle these 12 trips for a taste of the parks' wide-open side.

Yellowstone

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Cartographers only started mapping North Cascades in 1906, about the time that trappers and prospectors—defeated by the vertiginous terrain and famously wet weather—decided to pack it in. Even today, only experienced backpackers should attempt to cross the ragged heart of this 300-glacier park. If that’s you, you’ll love this off-the-radar, 60-mile circuit. Read more.

Yellowstone National Park: Lamar Valley

This trek proves a backpacking axiom: Keep hiking, and you’ll soon be the only person around. Apply that rule to this 70-mile lollipop route, through the Lamar River Valley and the Absaroka Mountains, and you’ll be all alone in terrain that hasn’t changed a lick since Lewis and Clark expedition member John Colter walked here in 1806. Read more.

Adventure Travel

Our map team has been hard at work plotting the coolest hikes. Check out May's selections here.

Where the words "wild" and "life" take on new meaning

The undisputed local experts—you—chose the top parks, trails, campsites, and weekend getaways from Alaska to Alabama.

Isle Royale

Trek to shoreline campsites through woodlands rife with moose, birds, and wolves.

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What crowds? Lose yourself in the Lamar Valley on this weeklong hike.

Grand Teton National Park

Rise above the crowds and earn solo views of elk, wildflowers, and summit sunsets.

Badlands Formations

Badlands National Park

Although short, this popular 0.2-mile trail to Pinnacles Overlook offers big views of Badlands National Park's iconic rock formations.

badlands

Ever dreamed of exploring another planet? Hike here.

yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park

America's first national park is a playground for grizzlies, wolves, moose, and hikers (not in that order).