Trips by National Park

Want a national park to visit while the weather is yucky everywhere else? This is your place. Download this playlist for maximum vibes.

Washington's Hoh Rainforest is one of the few remaining landscapes in the world that's free of human noise—if you don't count the Navy jets tearing above it, that is. Hiker and veteran Chris Marvin goes on a pilgrimage in search of silence.

“Conditions are amazing right now,” says Cory Goehring, lead naturalist for the Yosemite Conservancy, the park’s nonprofit partner. “Yosemite has transformed into a winter wonderland.”

You don't have to fly to Iceland, Greenland or Norway to experience the bright-green glow of the northern lights. You can chase the show in our national parks: in Alaska, yes, but also the contiguous U.S. Better yet, your chances of seeing the aurora borealis are increasing as we march toward what is known as solar maximum, which will peak in 2025.

Want a national park to visit this winter? Great Smoky Mountains is your place. Download this playlist for maximum vibes.

Yosemite is beautiful in the fall and winter. Download this playlist and get after it.

A basin of beauty resides in the middle of Kings Canyon National Park.

Load up this Spotify playlist and get going.

Full of rock scrambles, cactus clusters, and desert views for days, Joshua Tree National Park is the southwest at its finest.

Kayak to pocket beaches and Gulf islands in south Florida.

Forget Zion and Canyonlands; this desert gem has something for every hiker among the hoodoos and bristlecone pines

Want to hike without crowds? See jaw-dropping vistas without torching your quads? Check out these dayhikes and backpacks.

The world’s first national park will reopen this week after the devastating floods. Here's what you can expect.

There's plenty of options when summiting the highest point on the country's eastern seaboard, from multi-peak loops to quick out-and-backs.

Michigan’s idyllic national park promises rocky shorelines, aromatic pine forests, beautiful lighthouses, and more moose than humans.

While the summer crowds hibernate, you can cure your cabin fever. Here are the 9 best national park hikes to do during the fourth season.

Whether you have a day or a week, these hikes will bring you to some of the best of this iconic national park.

Ready to cross one of the most scenic canyons on Earth? We've got you covered.

Get ready to trek around Washington's most iconic mountain, through some of the best scenery in the lower 48.

Explore a geothermal wonderland with the help of Backpacker's experts.

The Narrows at Zion National Park offers an incredible adventure in America's most amazing slot canyons. Here's how to safely explore them.

The trails of Shenandoah National Park have it all, from mountain ridgelines to forested waterfalls to a whole range of thriving wildlife.

Make the most of the fourth season with these perfect national park hikes.

From 100-feet-deep slot canyons to towering mesas, Zion National Park has it all.

An 18-mile paved trail will run from St. George to Zion National Park and offer parking lots, bathrooms, benches, and more. But you'll be waiting for a while.

Cliff falls are the second most common ways people die in one of America’s most dangerous national parks.

It's one of the classic day hikes of the United States—and with views like this, it's easy to see why.

See plentiful wildlife and few people on this 41-mile hike.

At one of the most beautiful parks in the northwest, this hiker went outside on their own terms.

Scramble up classic redrock and take in the canyon country views on this 4-mile out-and-back.

Climb this iconic summit on an uncrowded sneak route.

Alligators, birds, and even dolphins will be your company on this paddle.

Follow this loop mixing on- and off-trail travel through vibrant wildflower displays and past snow-fed streams to a huge alpine lake with unbeatable campsite views of Mount Meeker.

Link two of Grand Teton's deepest and most spectacular valleys via a high pass.

With America reopening, it’s high time to hit the road. See some of the country’s greatest parks, grasslands, and trails on these handpicked routes.

Summit peaks, swim lakes, and cross the Continental Divide on the best hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Our writer reconciles her family and her future on the path to Harding Icefield.

Feeling adventurous? Take on the seven-and-a-half mile hike to Panamint City, an abandoned village deep within Death Valley’s Surprise Canyon.

There are campsites—and then there are campsites. Settle in for one fantastic night at one of these prime spots, from mountain views to a beach getaway in the middle of Yosemite.

The national parks are our national treasure, and these 10 campsites are the best they have to offer. Hike in, pick up your jaw, and post up in paradise.

A weeklong paddle through Florida’s Everglades National Park is chock-full of wildlife encounters.

Travel to the unpeopled fringes of America’s first national park.

What's deeper than the Grand Canyon and has one-tenth as many visitors? Head to Texas to find out.

Find otherworldly snow formations just a few hours outside Seattle.

It was Ansel Adams's favorite park for a reason: Catch the best scenery and the best miles on these six trails.

Private lake views and a show are a good enough reason to visit the Hamilton Lakes Basin.

From dayhikes to weekends to weeklong hikes, our Grand Canyon experts will have you ready to hit this natural wonder in no time.

Deepest Denali is big, bold, and sublime—for those willing to pay the price of admission.

Explore the desert with our favorite hikes, short and long.

See dense forest and prehistoric ferns on this 45.2-mile jaunt.

You don’t need us to sell you on this park’s glacier-gouged peaks, kaleidoscopic wildflower displays, and A-list megafauna. But secret trails and tips? We got those.

Get up close and personal with North America’s tallest waterfall and Yosemite Valley’s greatest hits on this 20.6-mile loop.

Walk among giants on this quiet hike past the Grove of Titans and other 300-foot-tall redwood trees.

Get the best of three of America's best wild areas on these tours de force.

Bigger-than-life wilderness plus smile-a-second skiing equals the best winter trip on Earth.

In winter, one of Sequoia National Park's most popular spots gets a much-needed dose of solitude

Get a new perspective on an iconic view when you look through Canyonlands National Park's famous Mesa Arch in winter.

While most national parks cut services, it will be (mostly) business as usual at the Big Ditch.

You don’t have to go far away to get far away in the perfect national park for winter.

On a packrafting trip in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, our scout finds what lies behind the mythology of the landscape—and her own past.

Artist Dan Bell's dreamy maps show British and American national parks as landscapes from J.R.R. Tolkien's books. We asked him to draw a few of our favorites.

Witness America's largest national park from the water on this

A packraft, a backpack, and some of the most beautiful scenery in Alaska are the ingredients for a bucket-list-level trip.

Make a modern-day pilgrimage to one of these sacred sites.

It's hard to find an ugly spot in the national parks. But these eight hikes take it to the next level, with gorgeous scenery and wildlife. Go for a walk.

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

This shoulder-season cruiser delivers you to some of the best views in West Texas.

Venture off the path to find solitude in one of America’s busiest parks.

This climber’s peak should be on every hiker’s life list.

Rocky peaks, meadows, and squeaky little pikas: this hike showcases the northwest in all its glory.

Head to this preserve's Greenstone Ridge Trail for a deep-wilderness experience in the Midwest.

Traveling in bruin country can bring out any parent's inner grizzly.

Last month, Lisa Jhung hit the road with her husband and two sons. Their mission: go on the most epic national parks road trip that they could in two weeks.

For more than 100 years, our national parks have provided life-list experiences, adventures, and stop-in-your-tracks views. But not all parks—or hikes—are equal. So what’s a trekker to do? Start with these 25 trips, the new classics of the system. Consider them the merit badges of a very well-traveled backpacker.

Hundreds of millions of people visit the national parks every year. Lucky for backpackers, you just have to know where  they go to avoid them.

When was the last time you said, “let’s go” and actually went? It’s time to hit the trail.

Reap the rewards without rubbing elbows.

America's biggest park is almost six times the size of Yellowstone and has next to no trails. Make the most of your trip there with these tips from a guide.

The only thing better than Yellowstone in summer? Yellowstone in winter. Picture herds of bison and elk, low-hanging steam shrouding evergreen forests, gem-hued pools blazing amid the snow-dusted landscape—and savoring it all in solitude.