By Michael Lanza
What makes for an incredible backpacking journey? Definitely top-shelf surroundings is obligatory. A component of adventurousness enhances a hike, in my eyes. Whereas there’s positively one thing inspirational a couple of massive stroll within the wild, a few of the best journeys within the nation may be achieved in a number of days and half of the hikes on this checklist are underneath 50 miles. One other issue that actually issues is a wilderness expertise: All 10 are in nationwide parks or wilderness areas.
I’ve most likely thought of this greater than a mentally secure particular person ought to, having achieved a lot of America’s (and the world’s) most lovely multi-day hikes over greater than three a long time (and counting) of carrying a backpack, together with my 10 years as a area editor for Backpacker journal and even longer running this blog. Within the remaining evaluation, although, the criterion that issues most is extra easy and intuitive: that it’s undeniably an incredible journey. And that character reveals itself again and again in my picks for the ten greatest backpacking journeys within the nation.
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Every hike right here deserves a ten for surroundings. The longest journeys on this checklist may be chopped up into smaller parts. Every description beneath features a issue score on a scale of 1 to five, with 5 being the toughest when it comes to strenuousness and problem. I’ve listed them in a random order that’s not meant as a high quality rating; I believe that’s unattainable. I frequently replace this checklist as I take new journeys that belong on it.
Accompanying every hike in my high 10 are Shut Runners-Up, journeys which can be precisely that. My recommendation: Do each one among these high 10 and runner-up hikes that you may, when you’ll be able to—lots of the high 10 are more durable to get a allow for than the runners-up, so the latter group present good backup plans. You gained’t be dissatisfied with any of them.
The descriptions and photographs beneath hyperlink to tales at The Massive Exterior which have extra pictures and details about these journeys (most of which require a paid subscription to learn in full)—together with detailed recommendations on planning each your self and when to use for a backcountry allow, which is mostly months upfront of a spring or fall journey.
See my affordable, expert e-guides to a number of of the journeys described beneath and my Custom Trip Planning page to learn the way I may help you intend any of those basic adventures, variations of them, or any journey you examine at The Massive Exterior. You may also like my tales “How to Plan a Backpacking Trip—12 Expert Tips” and “How to Know How Hard a Hike Will Be.”
When you’ve got a visit to counsel, please inform me about it within the feedback part on the backside of this story. I hope to get to all of them. It’s a troublesome task, however I’m on it.
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A Grand Tour of Yosemite
Distance: 152 miles, with shorter variations
Issue: 4
John Muir noticed various world-class wildernesses, and he targeted a lot of his time and vitality on exploring and defending Yosemite. Lots of people would legitimately argue it’s one of the best nationwide park for backpackers. After a number of journeys there, I had thought I’d seen Yosemite’s best corners, together with many trails within the park’s core, its part of the John Muir Trail, and the summits of Half Dome and Clouds Rest.
Then, in two journeys totaling seven days unfold over two years, I backpacked 152 miles via the most important patches of wilderness within the park, south and north of Tuolumne Meadows—and found Yosemite’s true soul, an enormous attain of deep, granite-walled canyons, peaks rising to over 12,000 toes, and one attractive mountain lake after one other dappling the panorama. And in September 2021, I returned once more to backpack a 45-mile hike that I subsequently dubbed “Yosemite’s Best-Kept Secret Backpacking Trip.”
See my tales “Best of Yosemite: Backpacking South of Tuolumne Meadows,” in regards to the 65-mile first leg of that 152-mile grand tour of Yosemite, “Best of Yosemite: Backpacking Remote Northern Yosemite,” in regards to the practically 87-mile second leg, “Backpacking Yosemite: What You Need to Know,” and all stories about backpacking in Yosemite at The Massive Exterior.
Get my skilled e-guides to backpacking the 65-mile hike south of Tuolumne Meadows and the 87-mile hike through northern Yosemite (which incorporates shorter choices).
Need extra of a less-committing, introductory backpacking journey in Yosemite? See my story “Where to Backpack First Time in Yosemite.” The journey I counsel in that story is described in a lot larger element in my e-guide “The Best First Backpacking Trip in Yosemite.” That e-guide provides planning ideas and advised each day itineraries for a main route and alternate itineraries for backpacking journeys within the spectacular core of Yosemite, between Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows.
Shut Runners-Up:
See “The 8 Best Backpacking Trips in Yosemite” and “Heavy Lifting: Backpacking Sequoia National Park,” a couple of 40-mile household backpacking journey that featured campsites that made each my top 25 all-time favorites and my checklist of the nicest backcountry campsites I’ve hiked past, plus all stories about backpacking in the High Sierra at The Massive Exterior.
Two Hikes in Glacier Nationwide Park
Distance of every: 90-94 miles, with shorter variations
Issue of every: 3
With rivers of ice pouring off of craggy mountains and cliffs, deeply inexperienced forests, over 760 lakes providing mirror reflections of all of it, megafauna like bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk, moose, and grizzly and black bears, and over one million acres in Montana’s Northern Rockies, most of it wilderness, little marvel that Glacier is so fashionable with backpackers.
Two massive hikes of over 90 miles—each of which have a number of attainable shorter variations—deservedly grace this high 10 checklist. On each, my companions and I noticed all of these sights and huge beasts described above—sure, together with grizzlies—and loved a stunning diploma of solitude even whereas hitting lots of the park’s highlights.
One, a 90-miler via northern Glacier, cut up into 65- and 25-mile legs, was a variation of a hike generally known as the Northern Loop, following a route I custom-made to hit a few of Glacier’s greatest surroundings, together with your complete Highline Path, the Many Glacier space, Piegan Cross and Stoney Indian Cross, the Ptarmigan Wall and Tunnel, and a few of the park’s best lakes and most-remote wilderness.
On the second hike, three pals and I backpacked about 94 miles via Glacier, from Chief Mountain Trailhead on the Canadian border within the park’s northeast nook to Two Medication, combining elements of the first and alternate routes of the Continental Divide Path, and including the excessive, alpine path from Pitamakan Cross to Dawson Cross above Two Medication (lead photograph at high of story). But once more, we noticed bighorn sheep, mountain goats, black bears, moose, and a griz, and heard elk bugling virtually each morning and night (as a result of it was September)—to not point out vistas in contrast to anyplace else in America.
Get my skilled e-guides to backpacking Glacier’s Northern Loop and the CDT through Glacier.
See all stories about backpacking in Glacier at The Massive Exterior, together with my story in regards to the two-stage, 90-mile hike “Descending the Food Chain: Backpacking Glacier National Park’s Northern Loop,” my story “Wildness All Around You: Backpacking the CDT Through Glacier” in regards to the 94-mile hike, and “Déjà vu All Over Again: Backpacking in Glacier National Park,” about my most up-to-date, weeklong hike in Glacier on a variation of the CDT route.
Shut Runners-Up:
Consider the Canadian Rockies this fashion: They resemble Glacier however with extra and greater glaciers and overlaying a a lot vaster space. For a lot of its distance, the 34-mile Rockwall Trail in Kootenay Nationwide Park passes beneath an extended chain of sheer cliffs and mountains that conjure pictures of quite a few El Capitans lined up in a row, however with thick tongues of glacial ice pouring off them. And the 27-mile Skyline Trail in Jasper Nationwide Park stays above treeline for greater than half its distance, with practically fixed panoramas of huge partitions of rock and a sea of mountains in each course.
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Teton Crest Path
Distance: 33-40 miles, a number of variations
Issue: 4
Considered one of my first massive, Western backpacking journeys was on the Teton Crest Path in Wyoming’s Grand Teton Nationwide Park, and it so impressed me that I’ve returned greater than 20 instances since to backpack, dayhike, rock climb, backcountry ski, and paddle a canoe within the Tetons. I can’t think about that jagged skyline ever failing to present me chills.
Operating north-south via the guts of the nationwide park and adjoining nationwide forest lands, the Teton Crest Path stays above treeline for a lot of its distance, with expansive views of the peaks, but in addition drops into the gorgeous South Fork and North Fork of Cascade Canyon, Paintbrush Canyon, and the higher forks of Granite Canyon, and crosses Paintbrush Divide at 10,720 toes.
Varied trails entry it, permitting for a number of route choices, any of them making for one among America’s premier multi-day hikes.
See my tales “A Wonderful Obsession: Backpacking the Teton Crest Trail,” “5 Reasons You Must Backpack the Teton Crest Trail,” “How to Get a Permit to Backpack the Teton Crest Trail,” and “Walking Familiar Ground: Reliving Old Memories and Making New Ones on the Teton Crest Trail,” plus all stories about backpacking the Teton Crest Trail at The Massive Exterior.
I’ve helped numerous readers plan an ideal, personally custom-made itinerary on the Teton Crest Path. See my Custom Trip Planning page to learn the way I may help you intend your journey.
Craving to backpack within the Tetons? See my e-guides to the Teton Crest Trail
and the best short backpacking trip within the Tetons.
Shut Runners-Up:
A two- or three-day hike linking any of the east-side canyons in Grand Teton Nationwide Park, such because the practically 20-mile Paintbrush Canyon-Cascade Canyon loop (the most well-liked within the park). See “The 5 Best Backpacking Trips in Grand Teton National Park.” Or just about any backpacking trip in the Wind River Range (see beneath).
The Wonderland Path
Distance: 93 miles, with shorter variations
Issue: 4
No multi-day hike within the contiguous United States compares with the Wonderland Path round Mount Rainier—as a result of there’s no mountain within the Decrease 48 like glacier-clad, 14,410-foot Mount Rainier.
Backpacking the Wonderland Path, one repeatedly sees Rainier fill the horizon at a seemingly unbelievable scale, a sight at all times thrilling and galvanizing. This path options a few of the most lovely wildflower meadows you’ll ever see, numerous waterfalls and cascades, crystalline creeks and raging rivers grey with “glacial flour,” and certain sightings of mountain goats, marmots, deer, and probably black bears.
Accessed from a number of trailheads, it may be thru-hiked in its entirety—generally achieved over 9 to 10 days—or you’ll be able to backpack shorter journeys of various lengths on sections of the Wonderland. The complete loop is a strenuous journey, with over 44,000 cumulative vertical toes of elevation acquire and loss, and selections you make like which course to hike the loop, the place to start it, and whether or not to take a well-liked detour onto the upper and more-scenic Spray Park Path, all have an effect on the journey’s total issue—which I spell out intimately in my skilled e-guide “The Complete Guide to Backpacking the Wonderland Trail in Mount Rainier National Park.”
This a lot I’ll assure: The Wonderland Path is the type of journey that stays with you lengthy afterward.
See my tales “5 Reasons You Must Backpack Mount Rainier’s Wonderland Trail,” “How to Get a Permit to Backpack Rainier’s Wonderland Trail” and “An American Gem: Backpacking Mount Rainier’s Wonderland Trail,” a couple of 77-mile hike on what I think about the WT’s greatest sections (a route described as one of many alternate itineraries in my e-guide).
Shut Runner-Up:
See my story “Full of Surprises: Backpacking Mount Hood’s Timberline Trail” a couple of journey very related in character to the Wonderland Path—however a lot shorter and requiring no allow reservation—the 41-mile Timberline Path round Oregon’s Mount Hood.
Need to hike the Wonderland Path? Get my skilled e-guide
“The Complete Guide to Backpacking the Wonderland Trail in Mount Rainier National Park.”
Zion’s Narrows
Distance: 16 miles
Issue: 2
The North Fork of the Virgin River carves out a uniquely deep, slender, and awe-inspiring redrock canyon in Utah’s Zion Nationwide Park, with partitions as much as 1,000 toes tall that shut in to simply 20 toes aside in locations. Springs gush from cracks within the partitions, nourishing lush hanging gardens. On clear nights, a black sky riddled with stars fills the slender strip seen between the rock partitions hovering overhead.
Within the low-water ranges when backpackers usually make the two-day descent of The Narrows, you’re strolling more often than not in water from ankle-deep (mostly) to, sometimes, waist-deep, over a cobblestone riverbed that makes for gradual progress.
Click here now for my e-guide to Backpacking Zion’s Narrows.
However you’ll really feel no need to hurry via one of the enchanting hikes within the Nationwide Park System (particularly because the decrease finish is usually crowded with dayhikers, whereas the journey’s first day and second morning are a lot quieter).
See my story “Luck of the Draw, Part 2: Backpacking Zion’s Narrows.”
Shut Runners-Up:
Paria Canyon
North-South Traverse of Zion Nationwide Park
The Needles District and Maze District of Canyonlands Nationwide Park
Coyote Gulch, Grand Staircase-Escalante Nationwide Monument
Aravaipa Canyon, Arizona
Time for a greater backpack? See “The 10 Best Backpacking Packs”
and the best ultralight backpacks.
John Muir Path
Distance: 221 miles
Issue: 4
The John Muir Path’s 211 miles from Yosemite Valley to the best summit within the Decrease 48, 14,505-foot Mount Whitney in Sequoia Nationwide Park, has typically been described as “America’s Most Lovely Path”—and hyperbolic because it sounds, it’s onerous to argue towards that lofty declare.
The 2- to three-week journey via California’s Excessive Sierra (totaling 221 miles, together with the 10-mile descent off Whitney, not truly a part of the JMT) stays principally above 9,000 toes because it traverses mile after jaw-dropping mile of a panorama of incisor peaks, too many waterfalls to call, and numerous, pristine wilderness lakes nestled in granite basins.
You climb over quite a few passes between 11,000 and over 13,000 toes, with views that stretch 100 miles. Though not a spot for solitude in the course of the peak season (mid-July to mid-September), the JMT often is the one hike on this checklist that each critical backpacker most likely aspires to perform.
The toughest half could also be what comes lengthy earlier than you lace up your boots: getting a JMT allow, which essentially requires determining your itinerary and what number of days you’ll spend on the path.
See all stories about backpacking the John Muir Trail at The Massive Exterior, together with “How to Get a John Muir Trail Wilderness Permit,” “Thru-Hiking the John Muir Trail: What You Need to Know,” an “Ultimate, 10-Day, Ultralight Plan” for a JMT thru-hike, and “Thru-Hiking the John Muir Trail in Seven Days: Amazing Experience, or Certifiably Insane?”
Shut Runners-Up:
See “10 Great John Muir Trail Section Hikes,” “High Sierra Ramble: 130 Miles On—and Off—the John Muir Trail,” “Heavy Lifting: Backpacking Sequoia National Park,” my story a couple of distant, partly off-trail, 32-mile traverse of the John Muir Wilderness, and all stories about High Sierra backpacking trips at The Massive Exterior.
Need to hike the Teton Crest Path, John Muir Path, or one other journey on this checklist?
Click here for skilled customized journey planning you gained’t get elsewhere.
South Kaibab to Lipan Level, Grand Canyon
Distance: 74 miles, with shorter variations
Issue: 5
Each backpacking trip I’ve taken in the Grand Canyon deserves a spot on this checklist—the place possesses all of the qualities of an incredible journey, in a panorama like nowhere else on the planet. However when a longtime backcountry ranger within the park informed me this 74-mile hike was “one of the best backpacking journey within the Grand Canyon,” after all I needed to test it out.
After backpacking it, I made a decision: He’s proper.
For starters, the South Kaibab is among the best trails in the entire National Park System. Past that, this route follows one of many of the prettiest and most adventurous “trails” within the canyon, the Escalante Route, which includes some tough route-finding and uncovered scrambling. This hike additionally consists of an excellent part of the Tonto Path, the gorgeous and surprisingly rigorous Beamer Path, and one other pretty, rim-to-river footpath, the Tanner Path.
Plus, you’ll take pleasure in a few of the greatest backcountry campsites you’ve ever spent an evening in, together with seashores on the Colorado River, and the type of solitude that’s uncommon in lots of nationwide parks.
See “The Best Backpacking Trip in the Grand Canyon.”
Get my skilled e-guides to “The Best Backpacking Trip in the Grand Canyon”
and a better different, “The Best First Backpacking Trip in the Grand Canyon.”
I’ve helped many readers plan an ideal, personally custom-made backpacking itinerary within the Grand Canyon—a spot the place journey planning is sophisticated by seasonal temperature extremes and street entry, scarce water sources, excessive competitors for backcountry permits, and vital variations in character and issue between trails and routes.
See my Custom Trip Planning page to learn the way I may help you intend your Massive Ditch backpacking journey.
Shut Runners-Up:
Nearly another journey within the Grand Canyon. See “8 Epic Grand Canyon Backpacking Trips You Must Do,” “How to Get a Permit to Backpack in the Grand Canyon,” and all stories about backpacking in the Grand Canyon at The Massive Exterior.
Hike the entire “10 Best Backpacking Trips in the Southwest.”
The Southern Olympic Coast
Distance: 17.5 miles
Issue: 3
The 17.5-mile hike from the Hoh River north to La Push Highway, on the southern coast of Washington’s Olympic Nationwide Park, remains to be one among my youngsters’ most memorable backpacking journeys—principally for the hours they spent enjoying in tide swimming pools on the seaside (they had been 9 and 7 on the time). However it’s additionally one which backpackers of all ages discover attractive and interesting.
It options big bushes in one among Earth’s largest virgin temperature rainforests; incessantly mist-shrouded views of scores of sea stacks rising as much as 200 toes out of the ocean; boulders wallpapered with sea stars, mussels, and sea anemones; rugged and really muddy mountain climbing on overland trails round impassable headlands; sightings of seals, sea otters, whales, and to my youngsters’ delight, a number of slugs; and cord ladders to climb and descend very steep terrain—together with cliffs.
Consequently, whereas simply as scenic, it’s much less crowded than the extra fashionable northern stretch of the Olympic coast. The 73-mile-long finger of the park on the Pacific Ocean protects the longest stretch of wilderness shoreline within the contiguous United States—and one among America’s most unusual backpacking adventures.
See my story “The Wildest Shore: Backpacking the Southern Olympic Coast.”
Shut Runner-Up:
Truthfully, nothing.
However for traditional wilderness journeys within the Pacific Northwest, I counsel the hike to Cascade Pass and up Sahale Arm to Sahale Glacier Camp, in North Cascades Nationwide Park, with a jaw-dropping campsite view; this 80-mile hike (and shorter variations of it) within the North Cascades; the Spider Gap-Buck Creek Pass Loop within the Glacier Peak Wilderness; and definitely, Mount Hood’s Timberline Trail.
See all stories about Olympic National Park and stories about the North Cascades at The Massive Exterior.
See “Tent Flap With a View: 25 Favorite Backcountry Campsites.”
The Wind River Vary
Distance: a number of routes and distances
Issue: 3 to five
The Winds can’t truthfully be described as “undiscovered,” by any stretch. Nonetheless, as fashionable as a number of corners are, a lot of this Wyoming vary provides a uncommon mixture of durations of solitude amid a few of the most dramatic peaks and exquisite mountain lakes within the nation—heaps of lakes, in truth. Rank U.S. mountain ranges in response to one of the best surroundings and greatest lakes, and I believe the highest two are the Winds and the Excessive Sierra—and you possibly can argue which is primary for as a few years as it might take to go to each lake within the Winds.
I’ve taken a number of journeys into the Winds over the previous three a long time, backpacking, climbing, and one actually lengthy dayhike—all of them excellent, however a number of stand out as highlights.
One is Titcomb Basin, the place I spent an evening on a 41-mile loop from Elkhart Park with two pals. Past the truth that Titcomb is among the most scenically awe-inspiring spots anyplace within the West—with granite peaks rising to over 13,000 toes from lakes at over 10,000 toes—we hiked previous a constellation of lovely lakes on this loop hike, and took a longtime however spicy off-trail route over 12,240-foot Knapsack Col.
One other is the Cirque of the Towers, the place I’ve rock climbed and hiked via on a number of epic adventures, together with a 27-mile, east-west dayhike throughout the Winds, a 96-mile, principally off-trail, south-north traverse of the Wind River High Route—and most just lately, a four-day loop from Massive Sandy that crosses 4 passes and options camps by some gorgeous lakes; and I could also be prepared to exit on a limb and name it one of the best multi-day hike within the Winds. Look ahead to my upcoming story about that journey.
And nonetheless one other got here on lengthy stretches of a lonely, 43-mile loop in an space of the Winds I used to be exploring for the primary time, the place we loved one of many best backcountry campsites I’ve ever had, crossed 4 excessive passes, and walked one gorgeous path after one other previous quite a few alpine lakes, together with two of the prettiest backcountry lakes I’ve hiked past with out tenting at.
The Winds can critically make you marvel: “Why don’t I simply come right here on a regular basis?”
See “5 Reasons You Must Backpack the Wind River Range,” “Backpacking Through a Lonely Corner of the Wind River Range,” “Best of the Wind River Range: Backpacking to Titcomb Basin,” “A Walk in the Winds: Hiking a One-Day, 27-Mile Traverse of Wyoming’s Wind River Range,” and “Adventure and Adversity on the Wind River High Route,” and all stories about the Wind River Range at The Massive Exterior.
Shut Runner-Up:
See my story about one other excessive, rugged, and lonely mountain vary “Tall and Lonely: Backpacking Utah’s High Uintas Wilderness.”
Able to hike one of many world’s nice treks?
Click on right here now for my e-guide “The Perfect, Flexible Plan for Hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc.”
Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains
Distance: 36 miles, with longer and shorter variations
Issue: 2
The Sawtooths are one of many West’s most under-appreciated mountain ranges, with nationwide park-caliber surroundings, however nowhere close to the numbers of hikers present in the most well-liked parks (though increasingly more backpackers are exploring the few fashionable areas of the Sawtooths).
Having backpacked and climbed via a lot of the vary since settling in Idaho greater than 20 years in the past, the multi-day hike I’d advocate there’s a five-day, roughly 36-mile route from Redfish Lake to Tin Cup Trailhead on Pettit Lake, together with an out-and-back aspect journey to one of many best lakes basins in your complete vary.
Requiring a brief shuttle that may be organized regionally—the Sawtooth trails aren’t conducive to creating lengthy loop hikes—this journey crosses 4 passes over 9,000 toes and options campsites on a few of the Sawtooths’ greatest mountain lakes, beneath infinite jagged ridgelines.
See my story “The Best of Idaho’s Sawtooths: Backpacking Redfish to Pettit.” My downloadable e-guide “The Best Backpacking Trip in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains” tells you all you have to know to plan and pull off this journey and consists of three alternate itineraries that permit you to shorten the hike to 4 days or prolong it to 6 or seven days.
Shut Runners-Up:
See my tales “Mountain Lakes of Idaho’s Sawtooths—A Photo Gallery,” “The Best Hikes and Backpacking Trips in Idaho’s Sawtooths” and “Going After Goals: Backpacking in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains,” a couple of 57-mile hike within the extra distant southern Sawtooths.
See additionally my story in regards to the Idaho Wilderness Trail, an almost 300-mile, long-distance path I helped conceive that passes via the Sawtooths, and all stories about Idaho’s Sawtooths and neighboring White Cloud Mountains at The Massive Exterior; plus my story about one other under-appreciated mountain vary dappled with attractive lakes, northeastern Oregon’s Wallowas, “Learning the Hard Way: Backpacking Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness.”
I’ve helped many readers plan an unforgettable backpacking journey within the Sawtooths.
Need my assist with yours? Discover out extra here.
Whether or not you’re a newbie or seasoned backpacker, you’ll study new tips for making your entire journeys go higher in my tales “How to Know How Hard a Hike Will Be,” “How to Plan a Backpacking Trip—12 Expert Tips,” and “A Practical Guide to Lightweight and Ultralight Backpacking.” With a paid subscription to The Big Outside, you’ll be able to learn all of these three tales without spending a dime; when you don’t have a subscription, you’ll be able to obtain the e-guide variations of “How to Plan a Backpacking Trip—12 Expert Tips,” the lightweight and ultralight backpacking guide, and “How to Know How Hard a Hike Will Be.”
