Sep 24 2024
Mount Rainier National Park contains hundreds of miles of hiking trails ranging from gentle forest walks to demanding alpine routes beneath glaciers and snowfields. Trails climb through wildflower meadows at Paradise, traverse rocky ridges above Sunrise, follow glacier-fed rivers through old-growth forest, and connect remote wilderness camps on the 93-mile Wonderland Trail. The enormous volcano …
Sep 24 2024
The Skyline Trail is one of the signature hikes in Mount Rainier National Park. Beginning at Paradise, the route climbs through famous wildflower meadows toward Panorama Point, where sweeping views extend across glaciers, valleys, and several of the great volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest. The trail is not particularly long, but it is steep enough …
Sep 21 2024
Mesa Verde National Park is famous for Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and its extraordinary Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings, but some of the best experiences in the park happen on foot. Nearly 30 miles of designated trails cross mesa tops, descend into shady canyons, follow historic roads, pass ancient farming features, and reach viewpoints overlooking both …
Sep 21 2024
Hiking in Kenai Fjords National Park is different from hiking in many national parks. Most of this rugged Alaska landscape is made up of glaciers, steep mountains, dense coastal vegetation, and remote fjords that are reached more easily by boat than on foot. In fact, the park’s only maintained hiking trails are concentrated around Exit …
Sep 19 2024
Hiking is one of the best ways to experience Joshua Tree National Park. Trails weave between enormous granite boulders, climb desert mountains, cross sandy washes, pass abandoned mines, and descend into secluded oases where native fan palms rise unexpectedly from rocky canyons. The park protects portions of both the Mojave and Colorado deserts, giving hikers …
Sep 19 2024
Hiking is the heart of the experience at Isle Royale National Park. There are no roads connecting the island’s destinations, no cars carrying visitors from overlook to overlook, and no easy way to shortcut a long day once you are deep in the backcountry. Exploring Isle Royale means traveling on foot or by water through …
Sep 14 2024
Great Smoky Mountains National Park contains one of the most extensive hiking networks in the National Park System, with more than 800 miles of trails crossing forested valleys, rushing streams, waterfalls, grassy balds, historic settlements, and some of the highest mountains in the eastern United States. Choosing where to hike can be difficult because the …
Sep 14 2024
Hiking is the best way to understand just how enormous Grand Canyon National Park really is. From the rim, the canyon can look almost like a vast painted landscape, but descending even a short distance reveals layer after layer of cliffs, ridges, side canyons, desert vegetation, and changing rock formations that cannot be appreciated from …
Sep 11 2024
Death Valley National Park may be famous for extreme heat, salt flats, sand dunes, and some of the lowest elevations in North America, but it is also one of the most varied hiking destinations in the desert Southwest. Trails and cross-country routes lead through narrow marble canyons, golden badlands, volcanic craters, shifting sand dunes, hidden …
Sep 08 2024
The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail is the thread that ties much of Cuyahoga Valley National Park together. For roughly 20 miles, the nearly level path follows the historic canal route through forests, wetlands, old canal towns, locks, river valleys, and some of the park’s most popular wildlife areas. Visitors can walk, run, bicycle, …
