By Michael Lanza
It is one of those unfortunate inevitabilities of life, like death and taxes: Occasionally on backpacking trips you will hike past one of the most sublime patches of wilderness real estate you have ever laid eyes on, a spot so idyllic you can already see your tent pitched there and you standing outside it, warm mug in your hands, watching a glorious sunset. But it’s early and your plan entails hiking farther before you stop for the day—not camping there. Or your permit isn’t for that site. Or even worse, you are looking for a campsite, but someone else has already occupied this little corner of Heaven.
Disappointment is an awfully large pill to swallow, especially if you know you may never get back to that place. Then again, you might make a note on your map and return there someday. Goals are a powerful motivator.
My recently updated story “Tent Flap With a View: 25 Favorite Backcountry Campsites” has photos and descriptions of the best spots in the wilderness where I’ve ever spent a night over the past three-plus decades, including many years running this blog and previously as a field editor for Backpacker magazine for 10 years. So it seems fitting to spotlight the best camps I never had but wish I did—all of them places potentially awaiting your tent.
Just make sure you get there before someone else grabs it.
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I update this list every year—an inevitable outcome of backpacking frequently—giving you more ideas for trips to take. This year, I added four new camps that I hiked past last summer—two each in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains and Wyoming’s Wind River Range.
The descriptions below include links to stories at The Big Outside about those trips, with more images and information about planning them. Those stories and many others at this blog—including this story, which is partially free for anyone to read—require a paid subscription to read in full, although you don’t need a subscription to purchase any of my E-books or my Custom Trip Planning.
Please share your questions or suggestions about these campsites or others in the comments section at the bottom of this story. I try to respond to all comments.
Alaska Basin, Teton Crest Trail
There’s hardly a bad place to pitch a tent (legally) in all of Grand Teton National Park—and certainly not even a mediocre spot along the Teton Crest Trail. In fact, my list of 25 favorite backcountry campsites includes two along the TCT. But simply because I’ve always been successful at getting my desired campsites on my backcountry permit, I have always hiked through the one area along the TCT that lies outside the national park and doesn’t require a permit for camping: Alaska Basin.
But I’ve hiked through it enough times to realize what I’m missing. The two campsites shown in these photos happen to be perfect perches we passed that lie just off the TCT in the basin. Both have broad, flat areas of clean granite with amazing 360-degree panoramas of the mountains and cliffs surrounding Alaska Basin. That’s why I’ve recommended Alaska Basin as a campsite depending on the type of hiking itinerary people are seeking when I provide custom trip planning for the TCT.
See my story about my most-recent trip on the TCT, “A Wonderful Obsession: Backpacking the Teton Crest Trail.”
Get my Teton Crest Trail e-book or my custom trip planning for the TCT.
Yuma Point, Grand Canyon
On the last, hard but stunningly pretty day of a 40-mile hike from the South Kaibab to the Hermit trailhead, our group of six family and friends ascended the often steep and difficult Boucher Trail—yet another tortured footpath that illustrates why the words “hard but stunningly pretty” describe so many trails in the Big Ditch. After a long uphill grind, we reached the long, level bench the Boucher Trail follows below Yuma Point, at just over 5,400 feet, and saw immediately why in-the-know GC backpackers consider it one of the very best campsites in the canyon.
Several spacious, obviously pre-used camps on dirt sit right behind a large, flat rock ledge at the brink of cliffs overlooking a huge swath of the canyon from more than 3,000 feet above the Colorado River. Yes, I sure did imagine laying my pad and bag out on that ledge, gazing up at a night sky crazy with stars and then watching the sunrise light up the canyon. Those camps lie a short walk off the Boucher Trail 5.2 miles from the Hermit Trailhead, at 6,640 feet—and that’s about the only relatively “easy” way to get there. One drawback: Yuma Point lies right below the Dragon Corridor, where the sky is filled with a daily invasion of constant sightseeing overflights between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
See “Backpacking the Grand Canyon: Tonto West to Boucher Trail” and all stories about backpacking in the Grand Canyon at The Big Outside.
Planning your next big adventure? See “America’s Top 10 Best Backpacking Trips”
and “Tent Flap With a View: 25 Favorite Backcountry Campsites.”
Hamilton Lakes, Sequoia National Park
Granted, there are a lot of great campsites in the High Sierra. But some really do stand out even from the many extraordinary sites—in fact, two of our camps on this Sequoia trip made my list of 25 favorite backcountry campsites.
After a morning hike along a stretch of the High Sierra Trail that traverses hundreds of feet above the cliff-flanked canyon of the Middle Fork Kaweah River, we reached the largest of the Hamilton Lakes, nestled in a bowl of granite at 8,235 feet, just in time for a long lunch break. Everyone took a swim in the invigorating water, but mostly we just soaked up the panorama of jagged peaks rising to over 12,000 feet that surround the lake.
See my story about that 40-mile, family backpacking trip, “Heavy Lifting: Backpacking Sequoia National Park,” with lots of photos and a video, and all stories about backpacking in the High Sierra at The Big Outside.
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and the best ultralight backpacks.
Death Hollow, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
I’d read on some websites that viable campsites were non-existent in Death Hollow, in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. And looking at the contour lines of this deep and generally narrow cleavage in the slickrock plateau, it did seem like a bad bet to assume one would find good camps in there. Turned out, that was wrong.
On the middle day of a three-day hike on the 22-mile Death Hollow Loop, two friends and I backpacked down the dramatic canyon of Death Hollow, frequently walking in the creek amid small cascades and weaving our way around deep, calm pools and other obstacles and hazards—and bushwhacking through thickets of poison ivy that stood taller than us. And we passed a handful of camps where we’d have been happy to spend a night on one of the best backpacking trips in the Southwest, where each of our three days presented different terrain and scenery, a sort of three-in-one wilderness adventure in landscapes that repeatedly made me to pause and just gape.
See my story “Backpacking Utah’s Mind-Blowing Death Hollow Loop” at The Big Outside.
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Liberty Lake, Ruby Crest Trail
On the last afternoon of my family’s backpacking trip on Nevada’s Ruby Crest Trail, a steady uphill climb deposited us at the edge of Liberty Lake, a cobalt eye tucked tightly within a shoreline of granite slabs, patches of evergreen forest, and a talus mountainside. We followed the trail around and above the lake, where we stood on a ledge overlooking the lake and the long chain of the Ruby Mountains stretching into the distance (lead photo at top of story). Although camping there didn’t fit neatly into our four-day itinerary, it was easy to see why other backpackers had set up camp nearby.
Liberty Lake was not the only highlight of an approximately 36-mile, south-to-north traverse of the Ruby Crest Trail. We enjoyed a campsite on another beautiful alpine lake, wildflowers in bloom, relatively few other backpackers, and long stretches of hiking above 10,000 feet, traversing an almost treeless alpine zone for miles.
See my story about my family’s trip, “Backpacking the Ruby Crest Trail—A Diamond in the Rough,” at The Big Outside.
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Elbow Lake, Wind River Range
In the week before Labor Day 2022, a prime time to be in the mountains, my wife, Penny, our friend, Chip, and I backpacked a five-day, roughly 43-mile loop from the New Fork/Doubletop Mountain Trailhead at New Fork Lakes, mostly exploring an area of the Winds I had not seen before. But we also walked a stretch of the Highline Trail (part of the Continental Divide Trail) which I had hiked previously (on this trip), reminding me not only how nice that trail is but that I’ve now hiked past Elbow Lake twice without laying out my sleeping bag there.
I rank that day among the prettiest I’ve ever hiked in the Winds—and that’s saying a lot. We started out from one of the best backcountry campsites I’ve ever had, overlooking the lower of the Twin Lakes, 12,119-foot Sky Pilot Peak, and 12,224-foot Mount Oeneis, following the Highline Trail past several alpine lakes and tarns to sprawling Elbow Lake—embraced by granite slabs and grassy earth where you can’t help but picture your tent pitched. From there, we continued to a pair of high passes and more spectacular lakes.
And as happened throughout that trip, we passed fewer than 10 people all day.
See “Backpacking Through a Lonely Corner of the Wind River Range” all stories about backpacking in the Wind River Range at The Big Outside. National forest and wilderness managers require camping at least 200 feet from any lake or trail in the Winds.
Do you love backcountry lakes?
Check out these photos of the most gorgeous wilderness lakes I’ve ever seen.
Below Nevills Arch, Owl Canyon, Bears Ears National Monument
Consider this a shining example of “if we’d just hiked a little while longer, and started early enough to beat the party that got there first, we’d have camped here.” On the second morning of our three-day loop through Owl and Fish canyons, in southeastern Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, we walked through the amphitheater where striking Nevills Arch presides over a sort of royal court of tall, red cliffs and pinnacles that resemble melted candles—and right past the lone campsite on flat, packed dirt that sits within the warm embrace of that amphitheater.
Having camped (at a pretty nice spot, anyway) just an easy 30-minute or shorter walk farther up Owl Canyon, it was a little painful seeing how close we’d come to enjoying this camp—although the small group who’d camped there were still packing up as we strolled past it. One of the best backpacking trips in the Southwest, the two- to three-day Owl-Fish loop offers an unusual combination of qualities: short distance, incredible scenery (and night skies), solitude, rugged hiking and scrambling, and a permit that’s easier to get than for better-known Southwest backpacking trips.
See my story “Backpacking Southern Utah’s Owl and Fish Canyons” and all stories about backpacking in Utah at The Big Outside.
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See “12 Expert Tips For Finding Solitude When Backpacking.”
Iceberg Lake, Ansel Adams Wilderness
Two companions and I walked one of the finest sections of the John Muir Trail on a nine-day, north-south trek of nearly 130 miles through the Ansel Adams and John Muir Wildernesses and Kings Canyon National Park, exploring high lakes basins and crossing passes at 11,000 to 12,000 feet. But one highlight came early in that trip, when we detoured off the JMT to hike below the row of jagged spires called the Minarets in the Ansel Adams.
On the steep uphill hike from Ediza Lake—itself a nice spot to pitch a tent—we reached Iceberg Lake, tucked into a compact bowl at 9,774 feet right at the foot of sheer rock walls that rise to sharp points. Not far from the lakeshore, we saw some perfect little patches of dirt for tents. The Minarets can be visited on a weekend or three- to four-day hike that will give you a great sampler of the central High Sierra.
See photos and read about this area in my story “High Sierra Ramble: 130 Miles On—and Off—the John Muir Trail,” and check out “10 Great John Muir Trail Section Hikes” and all stories about backpacking in the High Sierra at The Big Outside.
I can help you plan this or any other trip you read about at my blog. Find out more here.
Dead Horse Lake, Uinta Highline Trail, High Uintas Wilderness
In an unusual window of warm and mostly clear weather in early October, my 24-year-old son, Nate, and I backpacked nearly 60 miles through Utah’s High Uintas Wilderness, mostly on the Uinta Highline Trail—which blew us away. We had some great camps, but one we sadly walked past was beside Dead Horse Lake, at around 10,900 feet at the head of a lake-filled basin tucked inside a ragged horseshoe of castle-like peaks between Red Knob Pass, at 12,000 feet, and Dead Horse Pass, at 11,600 feet.
Getting there isn’t easy from any direction—which typically ensures more solitude—and neither is getting out. Hiking southbound from the lake on the Uinta Highline, we climbed below tall cliffs and sheer buttresses soaring several hundred feet above us, the trail tilting steeply upward, weaving through huge boulders, and frequently consisting of no more than a goat path of boot prints across sliding scree. At Dead Horse Pass, I told Nate, “I think I know what killed the horse.”
Still, the High Uintas, and especially the Uinta Highline Trail, deserve more attention from serious backpackers than they get: This place is a big, majestic wilderness with 13,000-foot peaks and over 1,000 mountain lakes. Go there.
See my story “Backpacking—and Sandbagging—Utah’s Uinta Highline Trail” and all stories about backpacking in Utah’s High Uintas at The Big Outside.
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The Narrows, Zion National Park
Rather than pick one of the campsites in Zion’s Narrows that a friend and I hiked past—we stayed in campsite one, which made my list of 25 favorite backcountry campsites—I have to give all of the 11 other designated campsites in The Narrows a collective spot on this list.
On the second day of an overnight, top-to-bottom backpacking trip of The Narrows, we checked out campsites two through 12, and I eventually gave up on the idea of picking a favorite. Each one sits within sight and earshot of the burbling river, below sheer, multi-colored walls rising hundreds of feet to a ribbon of sky overhead. Some may have a little more space or some other appeal; but given the location, any one of them guarantees you an incomparable night.
See my story “Luck of the Draw, Part 2: Backpacking Zion’s Narrows.”
Do this trip right using my e-book “The Complete Guide to Backpacking Zion’s Narrows.”
Indian Ridge, Yosemite National Park
On our first night in the backcountry during a four-day, 45-mile hike in Yosemite, a friend and I carried water up onto Indian Ridge, on Yosemite Valley’s North Rim, and found a great campsite a short walk from an unnamed dome overlooking a panorama that took in Half Dome and distant mountains to the south. We watched a sunset linger until the final light of day dripped from the sky.
But not long after hitting the trail the next morning, we saw where we wished we had camped. A little farther down Indian Ridge, the terrain opens up and flat spots abound just off the trail—where we saw no other backpackers. We had a much closer and more spectacular view looking directly at the huge Northwest Face of Half Dome just across the deep gulf of the Valley. Park regulations require camping at least a half-mile from the North Rim of Yosemite Valley—which is easy to achieve and have plenty of spots to choose from on Indian Ridge—and more significantly, you have to carry water up there.
But I don’t know of another spot in the backcountry where you can camp with that kind of view of Yosemite Valley.
See my feature story about that trip, “Yosemite’s Best-Kept Secret Backpacking Trip.”
Score a popular permit using my
“10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit.”
Little Spangle Lake, Sawtooth Mountains
The first time I visited Spangle Lake and Little Spangle Lake, deep enough in Idaho’s Sawtooths that they lie off the beaten paths, I spied the idyllic campsite on a spit of land jutting into Little Spangle and resolved to grab that spot the next time I got here. In August 2025, backpacking with my wife and two friends, I reached the lakes a bit ahead of them and beelined to Little Spangle—only to see that site already claimed by a couple. Dang.
But we did find a large, secluded camp tucked into the forest and elevated above the shore just a short walk from Spangle—which I judged was lovely enough to deserve a place on my list of 25 all-time favorite backcountry campsites (check it out)—so that turned out well. As did our trip, which was, for me, yet another glorious walk through these amazing mountains.
Watch for my upcoming story about that trip and see all stories about backpacking in the Sawtooths at The Big Outside.
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Jacob Hamblin Arch, Coyote Gulch
I had fully intended for our group of two families to spend our second night backpacking Coyote Gulch right beneath Jacob Hamblin Arch; I remembered, from a trip there years earlier, that it’s a magical spot to layover and watch the light shift.
But when our group reached Coyote Natural Bridge that afternoon, the kids were ready to call it a day; and it being about an hour (at a family pace) downstream from Jacob Hamblin, and not a bad place at all to pitch tents on the broad, sandy beach below the bridge (it was formerly on my top 25 best backcountry campsites list), I quickly gave up on the idea of reaching the arch. I also knew the arch is a popular spot, so all available sites could be snapped up by the time we got there. It turned out they weren’t, and a prime campsite, on the upstream side looking right up at the arch, was actually empty when we got there the next morning. Oh, well.
See my story about backpacking Coyote Gulch and dayhiking slot canyons and trails in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and neighboring Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks for more photos, videos, and detailed trip-planning information.
After Coyote Gulch, hike the rest of “The 12 Best Backpacking Trips in the Southwest.”
Mae’s Lake, Wind River Range
On the next-to-last morning of a six-day, more than 60-mile solo backpacking trip in September 2025, I walked up to the shore of a perfectly still Mae’s Lake and shot the above photo. I was just passing through and thought: I’ve now hiked past Mae’s at least three times—and it really does look like a wonderful spot to camp. Situated a full day’s (or two easy days’) hike north of Big Sandy, its location makes it a feasible camp for various moderate to longer trips in this southern end of the Winds.
That’s why I feel confident about my chances of spending a night here someday. Plus, I was in the midst of a traverse of much of the Continental Divide Trail through the Winds and had places to see. With numerous hikes through the Winds under my hipbelt, that hike from Ekhart Park to Big Sandy turned into yet another great adventure.
See my story about that trip, “Backpacking 60 Miles Solo Through the Wind River Range” all stories about backpacking in the Wind River Range at The Big Outside.
The Wind River Range ranks among “America’s Top 10 Best Backpacking Trips.”
By the Colorado River at Hance Rapids, Grand Canyon
While I have camped on the beach at Hance Rapids on the Colorado River (it’s on my top 25 best backcountry campsites list), more recently, I backpacked past that beach on a six-day trip that I concluded—after several trips in the Big Ditch—is “the best backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon.” As we left that beach, we walked past a spacious (and empty!) campsite fully enclosed by trees that cast substantial shade.
Anyone who’s hiked in the canyon understands the value of shade—especially in a campsite. We had many miles to go that day, so we didn’t stop. But the beach at Hance Rapids on the Colorado River has long been on my radar (since I took this three-day hike) as a spot to plan spending a night when hiking through this corner of the canyon. This shady site will be the first place I check for occupants the next time I plan to bed down on that beach.
See my story “The Best Backpacking Trip in the Grand Canyon,” which includes a potential night at Hance Rapids, and all stories about backpacking in the Grand Canyon at The Big Outside.
Get my expert e-books to “The Best Backpacking Trip in the Grand Canyon,” and a trip easier for first-timers, “The Best First Backpacking Trip in the Grand Canyon.”
Marie Lake, John Muir Trail
It was the fourth morning of our seven-day thru-hike of the John Muir Trail through California’s High Sierra, from Yosemite National Park to Mount Whitney. Three friends and I were climbing toward Selden Pass in the John Muir Wilderness and not even thinking about taking a break yet; we wouldn’t stop for the night until hours later.
Below us, Marie Lake lay still in a bowl of granite ledges with trees dotting the landscape, rocky islands in the lake, and an infinite selection of places around the lake to temporarily call home.
This was one of the most painful times I’ve hiked past a beautiful backcountry camp.
And in August 2022, I did it again when two companions and I backpacked past Marie Lake—although only after enjoying a nice swim and lunch there—on a nine-day trek of nearly 130 miles through the Ansel Adams and John Muir wildernesses and Kings Canyon National Park.
See my stories “Thru-Hiking the John Muir Trail in 7 Days: Amazing Experience, or Certifiably Insane?” “10 Great John Muir Trail Section Hikes,” and “High Sierra Ramble: 130 Miles On—and Off—the John Muir Trail,” and all stories about backpacking in the High Sierra at The Big Outside.
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Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned backpacker, you’ll learn new tricks for making all of your trips go better in my “How to Plan a Backpacking Trip—12 Expert Tips,” “A Practical Guide to Lightweight and Ultralight Backpacking,” and “How to Know How Hard a Hike Will Be.” With a paid subscription to The Big Outside, you can read all of those three stories for free; if you don’t have a subscription, you can download the e-book versions 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.”
Great read. Especially liked Indian Ridge. I surprisingly found a lot of solitude hiking the the North Rim (eastbound), with SO many great vistas (El Cap, Eagle Peak, Yosemite Pt) but most are too close to the rim to camp as you mention. The section between North Dome and Indian Rock is a fantastic choice as long as you still have enough water. I passed through midday before having to take the (brutal) switchbacks of Snow Creek Trail down to the valley floor. Next time.
Agreed, Eric, Indian Ridge is spectacular but you gotta carry water up there. And those endless switchbacks up the Snow Creek Trail, plus the distance of North Dome and Indian Ridge from any trailheads, explain why that’s such a relatively quite area so close to the Valley. Thanks for the comment.
Wow! totally saving this article. Hance rapids was magical- did you see the flowing sand on the dunes?
Unfortunately, I don’t want to share this with anyone 😉
but I will…….
Glad you like this story, Mary. Hance Rapids in the Grand Canyon is an awesome place. I’m sure we did see the sand blowing at times on the beach. Enjoy the new places you discover.
4.5
Wow! Those are some nice ones. It’s not really a backcountry site (only accessible by canoe), but here is my favorite campsite – Eagle Creek Campsite along the Missouri River in central Montana in October. https://bigskywalker.com/2017/03/26/white-cliffs-canoe-adventure-scenes-of-visionary-enchantment/
I’m very surprised you’ve never actually camped at Imogene Lake! On my first visit to Idaho 5 years ago my friend and I stayed the night at Imogene on the east side close to where you first meet the lake coming from Hell Roaring. Actually it wasn’t far at all from your picture location. When we got there we could hear/see campsites across the lake and figured they got all the primo locations. Fortunately our small camp on the east side allowed amazing views of sunset/sunrise of the light hitting Mt. Cramer and Payette. I can’t imagine the view from the west side was even close. Even better, the second night we were planning on camping at Toxaway Lake but once we spied a beautiful small lake from Sand Mountain Pass we made that our goal. It had no name, just elevation marker, but Google Maps now calls it Rendezvous Lake. The sunset hitting the walls around Sand Mountain and Payette were awesome. Idaho is truly special, I enjoyed the article.
Good tips, thanks. I think I know that unnamed lake near Sand Mountain Pass; I’m going to try to camp there. Yup, Idaho and the Sawtooths are pretty special.
I have camped at Hamilton Lake, and agreed, it is a gorgeous spot. The only down side is, that it tends to be pretty crowded, since it’s not that far from Crescent Meadow. Last time we were there, there were a couple of large groups, and the camp area was pretty overrun.