family backpacking

Backpackers on the Pacific Crest Trail in the Glacier Peak Wilderness.

Great Trip: Backpacking The Glacier Peak Wilderness

By Michael Lanza Some places just find their way into your heart and stick there. I fell in love with the entire North Cascades region of Washington on my first trip to the Glacier Peak Wilderness more than 20 years ago. I’ve returned several times since to backpack and climb, but the five-day, 44-mile Spider Gap-Buck Creek Pass Loop really stands out for …

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Backpackers on Trail 95 above Twin Lakes in Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains.

The Best of Idaho’s Sawtooths: Backpacking Redfish to Pettit

By Michael Lanza Hiking up a forested section of Trail 101 in the Redfish Creek Valley of Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, as I’m following a short distance behind a trio of loudly jabbering, 15-year-old boys—my son, Nate, and his buddies Kade and Iggy, whom Nate has invited on their first backpacking trip—we weave through an area where boulders the size of …

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Michael Lanza of The Big Outside on the Tonto Trail in the Grand Canyon.

Here’s How I Can Help You Plan Your Next Trip

By Michael Lanza Do you have a backpacking trip or other outdoor adventure on your calendar for this year and questions about how to pull it off? Or do you want to take a big trip this summer or fall but have no plans yet? Whether it’s Sequoia, Glacier, Grand Canyon (the photo above shows me on the canyon’s Tonto …

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A young girl hiker at Imogene Lake, Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho.

Sawtooth Jewels: Backpacking to Alice, Hell Roaring, and Imogene Lakes

By Michael Lanza We sit on the bank of Pettit Lake Creek and remove our boots and socks to ford it. It’s the third week in June, and winter is just winding down in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains. The creek barrels downhill, barking and bursting with snowmelt. My friends Chip and Jan Roser are already partway across, moving carefully over the …

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A backpacker on the Rockwall Trail, Kootenay National Park, Canada.

Backpacking the Canadian Rockies: Kootenay’s Rockwall Trail

By Michael Lanza

A few hours into our hike’s first day, we round a bend in the trail to a sight that can stop you in your tracks: a pair of skyscraping stone monoliths rising thousands of feet above the treetops. Silhouetted by the sun arcing toward the west, the peaks resemble nothing less than a pair of El Capitans standing shoulder to shoulder. Farther along, one of the tallest waterfalls in the Rocky Mountains comes into view: Helmet Falls, plunging 1,154 feet (352m) over a cliff in two braids that recouple before the column of water crashes into the rocks at its base, spraying a fine cloud of mist into the air.

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