America’s Top 10 Best Backpacking Trips

By Michael Lanza

What makes a great backpacking trip? I’ve thought about that more than a mentally stable person probably should, having done many of America’s (and the world’s) most beautiful and beloved multi-day hikes over the years. Certainly top-shelf scenery is mandatory. An element of adventurousness enhances a hike, in my eyes. As I assembled this top 10 list, longer trips seemed to dominate it—there’s something special about a big walk in the wilderness—but two- and three-day hikes also made my list. Another factor that truly matters is a wilderness experience: All 10 are in national parks or wilderness areas.

Some things, though, don’t require explanation; the validation comes in just doing it. So I give you here my admittedly personal and subjective list of the 10 best backpacking trips I’ve taken over more than a quarter-century (and counting) of hauling a pack on trails all over the country, as a longtime field editor for Backpacker magazine and creator of this blog. Continue reading →

Photo Gallery: 10 Awe-Inspiring Wild Places

By Michael Lanza

Over many years of taking wilderness trips of all kinds, I have grown pickier about my backpacking and other backcountry adventures. The best-known trails, peaks, and wilderness waters are usually beautiful; but sometimes, for various reasons, they just don’t do it for me. More and more, I seek out the places and multi-day adventures that inspire a powerful sense of awe. It often requires getting farther from civilization, onto paths less traveled, and occasionally entails greater physical, navigational, or technical challenges. But those adventures feel wilder. And that’s what I’m after.

For this story, I’ve picked out 10 places I’ve been that still remain wild. Continue reading →

Middle of Nowhere: Hiking Idaho’s Middle Fork Salmon Trail

By Michael Lanza

I pause on a trail 300 feet above one of the West’s wildest rivers, deep in the second-largest wilderness area in the contiguous United States. Below me, Idaho’s Middle Fork Salmon River bends like an elbow between steep mountainsides of ponderosa pines in a canyon nearly 4,000 feet deep. I notice people and rafts on a beach campsite—the first people I’ve seen since I started hiking from Boundary Creek seven miles upstream almost three hours ago, planning to reach Indian Creek, another 20 miles downstream, by this evening.

Suddenly, a nasal shriek startles me. I spin around to see an elk crossing the trail I’d walked minutes ago. And I think: Welcome to the Idaho wilderness. Continue reading →

Photo Gallery: Mountain Lakes of Idaho’s Sawtooths

By Michael Lanza

I may be risking an impassioned debate here, but I think there are very few mountain ranges in America with as many drop-dead, gorgeous high mountain lakes as Idaho’s Sawtooths. In fact, the only ranges that arguably beat out the Sawtooths in that department may be the High Sierra and Wind River Range (and not coincidentally, the three share other similarities, including geology). Over nearly 20 years of wandering around Idaho’s best-known hills, I’ve seen many of those watery jewels. This gallery of photos from many of them may persuade you to agree with me. Continue reading →

Ask Me: The Best Long Backpacking Trip in Idaho’s Sawtooths

Hi Michael,

We are a group of eight fit and active backpackers (our mountains are the High Sierra) who are interested in heading to Idaho to check out the Sawtooths next summer. I know these are some of your favorite mountains! We’re coming from California to spend a total of 10 days (including travel and a night on front and back side in Stanley). We’d like to spend about six or so days on the trail. We’re usually happy with the eight to 11 miles per day range (depending on difficulty). Of most interest to me is the Grand Sawtooths Loop from the guidebook Backpacking Idaho, by Douglas Lorain. Have you done this particular loop and would you recommend it?

I did take a look at your blog post on the best hikes in the Sawtooths. And I did notice in your post of your Top 10 backpacking trips that there is a different hike you would recommend to someone wanting a multi-day trip in the Sawtooths, so I’m hoping for more info on that trip and if it would be superior to this loop. That one I believe you said was about 50 miles. Continue reading →