AMERICA'S

TOP 10

BACKPACKING TRIPS

A GRAND TOUR OF YOSEMITE

Want to discover the soul of Yosemite? Explore the park's biggest chunks of wilderness, a vast realm of deep, granite-walled canyons, peaks rising to over 12,000 feet, and one gorgeous mountain lake after another.

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With rivers of ice pouring off craggy mountains and cliffs, deeply green forests, over 760 lakes offering mirror reflections of it all, megafauna like bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk, moose, and grizzly and black bears, and over a million acres in Montana’s Northern Rockies, it's little wonder that Glacier is so popular with backpackers: There's no place like it.

TWO HIKES IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

TETON CREST TRAIL

The peerless Teton Crest Trail meanders for miles above treeline and through jaw-dropping canyons with expansive panoramas of these iconic peaks.

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THE

WONDERLAND

Simply put, no multi-day hike in the contiguous United States quite rivals the Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier.

TRAIL

ZION'S NARROWS

The Virgin River carves a 1,000-foot-deep, slender, and awe-inspiring canyon in Utah’s Zion National Park, where lush hanging gardens spring from redrock walls.

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JOHN MUIR TRAIL

From Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney, the 211-mile JMT has often been described as “America’s Most Beautiful Trail”—and people who walk its length usually agree.

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GRAND CANYON

When a longtime backcountry ranger described this 74-mile hike as “the best backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon,” of course I had to check it out. After hiking it, I concluded: He’s right.

South Kaibab to Lipan Point

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