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North American hiking

At a glance:

  • this site helps independent hikers organize
  • hiking in Mexico is still undeveloped
  • June to September are the best months
  • safe, organized, regulated Parks
  • mostly tent hiking


One lifetime is too short to hike all the great trails in North America. Our favourite regions are:

  • the Rocky Mountains
  • the Sierra Nevadas
  • the Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado)
  • the Pacific Northwest
  • Alaska & Yukon

Our favourite hike is the coastal West Coast Trail in British Colombia, challenging & unique.

With thousands of miles of prime hiking in North America, there are options for every age & experience level.

Some argue that hiking in North America is over-regulated. That you need to carry your faeces out of the Grand Canyon in a bag. (True, by the way.)

But in Glacier National Park, Montana, you can hike all day without seeing another group, fish for free, & spot 3 grizzly bears in a morning. That sounds like freedom to us.

The best overview of hiking options in the continental USA is:

Lonely Planet Hiking in the USA, first edition, 2000.

For Alaska get:

Lonely Planet Hiking in Alaska, by Jim Dufresne.

If you are hiking only in the Rockies in the USA:

Lonely Planet Hiking in the Rocky Mountains, by Lindenmayer, Fairbairn, & McCormack.

If you dream of Yosemite & the Sierra Nevadas:

Lonely Planet Hiking in the Sierra Nevada), by Mock & O’Neil.

For the Canadian Rockies there is no Lonely Planet guide. Fortunately this one is even better:

Altitude Superguide Classic Hikes in the Canadian Rockies. Look for the ring binder edition — carry just those pages you need in an included plastic sleeve.

beautiful seascape
on the West Coast Trail

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This page last modified Tuesday, November 22, 2005