Basecamp
Everything about hiking that isn't gear.
Where to go, what the words mean, how to plan a day out, and how to come back safely. Nothing here is trying to sell you anything.
Photo: Ocean Star — CC BY 3.0, cropped
Latest · Skills
Winter hiking for beginners in the Northeast
In winter the Adirondacks and Catskills go quiet, you can see out through the bare hardwoods, and the spruce on the high summits turn white with rime. Getting started takes skill more than toughness: traction matched to the ground, layers you don't sweat through, and a day planned backward from sunset.
19 min read
Read itDestinations
Photo: Ronnie Macdonald — CC BY 2.0
Day hiking the Grand Canyon, and how far down to turn around
From the railing the Grand Canyon is a photograph with no scale in it. Twenty minutes down the trail it has heat and grain and a floor. Eight turnarounds on the South Rim's day trails, ordered by how deep each one takes you, with Park Service mileage and the rule that shapes the whole day: coming up takes about twice as long as going down.
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Photo: Bernard Spragg. NZ — CC0, cropped
Top 5 day hikes in Zion National Park, from a paved mile to the chains
A paved mile beside the river, an hour to a ledge on the east side, a day spent wading upstream, and half a mile of chains on a sandstone fin. Five day hikes worth planning a Zion trip around, with Park Service mileage, the shuttle stop for each, and the permit and river rules that decide whether you walk them.
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Photo: Famartin — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Appalachian Trail, explained
2,197.9 miles of continuous marked footpath from Georgia to Maine, free to walk and open year-round. What the corridor actually crosses, the three honest ways to hike it, and the places along it that ask for a permit or a fee.
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Photo: Buidhe — CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
Top 5 day hikes in Washington State, from Mount Si to the Sunrise tundra
Washington puts a live volcano's tundra, a turquoise granite lake and a ridge of golden larches within a day's walk of a parking lot. No lotteries, no timed entry in 2026, and the only permit on the list is free and self-issued at the trailhead. What these five need is for the snow to melt.
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Photo: Snottywong — CC BY 3.0, cropped
Top 5 day hikes in Pennsylvania, from Pine Creek Gorge to Lehigh Gap
Pennsylvania hides its best scenery below the surface, in gorges and glens that the highways drive straight past. Twenty-one waterfalls in one loop, a canyon a thousand feet deep, a covered bridge at the bottom of a boulder field. Five day hikes across the state, and four of them sit in state parks that charge nothing to enter.
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Photo: John Manard — CC BY-SA 2.0
Top 5 day hikes in Utah, one from each of the Mighty 5
You can wade up a river between thousand-foot walls, stand on top of an arch, and turn sideways to fit through a crack in the rock. Five day hikes, one from each of Utah's national parks, all of them car-to-car, and not one of them needs a permit.
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Photo: Beyond My Ken — CC BY-SA 4.0
Top 10 one-day hikes within an hour of Manhattan
Five of these you can reach without a car, and the quickest is twenty-three minutes on the A train. Ten day hikes across New York and New Jersey, each with its own park's trail data, the railroad's published time where there is one, and an honest account of which famous names do not make the hour.
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Photo: Quintin Soloviev — CC BY 4.0, cropped
Top 5 day hikes in the Poconos
A 16-acre sea of boulders the ice age left behind, a spring-fed glacial lake at the end of an old forest road, and a ridge of old-growth oak above the Delaware. Five Pocono day hikes, one for each part of the year, with the agency's own mileage and what every trailhead costs.
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Photo: Juliancolton — CC BY-SA 4.0
Top 5 long day hikes in Harriman State Park
Harriman has 200 miles of marked trail and 31 lakes, and it asks for no permit and no reservation. Two Port Jervis Line stations sit close enough to walk in from. Five long days built on the park's own published mileage, with the lots that fill, the roads that shut in winter and the blazes you have to keep straight.
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Photo: Tyler A. McNeil — CC0, cropped
Top 8 day hikes in the Catskills
Two hours north of New York City, a plateau ends in a wall above the Hudson. There are five restored fire towers up there you can still climb, and the tallest waterfall in the state. Eight day hikes inside the Catskill Park, with the state's own mileage and climb for each one.
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Photo: Ken Thomas — Public domain
Top 10 day hikes in Sedona, where a mile and a half gets you a summit
Cathedral Rock is 0.7 miles each way and climbs 600 feet to a saddle between two sandstone spires. That is the trade in Sedona: enormous views for very little mileage. Ten day hikes across the red rocks, ordered by how hard it is to park at each one.
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Photo: Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Gatlinburg, TN — Public domain
Top 5 one-day hikes on the Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian Trail is 2,197.9 miles long and costs nothing to walk on. No fee, no permit, open year-round. Five stretches of it, Georgia to Maine, that hand you the best of it between breakfast and dinner.
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Photo: California Cow from Seattle, USA — CC BY 2.0
Top 10 three-day hikes in the US, and how far ahead you have to book each one
Ten two-night backpacking routes across eleven states, ordered by when the gate opens rather than by how hard they are. One you can walk tomorrow. One runs a weekly lottery twenty-four weeks out.
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Photo: Stolz Gary M, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — Public domain
Hiking to Havasupai Falls: the blue-green water, and what it takes to get there
Havasu Creek runs turquoise because it's full of dissolved limestone, and it sits at about 70 degrees whatever the month. Getting to it costs ten miles on foot, one February morning at a keyboard, and four days you can't shorten. The trip first, then what it takes to book it.
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Photo: Pimlico27 — CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
Top 5 day hikes in Colorado, and how early you have to be off each one
Colorado's hard part isn't the trail. It's the altitude you start at, the storm that builds after lunch, and the reservation standing in front of the trailhead. Five day hikes, ordered by how exposed you are when the sky turns.
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Photo: Mark and Jan Rice — CC BY-SA 3.0
Top 5 day hikes in California, from below sea level to 14,505 feet
California runs several hiking seasons at once, and a trail that's dangerous in July is the best walking in the state in January. Five day hikes ordered lowest to highest, with the season, permit or lottery standing in front of each one.
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Photo: Michal Klajban — CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
Top 5 three-day fastpacking routes in Europe
Iceland's Laugavegur, the Kungsleden, Alta Via 1, the West Highland Way and the Tour du Mont Blanc: what each one asks of you over three days, and what has to be booked before you go.
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Photo: James St. John — CC BY 2.0
Top 5 day hikes across New York State
A gorge in the far west, a glen with nineteen waterfalls, a cliff walk in the Shawangunks, the Catskill escarpment, and a lake in the High Peaks you need a reservation to stand above. Five landscapes, and five different sets of rules for getting to the trailhead.
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Photo: Quintin Soloviev — CC BY 4.0
Top 5 day hikes in New Jersey worth the drive
A 1,200-foot climb above the Delaware, a staircase on the Appalachian Trail, a bare rock dome with the Manhattan skyline on the horizon, a cliff walk over the Hudson and a boardwalk through a tidal marsh. Five hikes, four landscapes, no permits.
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Photo: GrandTetonNPS — Public domain
Top 10 wilderness campsites in the US, and how to actually get a night at one
Ten places you can legally sleep in the American backcountry: a screened shelter on Lake Superior, a tent pitched deep in a sandstone slot canyon, eight more. What each one is, and which lottery, ferry or walk-up window stands between you and it.
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Explainers
Photo: Schoschi — CC BY 4.0, cropped
Types of sleeping bags, and who each shape is for
Six shapes, from the tapered mummy to the half bag that stops at your waist. One buys you warmth for its weight, the next buys you room to roll over, and choosing between them decides more about the night than the number on the label.
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Photo: Dclemens1971 — CC BY 4.0
What are the Adirondack 46ers?
Forty-six summits in one corner of northern New York, picked off the survey maps of the 1920s by two brothers and their Adirondack guide, and still the list that decides which climbs count. Four of them are not actually 4,000 feet, and nobody has ever fixed it.
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Safety
Photo: Cullen328 — CC BY 3.0, cropped
Altitude sickness on a hike, and the descent that cures it
Three illnesses wait for you above about 8,000 feet, and two of them can put a healthy hiker on the ground inside a day. What thin air is doing to you, how to tell an ordinary altitude headache from the two that end the trip, and why a thousand feet of descent beats anything in your pack.
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Photo: Grand Canyon National Park — Public domain
Hiking in the heat
Three things put hikers down on a hot day, and two of them look alike while needing opposite treatment. The fixes are mostly a start time and a turnaround time. Here's the plan, and how to tell the three apart if it goes wrong.
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Photo: USFWS Mountain Prairie — Public domain
Hiking in bear country
Grizzlies and black bears call for opposite responses, so the first job is figuring out which one you're looking at. Here's what the land managers tell you to do before the trailhead, on the trail, and if a bear is coming at you.
12 min readRead it →
Glossary
Not sure what a word means?
Basecamp ranks nothing and sells nothing, and neither does the glossary. If a piece here uses a word you'd rather have defined, it has its own page.
Browse the whole glossary →