Take a Hike Day was established by the American Hiking Society and occurs annually on November 17th. We hope you will be inspired to celebrate with the people featured here, by enjoying the rugged, natural beauty of the world around you, that is waiting everyday to be discovered and explored.
These images highlight some of National Geographic’s 20 Dream Trails across the globe. To view the full list, visit the awe-inspiring gallery that includes all twenty.
URIQUE-BATOPILAS TRAIL, COPPER CANYON, MEXICO
The river-carved Copper Canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon, but without a single trail sign or marker.
OREGON DESERT TRAIL
At a lengthy 750 miles, this trail just scratches the surface of the largest desert in the U.S. — the 190,000-square-mile Great Basin Desert that stretches into Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah.
KINGS PEAK, UTAH
The trail that takes you just about to the summit of Utah’s highest peak is just two hours from Black Diamond’s front doors in Salt Lake City, yet it feels as if you are in the Flathead wilderness of northern Montana. The trip will be a biannual part of my life … until my knees seize up.
—Peter Metcalf, CEO of Black Diamond Equipment
FRANCONIA RIDGE LOOP/TRAVERSE, NEW HAMPSHIRE
The Franconia Ridge knife edge in New Hampshire is not technical—and I can think of many steeper knife-edge trails where a slip equals a quick ride to eternity. But once on top, if you catch the trail in isolation early or late in the year, its miniaturized flowers and intricately placed stone steps (to keep you from trampling the fragile flowers) offer a glimpse of alpine worlds otherwise found far away from the well-trammeled White Mountains. As a boy, I knew of no headier experience than this trail.
—Jonathan Waterman
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kabrower/13961106268/
EVEREST BASE CAMP TREK, NEPAL
The Mount Everest Group is for anyone who has climbed Everest, plans to, or dreams about summiting the highest mountain in the world.
THE SIR SAMUEL AND LADY FLORENCE BAKER HISTORICAL TRAIL, SOUTH SUDAN TO UGANDA
This trail follows the route Sir Samuel Baker and Lady Florence Baker followed during their expedition to Lake Albert in the 1860s. There are fourteen stops along the route where the Bakers camped as they used exploration to abolish slavery.
THE LONG RANGE TRAVERSE, NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA
This hike is in the Long Range Mountains near the Gulf of St. Lawrence along Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula, with cliffs nearly the height of El Capitan towering above the sea.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there, and take a hike!