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From nutrition myths to getting protein, our experts break down how to stay fueled and feeling good on your next big hiking trip

Strong legs make for easy miles. Get yours ready for your next big trip with this advice.

In a statement on Monday, the Canada Border Services Agency noted that the U.S. prohibits southbound PCT thru hikers from crossing into Washington from British Columbia

Backpacking in the snowy season doesn’t need to be an ordeal. We polled our colleagues to find out their best gear tips for packing for snowy adventures.

Not bringing ice cleats or crampons on an icy hike can be frustrating at best, and deadly at worst. Here’s how to know what you need—and some staff-tested recommendations fo what to buy.

Camp chairs have gotten small enough and light enough that it’s easy to bring one backpacking. But should you?

Katmai's famous Fat Bear Week contest is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary—but for the first time, its biggest star is nowhere to be found. We pay tribute to a true champion.

Parks and trail towns along the southern reaches of the AT are devastated. Here's how hikers can help.

A great trail is eternal. See if you can pick out some of America’s best hikes in these photos from the National Park Service’s archives.

The bills would have instructed the state to seek reimbursement when hikers needed rescue from a closed trail, but they faced opposition from emergency personnel

For a handful of lucky students in Emory and Henry College’s Semester-a-Trail program, the AT is the ultimate teacher

The 8-year-old cat from New York gained internet fame for leading guests at his owner's AirBnb on Appalachian Trail hikes. It's a role he was born to play.

Mount Rainier National Park will join Glacier, Rocky Mountain, and Arches in implementing a new timed-entry system for the park’s most popular entrances

A hiker rescued in California last week is the latest to find themselves pinned under a big rock. But they’re far from the first—or the unluckiest—to have a bad encounter with a boulder.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy announced this week that it had purchased 850 acres of land beneath McAfee Knob

The ordeal is a reminder to value your own situational awareness over what Big Tech may tell you about a trail

A video of daddy longlegs clustering on a backpacker’s had arachnophobic hikers vowing to stay away. But look a little closer, and you might just gain a new appreciation for the Alaskan wilderness.

The weather's getting colder, and that means your packing and planning strategies have to change. Steer clear of these backpacking mistakes for a smoother transition to fall.

These little Scandanavian gummies have earned a permanent place in our packs. Why? Let us count the ways.

An outbreak of norovirus on the Pacific Crest Trail proves that hikers’ hygiene routines need an upgrade

This vegetarian campfire dessert comes together with two convenience-store ingredients

This week, 12 of Alaska’s chubbiest bruins will face off in a bracket for the title of Fat Bear Week Champion. Here’s what you need to know.

Storms dumped rainfall across Utah. One hiker died and another required rescue.

The internet is flooded with clips of people making bad decisions at America’s oldest national park. Backpacker editor Adam Roy thinks the latest cringeworthy clip is the worst one to enter the oeuvre.

Making your own camp stove out of a cat food or soda can used to be a rite of passage for backpackers. But with canister stoves getting lighter and cheaper—and fire bans getting more and more common—one Backpacker editor argues their time has come. (Plus: Another editor dissents.)

A proposed price increase for backcountry access in Zion could raise fees by as much as 400 percent for some groups

When a court struck down the public’s right to wild camp in Dartmoor National Park in January, hikers lost the only place in England where they could dispersed camp without getting the owner’s permission first. Now, an appeals court has given it back to them.

A hiker found the woman’s body on a popular trail near the national park

It was so hot that rescue helicopters couldn’t take off

Live electric wires and bridge damage are among the hazards that trail crews have found so far—but it’s not all bad news

Authorities are trying to determine what caused the deaths of three people found in a remote campsite near Gunnison last week

The death is the third snow-related fatality that local search and rescue has responded to over the past three weeks

When it comes to remembering my best trips, smells do something that photos never could

Authorities say the unleashed mutt provoked the bruin, and have closed a popular trail near Asheville

Students in the Semester-A-Trail program at Emory and Henry College will spend their spring and summer semesters hiking part or all of the Appalachian Trail—with gear, support, and an on-trail budget included in tuition

How to make due without hiking poles, a sleeping pad, and more pieces of crucial backpacking gear

The answer isn’t as obvious as it was five years ago

The sad situation is a reminder to visitors to avoid handling wild animals

A group of young hikers used Apple’s Emergency SOS system to trigger a rescue

We hiked, ran, skied, and climbed through the night to find the best illumination of the year

Officials say evidence suggests the men were caught by a flash flood. This is the second double tragedy in the famous slot canyon this year.

You don’t need to tote a frying pan into the backcountry to make a pancake breakfast. All you need is a canister stove with a pot, two or three ingredients, and a metal mug.

Matthew Read, 19, spent two days stranded in the woods

Encounters between bruins and campers led the forest service to shutter the areas

Lifesavers in Colorado recently rescued multiple hikers who had lost their footwear on the same slushy trail

Editor Adam Roy explains why his ultralight four-legged friend is the ideal backpacking companion

Rescue crews in SoCal are already warning hikers to skip the snowy San Jacinto Mountains

The bloodsuckers are waking up—and biting—earlier each year

A man says he required lifesaving when he accidentally ignited a 2018 wildfire. An Arizona court determined that his negligence made him culpable.

Backpacker executive editor Adam Roy has fully embraced the eccentric footwear after previously swearing them off. Here’s why.

Hikers in New Hampshire can already be charged for lifesaving, and a proposed law would punish those who refuse to pay. Editor Adam Roy thinks it’s a terrible and dangerous policy.

The Havasupai Tribe closed their lands—and the iconic waterfall—to tourists amid the pandemic. Guests who had reservations from 2020 will be allowed to visit in 2023.

A federal judge convicted Jeffrey M. Johnson for operating a paid guided tour without a permit in a national park

The real story is weirder and sadder than what we saw in the film’s bonkers preview

A campground located along the Bright Angel Trail will be called Havasupai Gardens following a government decision

Two agencies will investigate bringing grizzlies back to the Pacific Northwest

The Sonoran desert toad is under threat from hunters who seek their toxic secretions

As defenders of all things outdoors, we can’t let Paul Hollywood’s weird marshmallow hockey pucks stand

Some of you are thinking, Ewww, no way. But open your hearts to the truth: spiders are among the most fascinating creatures on earth, and great neighbors to boot (goodbye, mosquitos!). With climate change putting them in danger, they could use a few new friends.

Hiker Rebecca Clark says she ended up with a hole in her back and lots of stickers and thorns, but otherwise she is OK

Rescuers say Jetal Agnihotri, 29, died after being swept away by flash floods on Friday

Park Service officials believe the human remains are connected to a death that occurred near the Abyss Pool hot springs on July 31

Driven by closures and new parking rules, Colorado’s highest peaks saw a precipitous drop in hiker visits from 2020 to 2021

Feeling entranced by the cosmos? See the heavens in all their glory from one of these incredible trails.

Michael Charles Lombardo, 55, frequently walked the famed trail with his pet Chihuahua

The new slogan launches after a series of tourist encounters with the massive mammals

Waves swept two hikers out to sea on the Northern California coast last week

The 200-million-old fossil, which contained footprints from an alligatorlike reptile, is believed to have been stolen from the park roughly five years ago

The incident in December is the latest incident of vandalism to ancient Native artifacts

Bus 142 spent 60 years sitting in the Alaskan backcountry and saw thousands of visitors before it ended up at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks. Now a team of conservators, students, and volunteers face the challenge ahead.

That shiny sheet of plastic you have wadded up at the bottom of your daypack can help you stay alive. Will it help you stay comfortable? That’s a different story.

Exercise may not be enough to make up for thru-hikers’ bad diets, a new paper suggests

Despite warnings, rules, and common sense, tourists in Yellowstone keep approaching bears and bison.

Unpacking the buzz around the latest performance food

When the American cyclist quit the Tour, he did exactly what an athlete should do

You don’t need to go all in to reap health and performance benefits from the famous diet

The real takeaway: nutrition labels just aren't working

How to assemble your first kit.

A new cookbook seeks to make the world’s most restrictive diet palatable

A new cookbook breaks some traditional Paleo rules. Result: It's packed with recipes you'll actually want to make.