Favorite backpacking trip of all time?

Havasupai is alright but heavily impacted and permits are a pain.

The JMT was fantastic but can be busy and is way too popular for its own good. The JMT gave me much more confidence about what I can do.

If you are located in the southwest, the Cabin Loop near Clint’s Well, AZ is my favorite trip. I’ve done it five or six times in different seasons and weather. It’s a fantastic 17 mile loop or 23 mile point to point hike that goes through there to four parallel canyons and draws. Each is unique and the diversity always puts me in my happy place.

Sabrina Basin above Lake Sabrina in the Sierra offers JMT quality scenery and trails in a much shorter hike.

Lots of favorites of different kinds. For a nicely groomed social trail through pretty high mountains, the JMT may top my list. We did the JMT starting over Kiop Pass instead of Donahue Pass and loved it. For more solitude and grand mountain scenery, consider the Wind River Range – lots of options of various lengths and difficulties. For variety (mountains, glaciers, rain forest, tundra, big rivers, meadows and even views of the sea), it’s hard to beat the Olympics and Cascades – WA PCT sections H, J, and K come to mind, or the Glacier Peak circuit, or some loops in Olympic National Park. For something “different”, hiking the Olympic coast from oil city to Shi Shi beach is a great trip.

Yeah, I agree with Lester, get to the Olympics. I’ve yet to do it, but the Enchanted Valley is supposed to be some Avatar stuff.  I did the High Divide trail and some of the beach to Toleak point, both mighty fine places, but overall the mileages are smaller so if you have about 4 days you can summit a glaciated peak, hike in a temperate rain forest, and hike along a crazy beautiful beach, without moving your car. (getting back to your car could be a PITA, but the trip would be sweet)

Sol Duc to Mt oly, to Hoh river, to beach.  Some guy on here summited Mt Oly and packrafted to the beach… his trip report is here somewhere. (that was without hitting the Enchanted Valley though)  Enachanted Valley apparently is a thing to behold.  You can link it with the Olympic Traverse … man I gotta get back up there myself

+2 on Olympic Park beach hikes. Stevens Pass to Stehekin is as good as most any hike I have done in Alaska. Kesugi ridge in Alaska is awesome. Wonderland Trail is great too.

Favorite backpacking trail of all time?

Whichever trail I’ve done lately ?

I am feeling pretty blessed as I have done all those mentioned thus far.  One of my favorites has been a circumnavigation of the Winds that was mostly off trail with no resupplies.  A bit heavy but felt like much more than 14 days.  I am not so sure my knees could make that trip again.

The Narrows is awesome but I don’t think I’d do it as an overnight. It’s a great day hike. Pay for the shuttle service to drop you off. We did a car shuttle and that turned into a real mess. It rained up at the start while we were in the Narrows and the road becomes impassable.

We just did Buckskin Gulch/Paria Canyon in April and it was truly amazing. That’s one I’d recommend for anyone’s bucket list.

My favorite trip of all time was probably my first trip to WRR in 2012 (I have since been back in 2014 and 2016).   It didn’t exactly go as planned as we were planning on doing Nancy Pallisters route #47 but my hiking partner had altitude sickness so we didn’t cross Bullock(?) Pass and went and just kind of made the rest of the week off as we went along.  It was a a combination of beautiful scenery, good weather, and good company.

I would put something in WRR on your bucket list – the Wind River High Route if you are up to it.  I might also add a trip in Alaska if you are looking for bucket list items.  I went to Brooks Range in 2015 and am going to the Chugatch Mountains in Wrangell St. Elias NP this year.

Something in the Sierra’s is probably appropriate too, either the JMT if you prefer on trail, or the Kings Canyon High Route or Roper Route if you prefer off trail.

@rlnunix Any suggestions for travel to buckskin gulch for people visiting from out of state?

Depends on where you’re coming from. Our group drove in from Colorado and Southern California. So we also had 2 vehicles to do the car shuttle between the start and finish.

If not driving, you’d want to fly into Vegas and rent a car. There’s a shuttle service that will you pick you up at White House campground,  which is the exit, then drop you off at one of the entrances. We went in from Wirepass trail head. Which is also the trail head for The Wave. If you’re going there, you might as well get in the lottery for The Wave, although the odds are pretty long.

Permits go fast for Buckskin Gulch. They go onsale online on the 1st of each month, 3 months before the target date. So January 1st for April, which is what we did. They sold out in 10 minutes for our weekend trip. I’m sure it’s a lot better during the week and if you aren’t fairly local, you might as well come in and do some other hikes in the area, like The Narrows. If you were going to do both, I’d shoot for a fall trip. Warmer temps,  but not too hot, are better for the Narrows.

There were lots of large puddles that required wading and the water was plenty cold. How much water you have to wade thru is dependent on how much rain there has been.

Most people carry all the water they need for both days. I brought along a lightweight bucket and did the river rafter trick of settling the silty water from Paria Creek using alum. Worked like a charm but I just wanted to try that technique. The camping spot is about 1/4 mile from the Paria Canyon junction.

If you have any more questions, just ask, or PM me. I highly recommend this trip.

Landmannalaugar Trial – Iceland

Kalalau Trail – Kauia, HI

Grand Canyon, Bright Angel Trail –UT

Coast To Coast through the Lake District (not Backpacking, but B&B) – England

Onion Valley to Horseshoe Meadow – Sierras, CA

Slot Canyons – Narrows, Buckskin, Paria

Ten days in the High Sierra (200+ miles including a Whitney side trip) without a resupply in mid-June.

No road crossings, few people, snow capped mountains and passes.  Easily the highlight of my backpacking “career.”

With how busy the High Sierra is now on the PCT/JMT overall, I don’t think I could recreate that trip.

(Of course, the snow levels are through the roof, but that is an anomaly)

The Wind River Range has to be on any bucket list.  Somewhere in Glacier NP, too.  Possibly Denali.  How long of hikes are you interested in?  Should we list the CT and the PNWT?  Or the PCT and CDT?  The Wonderland Trail, surely.

“With how busy the High Sierra is now on the PCT/JMT overall, I don’t think I could recreate that trip.”

Yeah, but–as you doubtless know–there are many, many non-JMT trips one can take in the Sierra that rival those sights and are mostly crowd free. But maybe you’re just alluding to this year’s  huge snow pack funneling crowds into a few accessible trails.

Not to get all philosophical, but Kierkegaard has a book called Repetition that takes on this whole question of trying to re-create a great experience by, well, repeating the same itinerary later. (Don’t worry, there’s no Xtianity in it.)