Top US Hiking Spots Ranked
A hiker ranks Sky Pond in Rocky Mountain National Park as the best trail, alongside Grandfather Trail (North Carolina), Eagle Falls (Lake Tahoe), Mt. Leconte (Great Smoky Mountains), and Cathedral Rock (Sedona) for epic rewards. Wisconsin's 7-mile Ice Age Trail section is praised for its challenging, sweat-worthy payoff, while Colorado Springs' Palmer Park gets recognition in the Gazette's Happy Trails series for quintessential urban-nature hikes.
- The hike to Mt. Leconte in the Great Smoky Mountains is notable for the LeConte Lodge, the only place in the eastern U.S. where visitors can sleep overnight at a summit in a permanent structure. Supplies for the lodge are transported by llama caravans up one of the five trails that lead to it. - The Grandfather Trail in North Carolina is a challenging 2.4-mile one-way trek that involves using in-place cables and ladders to navigate steep sections. The area also features the Mile High Swinging Bridge, a 228-foot suspension bridge spanning an 80-foot chasm. - Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail is a National Scenic Trail that stretches for nearly 1,200 miles, tracing the path of a glacier from 15,000 years ago. Largely built and maintained by volunteers, it officially became a unit of the National Park Service in December 2023. - Cathedral Rock in Sedona is known as a vortex site, with the 1.4-mile round trip hike involving a steep scramble to reach the saddle between the rock spires. - The hike to Sky Pond in Rocky Mountain National Park is a difficult 9.2-mile round trip that takes hikers to an elevation of 10,880 feet. A significant challenge on the trail is scrambling up the wet and slippery rocks alongside Timberline Falls. - Palmer Park offers over 25 miles of trails within a 730.7-acre urban park in the heart of Colorado Springs. The land for the park was donated to the city in 1902 by its founder, William Jackson Palmer. - Hiking is the most popular outdoor activity in America, with nearly 60 million participants in 2022. The broader outdoor recreation industry contributes over $887 billion to the U.S. economy annually through consumer spending on gear, travel, and other related expenses.
