Thanks to movies and books like A Walk in the Woods and Wild, long-distance hiking is romanticized in the United States. Plenty of people daydream about through-hiking an epic trail, spending months backpacking through pristine wilderness areas and leaving modern life behind.
There are plenty of options out there ranging from 1,000-mile hikes that will take months to complete to shorter options that may take only a week or so.
Here are the top 5 most beautiful long-distance trails in the western United States,
The Wonderland Trail
If the name is any indication, this trail is a bucket list must. It circles Mount Rainier, in Washington State, showing off glaciers and wildflower-studded valleys.
The John Muir Trail
This 215-miler goes through Yosemite National Park, the Ansel Adams Wilderness, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks and ends at the highest peak in the Lower 48, Mount Whitney.
The Pacific Crest Trail
Depicted in Wild, this runs between Canada and Mexico along the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges.
The Pacific Northwest Trail
The trail traverses 1,200 miles from the Continental Divide in Montana through Idaho and to the Pacific coast of Washington.
Continental Divide Trail
The trail goes 3,100 miles along the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains.
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