Saturday, June 6 is American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day. Whether you are planning your first hike or you 100th hike, finding the best hiking trails in your area is the first step to a great hiking experience. There are numerous hiking trails that you can choose from, but researching the park and the trails is the way to get the most pleasure out of your adventure. By researching the hiking trails available in the area you are interested in, you can then choose from the trails that seem more promising to you. This will help you to be confident in finding the “perfect hiking trail” for you. Here are few ways to help you to find the best trails for your hike.
Get Recommendations
The easiest and best way to find suitable trails in your area is to ask for recommendations from people you know that enjoy hiking – friends, family, neighbors, and work colleagues. You can then do additional research of those recommendations to find you ideal trail. When we first moved to California, I bought the book 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Sacramento by Jordan Summers to help us find local trails in the area. We have hike about 60% of the trails listed in the book.
There are 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles books for almost every major metropolitan city to help you find trails close to your area, from Boston to Seattle you can find a book that is suited for you.
Contact the Park
Contacting your local park or recreation areas can offer you some ideas for locating a great place to hike. Local parks are an excellent place to plan your first hike to get a feel for what it is like. By contacting the park or recreation area, you can request brochures and maps of the park and ask questions to gather more information on guided tours, vegetation, and wildlife. Most local, state, and national parks are online to help you gather information about the park and the surrounding areas.
Internet: Hiking Close to Home
The internet offers great resources for researching any local parks or hiking trails. Just type in a phrase like “hiking trails” or “hiking parks” and your city or town and you will receive many search results that you can look through. You can refine the search even further so that the results are personalized to your needs by adding special terms like “family friendly”, “easy”, or “popular”.
Search results will almost certainly come from hiking websites full of helpful information about the area, wildlife, and conditions. You should be able to find just the information that you need from these websites. Websites like www.everytrail.com is a great resource to gather information, share trips, connect with other hikers, and find great new things to do on and around your hike.
Internet: Hiking Distant Trails
You may be attracted to the idea of traveling further away from home to hike, such as in a State or National Park. A standard internet search will give you the official websites of the parks or recreation areas where you are looking for information. To save yourself valuable time, you will want to research the park and trails beforehand. The internet is a great tool for not only researching the trail but also finding the information you need about the park closures or warnings, and for other sources of information like where to stay while you are away. The National Parks Service has a National Trail System website designated just for researching trails within the National Parks system.
Visit the Tourist Office
The local park ranger station or tourist office will also have a lot of up-to-date information available. While searching the internet is a great way to gather preliminary information, sometimes websites are not updated regularly. Often the tourist office will be able to supply the most recent information regarding sections of the park or trails that are closed close due to dangerous conditions or preservation of natural resources. The office can also help you by giving you recommendations for other places to hike if your trail is closed for unforeseen reasons. Local residents in the area of your trail or park will also have good information about the area, so you might consider asking questions about local trails.
The best hiking trails for beginners are those that are well maintained, popular, safe, and cheap to hike. A little research goes a long way to an amazing adventure in the wilderness.
I didn’t know the 6th was National Trails Day, I think we will go for a hike! Also did not know about the 60 hikes in 60 miles book. We love to hike, so I will be trying to find it, thanks!
I am lucky where I live because there is a ton of conservation land and state parks, so we have TONS of places closeby to go hiking.
These are all such great tips. I have never really been hiking, I don’t think I would last 10 minutes…
These are great tips. I live in the south, so hiking trails are really wherever we decide they are. ;)
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We have a couple of nice hiking trails near me. I also live in a neighborhood that is great for taking a hike.
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I used to take my dogs to a park that had a hiking trail (easy one!) which actually would take a couple of hours to complete–please note that my dogs were fine–I was beat!! Now that I don’t have dogs–I don’t go for extended walks anymore! The advise you gave above is really good-there is so much information out there whether you call the park pr visit on the internet.
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Great ideas and recommendations! I definitely need to find a hiking place that is close to me, great post :D
We found our favorite by word of mouth. There’s a great trail by some caves around here, so we can also go spelunking at the same time!
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I would love to find a trail near me. Sounds like a great day to spend with my family. Not sure they would agree.
We love exploring around where we live. We used to hike along organic trails that were along the river close by within walking distance. Unfortunately they’ve decided to develop those areas, so we can’t use them anymore :-(. We do know of other trails that we can hike, but we sure do miss our old ones!
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I love that you can find different hiking trails online! I wouldn’t know where to look. I haven’t been hiking in awhile, so I’ll need to check this site and see if there are any I don’t know about close to me.
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There aren’t any big hiking trails where I live but I do go on walks through he local nature centers. I’d love to do something like that at a National Park.
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It can sometimes be difficult to know where the best places to hike are. This post is a wonderful resource.
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Great advice! I am a big fan of hiking, it is one of my favorite things to do! Especially the long ones in the mountains, it’s an amazing work out and experience.
Ahhh it’s been ages since I’ve been on a good hike! Hubby is a hike hater so I don’t get to go as much as I would like -_-
We love hiking. We will sometimes start out with the 4 wheeler so we can get further on a trail. It is so much fun to completely disconnect from all electronics and spend family time together. We do take a GPS though.
That is a great idea!
This is very informative. You mentioned some ideas I hadn’t thought of already. Thank you.
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I haven’t been hiking in a while. I do love to walk around the neighborhood, but I really do need to take a hike.
Alli recently posted…Breakfast Pina Colada
I am not into hiking at all, but I did try once with my friends back home. It was hard and I don’t think I’ll try it again. But if the hubs will ask, I think I will give it another try. Thing is, my husband is not into it either. :)
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We love hiking as a family and go every year. We love getting online and finding new places to hike.
We love doing nature trekking, we hike once in a while in the nearby place. It’s fun for us and the kids.
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It has been a very long time since I’ve been hiking. There aren’t a ton of options here to go hiking.
Great tips! My parents-in-law are visiting in June and they love to hike! I will be checking into some options for them for hiking in my area.
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I haven’t been hiking yet but I want to. Thanks for this great post, your tips are amazing.
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Thank you.
I have bad feet so before I go hiking, I need some new shoes again!
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I’m surrounded by the Great Lakes. We have tons of parks and hiking trails. Just pick a road and start driving. You’ll easily run in to one.
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That’s great. When I lived in Chicagoland, there really wasn’t any good trails.
I don’t really go hiking but I do love long walks. I usually go out with the dog and walk for at least an hour or more. It’s very calming.
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Hiking is just a long walk in the woods.
I haven’t been hiking in ages, but I always did enjoy it. I should get back into it as part of my fitness routine since it’s something I used to love.
What a great idea! We haven’t gone hiking as a family. I would love to go to Starved Rock here in Illinois.
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I’ve been looking for new paths. I’m going to look into this, this could be fun!
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Finding the best trails could be easier with the help of internet. You can Google the place and see what comes up in terms of reviews, ratings etc. Finding the best trails can also be done by directly contacting the tourism office.
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Yes, that is what this post talks about. Thanks for reading.
When you live in the city it can be hard to find good places to go for a hike. I like to look online to see what trails have good reviews.
These are some great tips! Google is your best friend whenever you are trying to find out something like this. I recently used google to find this beautiful big park to talk a walk in and it was so worth it.
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We have some really nice hiking trails around us that we don’t take advantage of! Plus, I love google! Thanks for the tips!
It’s been a while since I’ve gone for a nice hike. There’s a few really nice places here in Toronto that I would check out. High Park is gorgeous!
Michelle @ Dishes and Dust Bunnies recently posted…Easy Chicken Fajitas
Great tips… it’s been a long time since I’ve gone on a hike! Need to find one near me.
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I love hiking, especially when I can find a great park close to home. Great tips on finding new parks!!
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Great advice! I love hiking and like to try new hike trails every year, I would go to starved rock this year!
Starved Rock is very commercialized now. Wisconsin and Indiana have some great trails.
These are great hiking tips. I need to get a good pair of hiking shoes for myself.
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I love exploring new hiking trails when we visit a new area. The internet is always a good source as well as contacting local running stores.
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