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12 Wonderful National Park Adventures to Take With Kids
By Michael Lanza America’s 63 national parks preserve over 52 million acres of uniquely beautiful and genuinely awe-inspiring places in nature, and the payoff for our country’s foresight in protecting them is a lifetime’s worth of unforgettable experiences—many of them entirely feasible, safe... -
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Review: BioLite Firepit+ Portable Backyard Fire Pit and Grill
Portable Backyard/Camping Firepit and Grill BioLite Firepit+ $250, 20 lbs./9kg backcountry.com Many of us learned a lot about what we liked during the pandemic and many of those newly discovered or rediscovered likes have stayed with us—like sitting out in the back yard to eat and socialize. We... -
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Backpacking the Maze in Canyonlands—A Photo Gallery
By Michael Lanza With our first steps on the descent from Maze Overlook into the labyrinth of mostly dry desert canyons that comprise one of the greatest geological oddities in the National Park System—the Maze in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park—we had to remove and pass our backpacks over a... -
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How to Get a Permit to Backpack in the Grand Canyon
By Michael Lanza First-time backpackers in the Grand Canyon quickly absorb two lessons about this one-of-a-kind place. Foremost, the canyon’s infinite vistas and deceptive scale, the beauty of desert oases and wildflower blooms, the peacefulness and quietude of some of the best wilderness... -
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9 Epic Grand Canyon Backpacking Trips You Must Do
By Michael Lanza This is, in a way, a story about obsession. Or a love affair. Or both. Those metaphors best describe how the Grand Canyon constantly lures me back when I’m thinking about spring and fall hiking and backpacking trips. It is that rare kind of natural environment that exists on a... -
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Backpacking the Teton Crest Trail—A Photo Gallery
By Michael Lanza As we hiked up the North Fork of Cascade Canyon on the Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park, moments after the path emerged from the forest into a meadow strewn with boulders and still dappled with blooming wildflowers in late August, my friend David turned to look... -
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The 5 Best Backpacking Trips in Grand Teton National Park
By Michael Lanza Here’s a truth I’ve learned from more than 20 visits to the Tetons since my first backpacking trip on the Teton Crest Trail three decades ago: That incomparable, jagged skyline of peaks never fails to ignite a sense of awe and joy. Walking for days through these mountains, with... -
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9 Great Hikes and Walks Along Iceland’s Ring Road
By Michael Lanza Driving Iceland’s Highway 1, or Ring Road, in the country’s southeast on the kind of sunny day that’s almost as rare here as the sensation of boredom, we reached the seacoast—and the landscape and seascape suddenly seemed to exceed the capacity of our vision and minds to take... -
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Trekking Spain’s Picos de Europa
By Michael Lanza As my family hiked up the Cares Gorge in northern Spain’s Picos de Europa National Park, which looks like an impressionist painting with its soaring, white and gray limestone cliffs dappled with greenery, I was struck by one curious fact about this mountain range: how it has... -
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Trekking Iceland’s Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls Trails—A Photo Gallery
By Michael Lanza We followed the trail upward through innumerable, short switchbacks to the summit of a battleship-gray, steep-sided peak called Bláhnúkur in the remote Fjallabak Nature Reserve of Iceland’s Central Highlands, one of the most active geothermal areas on Earth. At the summit, we... -
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The Best Plan for Hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc
By Michael Lanza You want to hike the Tour du Mont Blanc, but you’re not sure how hard it is, whether you can do it all, or even whether to hire a guide? One of the world’s great treks, the TMB is easy to do self-supported—but it’s not easy to figure out how to do that. When I hiked it with 12... -
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15 Adventures on Earth That Will Change Your Life
By Michael Lanza Can travel “change your life?” How many experiences have such an enormous impact? I can name several that shifted my perspective on adventure or expanded how I view the world and other people. Exploring the surreal landscapes of Iceland and Patagonia. Walking among Earth’s... -
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Hiking and Backpacking the Canadian Rockies—A Photo Gallery
By Michael Lanza While I always prefer to get as far from any road as possible whenever I visit a mountain range, one truth that may—and perhaps must—be said of the Canadian Rockies is that they will leave you smitten with an lifelong, unshakeable love before you even step out of the car... -
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10 Great John Muir Trail Section Hikes
By Michael Lanza Like moths to a flame—or perhaps pikas to talus—at some point, many serious backpackers will decide they must thru-hike the John Muir Trail. But some will wonder whether they’re ready or have the time for a 221-mile hike that may take up to three weeks—and many will fail to get... -
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Review: Hoka One One Speedgoat 6 Trail Running Shoes
Trail Running/Hiking Shoes Hoka One One Speedgoat 6 $155, 1 lb. 3 oz./539g (US men’s 9) Sizes: US men’s 7-15, women’s 5-12 backcountry.com Hoka’s popular trail-running shoe, the Speedgoat, has passed through several updates since it first emerged on the scene in 2015, named for the American... -
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10 Tips For Getting Outside More
By Michael Lanza Do you get outside as much as you’d like, either locally or on longer trips away from home? Who does? For many of us, work, home, and other responsibilities erect roadblocks to getting out as much as we’d like—even as spending time outdoors feels ever more urgent and necessary... -
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The Best Headlamps of 2025
By Michael Lanza A headlamp is unquestionably essential gear for hiking, backpacking, climbing, trail running, ultra-running and ultra-hiking, ski touring, and other backcountry activities that sometimes push into darkness (whether intentionally or not). But with so many to pick from, how do... -
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Paria Canyon—A Top 5 Southwest Backpacking Trip
By Michael Lanza Walls of searing, orange-red sandstone towered hundreds of feet overhead in a chasm at times no more than a dozen strides across. A shallow river flowed like very thin chocolate milk down the canyon, spanning it from wall to wall in spots. And the spectacle had only just begun... -
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The Best Short Backpacking Trip in Grand Teton National Park
By Michael Lanza As we backpacked up Paintbrush Canyon on the first day of a three-day family hike on the nearly 20-mile loop of Paintbrush and Cascade canyons in Grand Teton National Park, I kept a close eye on our kids. Our son, Nate, then eight years old, had taken a few backpacking trips... -
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Backpacking Yosemite: What You Need to Know
The first major Western national park I backpacked in was Yosemite. I wanted to begin exploring America’s big, iconic wilderness parks—and like a lot of backpackers, I thought: Where else would I start but Yosemite? The name alone conjures mental images of walking for days through wild...