Beach Camping: Tips, Gear & How to Do It Right
There’s nothing like falling asleep to the sound of waves and waking up to sunrise over the water. But beach …
How-To
How-To
How-To Guides & Backcountry Skills
Practical how-to guides for backpacking and backcountry camping — gear selection, skills, safety, national park guides, and trip planning.
How-To
How to Read a Topo Map & Use a Compass: Backcountry Navigation Basics
Your phone is a great navigation tool — right up until the battery dies, the screen cracks, or the cold kills it, …
How-To
Hypothermia: Signs, Prevention & Treatment Every Hiker Should Know
Hypothermia is one of the most dangerous — and most misunderstood — backcountry hazards. The misconception that kills …
How-To
Solo Backpacking: Safety Tips for Hiking Alone
Backpacking solo is one of the most rewarding things you can do outdoors — total freedom, deep solitude, and a …
How-To
Altitude Sickness: How to Prevent, Recognize & Treat It
Altitude sickness doesn’t care how fit you are — ultramarathoners get it and grandmothers don’t. It’s …
How-To
How to Pack a Backpack: Load It the Right Way for Balance & Comfort
A great backpack disappears on your back. A badly packed one pulls you backward, sways on every step, and leaves your …
How-To
Car Camping Checklist: Build the Perfect Base Camp for Backcountry Adventures
The best of both worlds: drive in, set up a comfortable base camp, and use it to launch day hikes, summit pushes, …
How-To
How to Keep Food Cold While Backpacking (Without a Cooler)
A cooler is dead weight on a multi-day trip — so backpackers don’t carry one. Instead, they use a handful of …
How-To
Grand Canyon National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
The Grand Canyon doesn’t photograph — it has to be stood in front of. A mile deep, eighteen miles across, and lit …
How-To
Grand Teton National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Few mountains announce themselves like the Tetons. There are no foothills — the range erupts straight out of the …
How-To
Hot Weather Hiking: How to Beat the Heat & Stay Safe in Summer
Summer opens up the high country — but heat is one of the most underestimated dangers in hiking. Every year, fit, …
How-To
Olympic National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Olympic is really three parks in one: a high country of glaciers and wildflower meadows, the moss-draped rainforests of …
How-To
Rocky Mountain National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Rocky Mountain National Park packs the entire alpine experience into one place: glassy subalpine lakes, jagged 13,000-ft …
How-To
Bear and Moose Safety: How to Recognize and Survive an Encounter
Bears and moose are the two large animals most likely to hurt you in North American backcountry — and the responses to …
How-To
Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Great Smoky Mountains is the most-visited national park in the country — and for good reason. Straddling the …
How-To
How to Keep Your Gear Dry Backpacking in the Rain
Rain is where backpacking trips are won or lost. Wet gear is heavy, cold, and — in the case of a soaked sleeping bag or …
How-To
How to Plan a Backpacking Trip: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide
A great backpacking trip is mostly made before you leave home. Good planning is the difference between a smooth, …
How-To
How to Poop in the Woods: The Complete Backcountry Bathroom Guide
It’s the question every new backpacker is too embarrassed to ask — and getting it wrong pollutes water, spreads …
How-To
How to Stay Warm Sleeping in a Tent: 12 Proven Tricks
There are few things more miserable than shivering through a long night on trail. The good news: sleeping cold is almost …
How-To
Winter Backpacking: The Complete Beginner's Guide
Winter transforms the backcountry into something silent, empty, and stunning — and it raises the stakes. The margin for …
How-To
Women's Backpacking Gear Guide: What Actually Needs to Be Women-Specific
“Women’s” gear is part real engineering and part marketing. The trick is knowing which is which — so …
How-To
15 Bare-Bones Backcountry Essentials That Punch Above Their Weight
The gear that saves your trip usually isn’t the expensive stuff. It’s the little things — a few feet of …
How-To
Everglades National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
The Everglades is unlike any other national park — a vast, slow-moving “River of Grass” where alligators, …
How-To
How to Watch Wildlife Safely: Keep Your Distance, Observe, Don't Approach
Seeing animals in the wild is one of the best parts of being outdoors — a grazing bison, a bull moose at the edge of a …
How-To
The Best Gifts for Backpackers & Hikers (2026 Guide, By Price)
Shopping for a backpacker or hiker can be intimidating — they’re picky about gear, they already own the basics, …
How-To
The Complete Beginner Backpacking Starter Kit (Everything You Need)
Building your first backpacking kit is overwhelming. There are hundreds of products in every category, prices range …
How-To
The Ultralight Backpacking Kitchen: The Complete Setup
Your backpacking kitchen can weigh under a pound and cost under $100 — or it can balloon into a heavy box of gadgets you …
How-To
Voyageurs National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Voyageurs is unlike almost any other national park — roughly a third of it is water. Tucked against the Canadian border …
How-To
What Size Backpack Do I Need? Day Hiking vs Backcountry vs Thru-Hiking
The backpack is the one piece of gear that touches every mile you hike. Too small and you’re strapping gear to the …
How-To
Yellowstone National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Yellowstone is the original — the world’s first national park, and still one of the most extraordinary places on …
How-To
Banff National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Banff is the crown jewel of the Canadian Rockies — impossibly turquoise glacial lakes, glaciers spilling between peaks, …
How-To
Glacier National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Montana’s Glacier National Park is the wildest of the lower-48 crown jewels — turquoise lakes, hanging glaciers, …
How-To
Sequoia National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Sequoia is home to the largest living things on Earth — groves of giant sequoias so massive they rearrange your sense of …
How-To
Zion National Park: Best-Kept Secrets & Must-See Spots
Zion is a different kind of beauty than the alpine parks — towering red-and-cream sandstone walls, a green river canyon, …
How-To
Best Hikes in Yosemite National Park (Day Hikes to Backpacking)
Yosemite packs more world-class hiking into one park than almost anywhere on Earth — thundering waterfalls, granite …
How-To
Bear Safety for Backpackers — How to Hike & Camp in Bear Country
Bears are one of the best parts of wild country — and one of the most misunderstood risks in it. The truth is that bear …
How-To
Tent vs Tarp vs Hammock: Which Backpacking Shelter Is Right for You?
Your shelter is one of the Big Three — it’s a big chunk of your pack weight and the thing standing between you and …
How-To
How to Filter & Purify Water Backpacking (Filters, Chemicals, UV & Boiling)
That clear alpine stream looks pristine — and it can still put you out for days. Backcountry water can carry pathogens …
How-To
How to Prevent and Treat Blisters Hiking & Backpacking
Blisters end more backpacking trips than bad weather, bad knees, or bad food. The frustrating part? They’re almost …
How-To
The Complete Backpacking Gear Checklist (Beginner to Ultralight)
A good gear checklist does two things: it makes sure you don’t forget something that matters, and it stops you …
How-To✓ First-Hand
How to Train for a Multi-Day Hike: A Backpacker's Training Plan
A multi-day hike asks a lot of your body: long days on your feet, thousands of feet of climbing and descending, and a …
Trail Guide
Half Dome, Yosemite: Complete Hiking Guide (Permits, Route, Gear)
Half Dome is the hike that defines Yosemite for most people — a 4,800-foot climb up the back of a granite monolith, …
Trail Guide
Teton Crest Trail: Backpacking Guide (Permits, Route, Logistics)
The Teton Crest Trail is the signature backpacking route of Grand Teton National Park — roughly 40 miles of high alpine …
How-To Guide
How to Cold Soak: The Complete Guide to No-Cook Backpacking Meals
A stove, a fuel canister, a pot, a lighter, and the time it takes to set it all up is roughly 16-24 ounces of pack …
How-To
How Much Water to Carry Backpacking (By Climate, Terrain & Effort)
Water is the single heaviest item in most backpacks. At 2.2 pounds per liter, carrying too much is a brutal tax on your …
How-To
Trail Runners vs Hiking Boots: Which Is Right for Ultralight Backpacking?
The “trail runners vs hiking boots” debate is quietly one of the biggest shifts in backpacking over the last …
How-To
How to Set Up a Trekking Pole Tent — A Step-by-Step Guide
Trekking pole tents are the gateway to true ultralight backpacking. Eliminating dedicated tent poles saves 8-16 ounces — …
How-To
Ultralight Backpacking on a Budget — Real Kits Under $800
The ultralight community has a money problem. Zpacks Duplex: $699. Arc Haul Ultra pack: $399. Western Mountaineering …
How-To
Ultralight First Aid Kit for Backpacking — What You Actually Need
Commercial first aid kits are designed to seem comprehensive to retail customers, not to work in the backcountry. Open …
How-To
How to Choose Trekking Pole Length — A Simple Guide
Most trekking pole problems aren’t pole problems — they’re length problems. Poles set too long force your …
How-To
How to Hang a Bear Bag — The PCT Method and Alternatives Explained
If you’re camping anywhere black bears live, your food is either going to be: (a) in a bear canister, (b) in a …
How-To
How to Choose a Sleeping Bag — Temperature Ratings, Down vs Synthetic, and What Actually Matters
Choosing a sleeping bag is one of the most important gear decisions you’ll make for backcountry camping. Get it …
How-To
Leave No Trace in the Backcountry — A Practical Guide for Backpackers
Leave No Trace exists because backcountry areas are finite, fragile, and increasingly popular. Every improperly disposed …
How-To
How to Pack a 10-Pound Base Weight (Without Sacrificing Safety)
Ten pounds. That’s the number most ultralight backpackers aim for as their base weight — everything you carry …
How-To
10 Ultralight Backpacking Meal Ideas (High Calorie, Low Weight)
Backcountry food has a reputation problem. Most people assume eating light means eating bad. It doesn’t.
The goal …
How-To
The Complete Backcountry Layering System (3-Season Guide)
The layering system is the foundation of staying comfortable in the backcountry. Get it right and you can handle a 40°F …
How-To
Bear Canister Guide: What You Need, Where It's Required, and How to Pack One
Bear canisters are required in more wilderness areas every year — and honestly, they should be used more broadly than …
How-To
Beginner's Guide to Backcountry Camping — Everything You Need to Know
Backcountry camping is one of the most rewarding experiences available to anyone willing to put one foot in front of the …