Backpacking Vacation - Five Favorite U.S. Backpacking Destinations.
By: Thomas Hunter
Backpacking is a combination of hiking and camping. The backpacker carries his supplies and equipment for all of his eating and sleeping needs. The gear will include food, water, and shelter. Backpacking allows hikers to go deeper into remote areas to get away from modern civilization. Backpacking requires you carry your supplies with you and will reduce your speed and less ground can be covered in one day. Backpacking trips are usually a weekend or sometimes longer. If it is longer, planned food and supply drops are worked out in advance so the backpacker won’t be weighted down with a heavy backpack.
In popular backpacking locations, hike-in camps are available. Sometimes a camp is no more than a clearing of level patches of ground. Some are more, with free hiking huts available for backpackers.
Backpackers are always on the lookout for the lightest possible gear to carry. If they don’t carry water, they will carry a filter or purifier to allow them to drink from lakes and streams. If there is water to be found, there isn’t any need to carry several large containers of water. Food is typically freeze-dried and can be reconstituted with hot water. Popular products combine high-energy content wit low mass and volume.
The backpacker’s version of the golden rule is: To have beautiful and pristine places to enjoy, help make them. At a minimum, don’t make them worse. Leave only your footprints behind.
Five favorite U.S. backpacking destinations are easy to find and beautiful to explore.
1. The Grand Teton National Park. This beautiful national park is found in western Wyoming. Set up as a national park in 1929, it boasts of nearly 200 miles of trails for hikers. The rock formations that make up the Grand Teton area are roughly 2500 million years old and are made from sandstone, limestones, and various types of shale. The rocks also contain volcanic deposits. The vegetation includes beautiful trees that are able to survive the cold windy slopes, such as the Whitebark Pine, Sub-alpine Fir, and Engleman Spruce. Evergreens are more often found on the valley floor and other species of trees, including, aspens, cottonwood, willows, and alders are found around the moist soil near rivers and lakes.
2. Yellowstone National Park. This Park is located just north of the Grand Teton National Park and is a rich source of trails for backpackers. The park has many of the same species of vegetation and animals. Yellowstone is part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and many animals travel between the two parks. Some of the animals you will see while backpacking in either park are Moose, American Bison, Elk, Black Bears, Mountain Lion, and Wolf. Some of you will be glad to know that although the park has four different species of reptiles, none are poisonous.
3. Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is located in California at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The park is largely made of granite rock and remnants of older rocks. Ice slopes were created about a million years ago and the movement of the ice masses going down slope sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts the most visitors. Over three million people visit the park yearly and most are attracted to the giant Sequoia groves that are found there. Many wonderful sites for backpackers to visit besides the Sequoia groves are O’Shaughnessy Dam, Yosemite Valley, Hetch Hetchy Valley, Half Dome, North Dome, Mariposa Grove, and Tenaya Lake. Many beautiful waterfalls also can be seen and enjoyed by backpackers and hikers. Yosemite’s black bears were once famous for stealing food by breaking into parked cars. Once used as a tourist attraction, the park now discourages interaction between black bears and humans. Backpacking is open between late spring and early fall. If you are thinking of an overnight trip into the backcountry, a wilderness permit is needed. Also required, bear resistant food storage.
4. Mesa Verde National Park. This Park is located in Southwestern Colorado, 35 miles west of Durango. Mesa Verde is Spanish for green table. The park is specifically known for the “cliff dwellings” which were built by communities of people from around 600-1300 A.D. These cliff dwellings are some of the most preserved in the United States and offer a peek at the lives of the ancient Pueblo people. Plan to spend a day or two to thoroughly explore the ancient sites and beautiful landscape.
5. Great Smoky Mountain National Park. This beautiful park is one of the most visited national parks. Found in both Tennessee and North Carolina it has beautiful slopes and boasts of the quality of the remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain culture. You rarely find snow in the parks low to mid elevations. Typically snows of an inch or more only happen a few times each winter. In the higher elevations, it snows more often and several park roads may be closed to traffic because of deep snowfalls.
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