Hiking Trails Near Me: How To Find The Best Local Hikes
Hiking is a great way to get some fresh air, explore, and even shed a few pounds. But what if you want to explore your local area and find hiking trails near me? Feeling adventurous? Want to know more about the trails in your own backyard?
This post will help you find and explore hiking trails near you! In it, we’ll discuss: how to find hikes near me; the best ways to research hikes; how trail difficulty can change with weather or other factors.
This post may be expanded and edited as time goes on. If you have a question or a hike you’d like to see covered, please leave a message in the comments section!
How To Find Hiking Trails Near Me?
1. First, let’s talk about how to find hikes near you. While this should be common sense in a way, it’s not always easy! Most of us get so caught up in our own little bubbles that we forget to look around.
The best place to start is by looking at a map and seeing what you can find. If you’re near a national or state park, they’ll generally have trail maps available. If not, try looking into smaller local parks and nature preserves that may be in the area.
2. Next, look at the trails nearby. Sometimes, you won’t even need a map – just driving around might give you enough information to get started on your quest. For example, if you see trails going through a local park or nature preserve, that’s a good start!
If not, look into maps of nearby areas and see if those are the trails you’d like to explore. If you need help looking at a map, see our tips for reading maps.
3. Regardless of how you do it, you’re going to have some trails that sound interesting. If they sound too difficult or too easy, do some research and find out more information. Just remember that weather and local conditions can drastically change your experience on a hike – if it’s rainy, trails might flood and be impassable; on the other hand, a hot summer day might turn a hike into an absolute sweatfest!
4. Finally, if you’re putting together a hike that’s going to be about 8 or more miles long, it might be worth contacting a local nature center or park office beforehand to make sure there aren’t any issues with the trail. They could give you some valuable information and tips for your hike!
The Best Ways To Research Hikes
When planning a hike, you’ll want to make sure that you can find a trail map, possibly trails reviews and recommendations, and easily find the elevation of the trail. There are several options available to you:
1. For finding a map
(if it doesn’t come with the trailhead), try visiting Google Maps or Bing Maps . Both sites let you search for nearby trails by entering the address for your starting location, or your current location. The accuracy of these features depends on your location and internet connection – sometimes very accurate, and other times not so much.
2. For finding some general reviews about a particular trail, try visiting AllTrails
This site offers you a list of trails in your region, with reviews from other hikers. It’s also possible to add photos from your hike!
3. For finding elevation changes, try visiting Trails.com
This site breaks down your hike into sections, and allows you to enter a starting location and find out the elevation at that point.
Keeping Track Of Your Hikes And Adventures
While this may seem like common sense, many hikers forget to write their hikes and adventures down. By writing down your adventures, you can share them with friends, pass it on to future generations (if you choose), and retrace your steps the next time you go out.
There are a lot of different ways to keep track of your adventures. A quick Google search for hiking journals gives us quite a few options.
Hiking Journal Ideas
Record how long the hike was, how difficult it was, and what kind of weather you had.
Put pictures or pictures of the trail and your experience on the back. This can be a great way to show future hikers what they’re in for!
If you’re hiking with others, take notes of their experiences so that you can compare how you all felt about each other’s hiking style.
If you’re worried about getting lost and having to rely on your journal to get you back, add some information about the landmarks around you. This can help you figure out which direction is which if your journal gets lost.
Hiking Scrapbooks
A trail journal isn’t the only way to keep your memories and experiences – scrapbooks are also a really great way! Just like with a standard scrapbook, take pictures of yourself on the hike, along with some of the more scenic spots. You can also put pictures of the other hikers with their achievements or pictures of the trip.
This can be a great way to remember or showcase your personal experience on the trip. You may even want to place your journal in it!
Hiking Logs
If you want something simpler, you can always use a hiking log! This is a simple notebook you can keep beside you and write down everything as it happens. If you get lost, this log should be easy to find and retrace.
Hiking Books
If you want something more durable, or better suited for long hikes – pick up a hiking book! These books generally include GPS coordinates and maps of the hikes, and are very detailed. If you’re going to be doing some backpacking and you’re not as familiar with maps, there’s nothing wrong with carrying this book just in case. There are a lot of hiking books out there and they cover everything from beginner to advanced trails.
How Trail Difficulty Changes With Weather And Other Factors
Because of the different elements that play into where a trail is located and how it’s used, trail difficulty can change with weather or other factors. For example, if there’s been some rain in the area, trails can flood – if it’s snowing or there isn’t much to hold the mud together, trails can turn into muddy disasters.
If the area has experienced any flooding recently, you may want to avoid this trail, as it might be subject to flooding again. On the other hand, if there’s not much rain in the area and you have a hat, maybe this trail is useable.
On the other hand, if there’s been a lot of rain recently and trails are slick and muddy – you may want to give this trail a pass because of its weather conditions.
So, what does this mean?
If you’re planning a trip to a trail in an area that’s been hit by heavy rain recently, it makes sense that you would want to avoid any hiking after the rain. On the other hand, if the area has had little to no rain recently, there’s no need to avoid a hike – just be prepared for mud. Also make sure you have proper gear like hiking boots and other gear for safety with weather.
One thing you’re going to want to do is make sure you check the weather forecast before heading out. If rain is in the area, you may want to stay home and enjoy some good old video games.
How Much Daylight You Have – The BIGGEST factor affecting your hike difficulty!
If you’re planning a hike and it’s going to take longer than 6 hours, we would really suggest calling the trail office or another local hiking group beforehand. Most of the time, the trails that people talk about on hiking forums are not only difficult, but a lot of times you’re not going to see anything – because they’re in the middle of nowhere!
While there isn’t a set time limit for each trail, you have to make sure that there’s adequate light to see the trail. If a hike is going to take longer than 6 hours, but you still need to finish before dark, then we would suggest taking it in shifts.
If you’re hiking in the woods, this definitely becomes an issue because of how dense the trees can be.
If you’re hiking and your visibility is low, that means you have to slow down and look around to make sure there’s nothing in your path. You may also want to switch to using a flashlight for extra visibility, which can also help you save phone battery for the rest of the hike.
For hikes that are supposed to take less than 6 hours, it depends on how fast you can hike.
Hiking Trails Near Me: How To Choose Trails Based On Hiking Speed
If you want to run a trail or hike a trail with your friends, you should know your top speed. This will allow you to gauge when it’s time to turn around! Keep in mind that this is something that will change depending on the type of hiking you’re doing. For example, if you’re backpacking and carrying everything, it’ll be harder to hike fast than if you have nothing but your phone with you.
If you’re hiking a relatively easy trail in a city, we would suggest that you walk at a medium speed so that you can enjoy more scenery. If you’re up to the challenge, start hiking a little faster so that you have more time to enjoy the trail.
How Much Water You’ll Need – The BIGGEST factor affecting your hike difficulty!
Water needs vary for each person, but keep in mind where you are going on your trip and how many people are going with you. If you’re planning a trip in the summer, you’ll need to plan ahead. You can’t drink water all day long while hiking!
We would recommend that you check the trail’s website or find some local reports on this trail – at the very least, you should know how much water is available along the trail. It can be pretty dangerous to not have enough water for your trip, especially for more challenging hikes.
If you’re planning a hike that’s going to take more than 6 hours, and you’re hiking somewhere in the desert or there’s no water nearby – we would suggest bringing a backpacking water filter.
Again, this depends on the time of year. If you’re hiking somewhere in the desert, it can be very dangerous to not have enough water for your trip.
Conclusion
Finding the best hiking trails near me can be a pretty tough task. Luckily, as we stated above, different factors can change how difficult a trail is depending on where it is located.
If you’re planning a trip to hike in an area that you don’t know too well – make sure you research the area properly so that you know what to expect when hiking.