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Backpacking Vacation Our Five Favorite U.S. Backpacking Destinations |
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Written by Chad Cook
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Monday, 04 September 2006 |
This article was written to answer many of the most frequently asked questions on this subject. I hope you find all of this information helpful.
Backpacking is a combination of hiking and camping. The backpacker carries his supplies and gear 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 up to date the fast pace of everyday life. Backpacking requires you carry your supplies near you and will cut your speed and more ground can be covered in one day. Backpacking trips are commonly a weekend or sometimes longer. If it is longer, planned nourishment and gear drops are worked out in advance so the backpacker won't be weighted down hard by a heavy backpack.
In popular backpacking locations, hike-in camps are available. Sometimes a camp-site is no more than a clearing of smooth patches of turf. Some are more, with free hiking huts available for backpackers.
Backpackers are always on the lookout for the lightest possible outfit to lug. If they don't carry mineral water, they will carry a filter or purifier to admit 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 normally freeze-dried and can be reconstituted with hot water. Popular products unite high-energy content wit low mass and volume.
The backpacker's version of the golden rule is: To have beautiful and primal 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 try to discover and beautiful to explore.
The Grand Teton National Parkland. This beautiful country-wide park is establish 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 hold volcanic deposits. The vegetation includes attractive 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 sort of trees, including, aspens, cottonwood, willows, and alders are organize else around the moist soil near rivers and lakes.
Yellowstone National Park. This Park is located just north of the Grand Teton National Parkland and is a rich source of trails for backpackers. The park has a number of of the same species of vegetation and animals. Yellowstone is part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and many animals touring 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. Numerous of you will likely be glad to know that although the park has four various species of reptiles, not one are poisonous.
Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is located in California at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The park is largely made of granite stone and remnants of older rocks. Ice slopes were created about a million years ago and the movement of the ice masses going down incline sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts the most visitors. Over the last several three million people stop in or by 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 ebony bears were once legendary 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 before fall. If you are thinking of an overnight trip into the backcountry, a wilderness permit is needed. Also required, bear resistant food storage.
Mesa Verde National Park. This Park is located in Southwestern Colorado, 35 miles west of Durango. Mesa Verde is Spanish for green table. The woodland is specifically well known for the "cliff dwellings" which were put together by communities of people from around 600-1300 A.D. These escarpment 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 stay a day or two to thoroughly explore the ancient sites and beautiful scenery.
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 attractive slopes and boasts of the quality of the remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain background. You rarely see snow in the parks low to mid elevations. Typically snows of an inch or more only happen a few times each winter. In the upper elevations, it snows more often and several park roads may be closed to traffic because of deep snowfalls.
We now have approached the end of my informational article. It's now your job to take this information and do something with it. Good luck and thank you for visiting. |