Visit USA 2024 Travel Planner Intro

WALKING AND HIKING

TAKE TO THE HILLS Put your best foot forward to explore some of the USA's most beautiful walking and hiking trails

Walking and hiking trails that criss-cross the country offer the chance to get away from it all amidst bountiful nature. TRIPLE CROWN TRAILS For hikers who enjoy long trails, the ultimate test is the Triple Crown of through-hikes – the Appalachian Trail stretching from northern Georgia to Maine, the Continental Divide Trail along the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to Montana and the Pacific Crest Trail through California, Oregon and Washington. Together they span 7,785 miles and 22 states – but short sections can be tackled in a much more leisurely fashion from many trailheads.

GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE Started in 1978 with a section of an abandoned railway corridor, the Great Allegheny Passage was completed in 2013. The trail starts in Cumberland, Maryland, and ends in downtown Pittsburgh, running for 150 miles across forest-swathed valleys, snaking around mountains and skirting three rivers. Along the way it crests the 2,392-ft Eastern Continental Divide and passes through around a dozen towns. ICE AGE NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL Stretching nearly 1,200 miles across Wisconsin, the trail’s western end is located in Interstate State Park on the St Croix River, bordering Minnesota, while its eastern end is in Potawatomi State Park on

Green Bay. It is so named because it traces the edge of a retreating Ice Age glacier from the time of mammoths and sabre tooth cats 15,000 years ago. More than 2.3 million people a year use the trail, hiking in spring, summer and autumn, and snowshoeing in winter. LEWIS AND CLARK NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL The trail commemorates the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803 to 1806, who explored the land the U.S. had recently acquired. It follows the expedition’s outbound and inbound routes for 4,900 miles from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon where it meets the Pacific Ocean, connecting 16 states.

With over 800 miles of hiking trails, Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina is home to exquisite natural beauty

ISTOCk.COM/MICHAEL VER SPRILL

34 visitusa.org.uk