North America offers countless backpacking options. Without much fanfare, hiking and backpacking have become two of the country’s most popular outdoor activities. According to the 2022 Outdoor ...

Discover the best camping tents of 2025 as we bring you the most popular and the most celebrated ones, all in one place.

The best backpacking sleeping pads aren’t just lightweight and portable to keep your pack weight down. They’re comfortable, too. Between hauling gear and trekking up different terrains, you need a ...

Beyond the innovative Sunflower X radiant stove/heater we looked at a few weeks ago, Fire Maple makes a full lineup of gear essentials that rank among the market's most portable. Another of its clever ...

Kitting out your backpacking gear closet for the first time is pricey. Just getting together the basics—tent, sleeping bag, and backpack—can easily run upwards of $1,000 if you aren’t careful. For ...

What’s the best backpacking stove? To answer this question, I tested 29 stove models from six different brands, interested only in those that I’d be happy to carry for an extended outing in the ...

Backpacking is just like day hiking. Except instead of finishing the day by going home to a shower and a home-cooked meal, you camp alongside the trail, don’t shower, and eat someone’s best attempt at ...

Food and water safety, travel accident insurance, first aid, maps, apps... what do they all have in common? They are all ...

When hiking in the backcountry, you need a good backpacking water filter to ensure access to safe, clean water. A functional water filter (and often a water purifier , too) can’t be missed on a ...

After completing the 2,500-mile Pacific Crest Trail in 2019, I’d now consider myself an experienced backpacker. But I always make sure to tell people that this five-month-long adventure was actually ...

The backpacking meals you eat on the trail can make or break the experience, which is why trail food is one of my priorities when planning. Quality food is not only necessary to maintain energy and ...