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Find a National Park Trail That Fits Your Trip

The best trail isn’t necessarily the longest, highest-rated, or most famous hike in the park. It’s the one that fits where you’re going, how far you want to hike, and how challenging you want the day to be.
Use our National Park Trail Finder to narrow down hiking options based on three simple choices:
Choose your national park. Set your difficulty. Pick your preferred distance.
We’ll return trail ideas that match your search, including estimated mileage, elevation gain, hiking time, trail highlights, and a link to explore additional trail information.


How to Use Your Trail Finder Results

Think of your Trail Finder results as a shortlist, not a final trail plan.
Each recommendation gives you several pieces of information to compare:

Trail Length

Mileage helps determine how much of your day a trail could occupy, but don’t judge the hike by distance alone. Elevation, terrain, altitude, weather and your hiking pace can make trails of similar lengths feel completely different.

Elevation Gain

Elevation gain provides important context for difficulty. A relatively short trail with sustained climbing can demand considerably more effort than a longer trail over flatter terrain.

Estimated Hiking Time

Use estimated time as a planning range rather than a deadline. Your actual hiking time can vary based on fitness, trail conditions, crowds, rest stops, photography and altitude.

Trail Highlights

This is where you can compare what you’re actually getting from the hike. One trail might lead to a waterfall, another to an alpine lake, geothermal feature, canyon overlook or wildlife habitat.

Verify Trail Conditions Before You Hike

The National Park Trail Finder is designed to help you discover and compare potential hikes, not replace official park information or on-the-ground judgment. Trail recommendations and route details may incorporate information available through AllTrails, which is an independent third-party service and is not an official National Park Service source.
Trail distances, elevation estimates, difficulty ratings, route access and hiking times can vary by source and may change because of reroutes, closures, weather, wildfire, snow, flooding, maintenance or other conditions.
Before starting any hike, verify current trail conditions, closures, warnings, permits and access requirements with the National Park Service or the agency responsible for managing the trail.

What Does Easy, Moderate or Hard Actually Mean?

Trail difficulty is useful for narrowing your search, but an easy, moderate or hard rating isn’t a universal measurement. Two trails with the same difficulty rating can demand very different things from a hiker.

Distance matters, but so do elevation gain, steepness, terrain, altitude, exposure and trail conditions. A relatively short hike that climbs continuously at high elevation may be considerably more demanding than a longer trail through relatively flat terrain.

When using the Trail Finder, think of difficulty as a starting point for discovering appropriate trails, not a guarantee of exactly how challenging a hike will feel

Easy Trails

Easy trails are generally approachable hikes with shorter distances, limited elevation gain and less demanding terrain. They can be good choices for families, casual hikers, scenic walks, recovery days or travelers trying to fit several park experiences into one day.

But “easy” shouldn’t be interpreted as “effortless” or “risk-free.” Heat, altitude, snow, uneven surfaces and weather can make even a relatively simple trail more demanding.

Moderate Trails

Moderate hikes occupy an especially broad middle ground. They may involve longer mileage, sustained climbing, steeper sections, uneven terrain or a combination of these factors without reaching the demands typically associated with a difficult trail.

This is also where difficulty ratings can become particularly misleading.

A 7-mile moderate trail with gradual elevation gain may feel comfortable to someone accustomed to hiking that distance. A 4-mile trail carrying the same moderate rating could include a steep 1,500-foot climb.

Two trails labeled “moderate” can feel completely different.

Use the rating to narrow your Trail Finder results, then compare the mileage, elevation gain and estimated hiking time of the individual trails before choosing one.

Hard Trails

Hard hikes can involve substantial mileage, major elevation changes, sustained steep sections, challenging terrain, high altitude, exposure or several of those factors at once.

These are hikes worth treating as major trip objectives rather than simply another stop on your sightseeing itinerary.
Look beyond the difficulty label. Consider the trail’s total elevation gain, highest elevation, terrain, expected weather, water availability, daylight and the amount of time you realistically have to complete it.

Want a More Detailed Difficulty Estimate?

The Trail Finder is designed for discovery: tell it the park, difficulty and distance you’re interested in, and use the results to narrow your options.
Once you’ve found a particular hike, you can evaluate it more closely with our National Park Hiking Difficulty Calculator.

Enter the trail’s distance and elevation information to get a more detailed look at the effort involved.

Trail Finder = discover your options. Hiking Difficulty Calculator = evaluate your choice.

How Far Should You Hike?

Choosing a distance range is one of the most useful ways to narrow your Trail Finder results, but the right mileage depends on what role you want the hike to play in your day.

Instead of asking only, “How many miles can I hike?”, consider asking:

“How much of my national park day do I want to dedicate to this trail?”

That distinction matters when you’re also trying to fit scenic drives, overlooks, visitor centers, wildlife viewing, photography or other hikes into the same day.

Fall leaf colors of Acadia National Park

Trails under 3 miles can work well when hiking is only one part of the day’s itinerary.
They’re particularly useful for arrival and departure days, scenic stops along a park road, photography-focused outings, families looking for manageable distances, or days when you want to combine several shorter trails.
Short mileage doesn’t automatically mean an easy hike, however. Check elevation and terrain before assuming that a 2-mile trail will be quick.

This range can work well for travelers looking for a more substantial hike without necessarily committing most of the day to the trail.
Depending on elevation and terrain, a 3–6 mile hike may leave enough time for a scenic drive, another short trail, wildlife viewing or exploring a different section of the park.

This can be a particularly useful Trail Finder range when you want hiking to be one of the day’s major experiences rather than the entire itinerary.

Once you’re considering hikes in the 6–10 mile range, the trail will often become a major part of your park day.
This is where looking beyond mileage becomes increasingly important. Compare elevation gain, expected hiking time, trailhead access and daylight before committing to the route.
A 9-mile trail with rolling terrain is a very different undertaking from a 7-mile hike involving thousands of feet of climbing.
Leave enough flexibility in the rest of your itinerary that you aren’t rushing the trail to reach your next stop.
Longer hikes deserve to be treated as significant trip objectives.
Research the complete route rather than relying on mileage and difficulty alone. Consider elevation gain, terrain, altitude, weather, water availability, trailhead access, current conditions, daylight and a reasonable turnaround time.
For some hikers, a 10-mile trail may be familiar territory. For others, it could be considerably beyond their normal hiking distance. The Trail Finder can help you discover longer routes, but deciding whether you’re prepared for one requires a more individual assessment.

From Trail Idea to Trailhead

Finding a trail that matches your preferred park, distance and difficulty is a good starting point. Before adding it to your itinerary, think about what you want to experience on the hike and what you need to know before reaching the trailhead.

Discover → Evaluate → Verify

Discover: Use the Trail Finder to find hikes matching your park, difficulty and preferred distance.

Evaluate: Compare mileage, elevation and estimated time, then check whether permits or reservations are required.

Verify: Confirm current trail conditions, weather, closures, alerts and access with the National Park Service before heading out.

Start With the Experience You Want

If waterfalls are the goal, explore our guide to the best waterfalls in national parks to compare hikes leading to destinations such as Yosemite Falls, Vernal Fall, Virginia Falls, Grotto Falls and Marymere Falls.

Heading to Yellowstone? Our guide to Yellowstone’s top geyser trails focuses specifically on hikes and walking routes through the park’s geothermal landscapes.

Distance also takes on a different meaning if you’re planning to run rather than hike. Our guide to trail running in national parks explores parks and routes where terrain, elevation and mileage make for particularly interesting runs.

And if the trail you’re looking for involves sleeping in the backcountry, you’re moving beyond what the Trail Finder is primarily designed to do. Start with our guide to the best backpacking trips in U.S. national parks for longer routes such as the High Sierra Trail, Wonderland Trail and Teton Crest Trail.
Then Check What the Hike Requires
Compare its elevation gain, estimated hiking time and difficulty to determine whether it fits your day and ability. If you want to examine the physical demands more closely, use our National Park Hiking Difficulty Calculator before adding the hike to your itinerary.

Next, check whether access requires additional planning. Some popular hikes, wilderness areas and overnight routes require permits, lotteries or advance reservations. Our National Park Permit Planner can help you identify whether a permit should become part of your trip planning.
Finally, Verify Current Conditions
A Trail Finder recommendation tells you which trails may fit what you’re looking for. It doesn’t tell you exactly what you’ll encounter when you arrive at the trailhead.
Snow, wildfire, flooding, extreme heat, construction, seasonal closures and road conditions can change access or make a trail substantially different from its normal description. Even a valid permit doesn’t guarantee that conditions will cooperate.
Check the National Park Service’s current conditions and alerts for your park shortly before hiking. If you’re driving to the trailhead, you can also review our national park road closure guide while planning your route.