The Best U.S. States for Hiking

Earlier this month, the outdoor clothing brand, Kuhl, published their list of the best states for hiking. To build their rankings, Kuhl used this methodology:

To determine the best states for hiking, we built a composite index using three categories: Trails and Outdoor Access (50%), Weather and Climate (25%), and Crime and Safety (25%).

The rankings may be a little head scratching in some cases - as you might guess with any rankings of this type. In the end, they're always subjective. As you might expect, weather and crime are pretty straightforward metrics, but the data used for Trails and Outdoor Access is fairly suspect, in my opinion. Here's what Kuhl has to say about its use of this factor:

Trails and Outdoor Access measured both quality and availability. Indicators included the number of long-distance trails, the average score of each state’s top 20 trails, and the share of land designated as protected parkland.

The top 10 states for hiking, according to Kuhl's methodology, are as follows: CA, AZ, UT, WA, CO, HI, WY, OR, FL and Maine.

Obviously, the state that really jumps out on this list is Florida, of all places. No disrespect to this great state, but it's not a place that comes to mind when I'm thinking about new places to hike. Then, you had to go all the way down to number 27 to find Montana!! Are you serious? Have you ever been to Glacier National Park? But I digress... Another bone I have to pick is that Kuhl's methodology obviously ignores the quality of scenery. Hello, Glacier! Seriously, how can CT ever rank ahead of North Carolina on any type of hiking rankings??? Sure, AZ and UT have lots of great hiking options, but can you really say the scenery is better in those two states versus states like WA, WY or Colorado. Sure, I know, that's purely subjective on my part. After all, I'm reminded here that my old college philosophy professor used to say that you can't argue aesthetics.

If you're wondering, coming in at dead last in this list is Louisiana. Here's the full report and rankings. What are your thoughts?



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Check out our online trail guides:

• Glacier National Park: HikinginGlacier.com

• Grand Teton National Park: TetonHikingTrails.com

• Rocky Mountain National Park: RockyMountainHikingTrails.com