Our Favorite Hikes in National Parks (2019 edition)

We’re going to _________ National Park, which hikes should we do?

Great question! We visited 11 National Parks on the 2019 tour, and here are our favorite hikes from those parks. These are listed in order of the parks we visited on our tour, not necessarily a ranked order.

Note: on the hikes that Barry and I do together, we like to spend all day in the park and often select hikes ranging from 13-23+ miles. Some of these hikes are loops, some are out and back, and all of them can be shortened to meet your personal distance preferences.

Zion National Park: Angel’s Landing

This was the first National Park we visited during the 2019 #HikingMyFeelings Tour. It was early April, super cold, windy AF, and the shuttles weren’t running so we walked in from the closest parking lot we could park in, adding mileage to an already difficult hike. We highly recommend doing this hike for sunrise to avoid the crowds - we were the only people out there with one lone trail runner and we watched the sunrise and ate breakfast at Scout Landing.

Canyonlands National Park + Arches National Park: Watch out for chipmunks!

When we were in Moab, we left the van doors open to air out a bit after driving straight through from Zion. As we explored the area around our campground, we had a chipmunk hitch a ride to Arches, Canyonlands, and then eventually we returned to our campsite in Moab where he decided he had enough adventure in the van with us. Honestly, the chipmunk stole the show for us here, but we really enjoyed the hikes we did!

Yosemite National Park: Eagle Peak

On our way back to northern California from Colorado, we spent a week in Yosemite National Park. Our first hike was to Eagle Peak via Upper Yosemite Falls. The last three miles were spent following footprints in snow that was 4-10 feet deep on the way to the summit. The view from the top provides a breathtaking angle on Half Dome to the left and Taft Point to the right. If you want to really go for it, you can extend the hike to peek over the edge of El Capitan.

Yosemite National Park: Yosemite Valley Floor Loop

After Eagle Peak, we were looking for something that would show us more of the park. We had earned our bird’s eye view from the summit, now it was time to hike the Yosemite Valley Floor loop. We did the whole loop, which clocked in over 23 miles! Note: this loop is awesome and has very little elevation gain, so if you have all day to kill and you want to see the entire valley floor, you can! Or, you can break it out into chunks to take you by the parts of the park you want to see most. We started the trail at Camp 4 and went clockwise from there (away from El Capitan to start).

Mount Rainier National Park: Sunrise Rim Trail

We had the best of intentions for our time in Mt. Rainier National Park. I was really excited about the opportunity to hike the Sunrise Rim trail. But Mother Nature had other plans. What we did see of the trail, I’m into, and we are excited to return to complete this trail soon!

Glacier National Park: Highline Trail

Join us as we navigate 18 miles of Montana wilderness out to the Granite Park Chalet, and as we take a detour to Salamander Glacier - an offshoot of the Highline Trail! On our way back to Logan Pass, a mountain goat hopped out from the bushes onto the trail, right in front of us. It was a super fun hike and the wildlife was incredible! This was the first hike where I wasn't really feeling feelings, just enjoying the hike. A turning point!

Glacier National Park: Dawson-Pitamakan Pass Loop

Between the tour stop in Kalispell and Missoula, we went back to Glacier National Park and hiked the Dawson + Pitamakan Pass loop - 18+ miles through the east side of the park. Pitamakan is named after a Blackfeet warrior (translates to Running Eagle) and that warrior had a vision quest at the pass. Bonus, she was a woman! This hike was absolutely stunning. We didn't think anything could top the Highline Trail after we hiked that, but this was next-level scenery and stuff, especially since it was a loop. Tons of glacier lakes, expansive views, and wildlife!

Yellowstone National Park: Union Falls

Yellowstone was the 10th National Park we visited on tour and after much deliberation, we've decided that national parks are natural attractions, much like Disney is an attraction. It's really no different except humans didn't build these things (like Disney), the planet did.

We like hiking and getting out in nature to get away from the crowds, away from humanity, and to reconnect with ourselves and each other. We haven't been able to achieve this in the high-traffic parks, that's why we wake up for sunrise hikes and do hikes that most park visitors probably don't want to attempt. Everyone should go see the National Parks to get stoked about land conservation and to explore the natural wonders of the US, but if you're looking to get away from it all, Yellowstone really isn't the place to do it. The crowds are bananas and that's just not our scene. But we saw Ole Faithful and she was a beaut, just like we heard she would be!

We drove out of Yellowstone and down a dirt road for 8 miles to find our next campsite, an absolutely gorgeous spot on a lake smack dab between Yellowstone and Grand Teton. The next morning, we hiked back into Yellowstone to see Union Falls. This. Hike. Was. Awesome. and my first river crossing wasn’t a total nightmare, but I’m now the proud owner of a pair of custom Hiking My Feelings Chacos, because ain’t nobody got time for crossing rivers barefoot.

Grand Teton National Park: Lake Solitude Loop

We had been looking forward to Grand Teton National Park for the entire tour, and we lucked out on this hike out to Lake Solitude. We joked that at the pace we were taking pictures, we wouldn't finish this hike until Friday, it was so gorgeous. On the way into the park, we saw some giant elk, and within the first two miles of the hike, we saw two huge bull moose and had to take a bit of a detour.

As we made our way out to Lake Solitude, we were the only people on the trail for most of the hike and we saw more moose, pikas, deer, marmots, and some mountain goats. This hike was by far our favorite of the trip, which is saying a lot because we've seen some epic parts of the US so far.

When we got out to Lake Solitude, we decided to take the loop back to Jenny Lake parking lot, because there was just too much gorgeous landscape to see and we didn't want to miss any of it. On the way out of Lake Solitude, we climbed up to 10,700 feet at the Paintbrush Divide. As competitive skydivers, we used to jump from that altitude at competition, so we had a good laugh at the summit sign thinking about how just a few years ago, we were jumping out of planes and now we were hiking through those altitudes.

Acadia National Park: Precipice Loop

After Freeport, it was off to Acadia National Park. We found a great campsite, set up shop, then went to Bar Harbor ('scuse me, Bah Hahbah) to check out the sites and get lobster rolls. After a great night's sleep in Acadia, we woke up to hike the Precipice trail - a short hike with some gnarly climbs.

Grand Canyon National Park: Bright Angel Trail

This was the last big hike of the 2019 tour, and by the time we arrived in Arizona, we were itching for a longer hike. After Acadia, we blistered down the east coast, across the southern US, and our last stop before returning home to San Diego was Grand Canyon National Park.

NOTE: The signs at the beginning of this trail recommend against doing this hike in one day, and we would agree. We had been conditioning all year at various altitudes, our starting temperature was in the high 20's, low 30's, and thanks to the time of year we were hiking, we were in the shade of the canyon for most of the hike down and back up. If any of those factors were not the case, we would have split this up as recommended.