“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.”
John Muir
Over the last few years, Mike and I have become pretty avid hikers. We love escaping our day jobs and enjoying the wilderness of the Adirondack Mountains on weekends, and even planned a hiking trip through Utah’s National Parks where we did 60+ miles in just under two weeks. Because of this, many of our posts feature some quick information to make sure you know what to expect on each trail. In general, it is usually similar to the rankings you’ll find on Alltrails.com, one of my favorite places to find cool hikes.
Wanderlust While Working’s Day Hiking Rating System
On most of our hiking posts, you’ll see each hike has a list of hiking stats based our some factual information like distance and elevation gain and some hike specific information like difficulty, trail markings and time.
- Distance:
- Elevation Gain:
- Difficulty:
- Trail Markings:
- Time:
We recognize that everyone’s idea of “Difficult” can vary, so we put some guidelines around how we are classifying the difficulty of our hiking trails to help you understand which trails may be appropriate for your skill and fitness level.
One other thing to note is that Mike and I are not thru-hikers or multi-day backpacking trip hikers, we do all of our hikes within one day. We may camp at campgrounds overnight, but we don’t hike with all our gear and camp on a trail. For a look at what gear we do hike with and our camping equipment, check out our gear page. These ratings also reflect that the most difficult “Extreme” hike still can be accomplished in one (albeit very long) day.
Easy Hikes
I consider an easy hike to be one that is family friendly and dog friendly. If we’re trying to quantify it, in general they will be either nearly flat and less than 4 miles, or a bit shorter perhaps with a slight elevation gain (no more than a few hundred feet). I’ll only rate something easy if it feels more like a walk than a workout. You likely won’t find many easy hikes on this site as Mike and I like to challenge ourselves and escape the larger crowds that you find on easier trails. On a scale of 1-5, these trails would be a 1.
Moderate Hikes
Moderate hikes are those that get your heart rate up, get you breathing a bit heavier, and just generally feel like a good workout. Most of the hikes that we do typically fall into the moderate category. These hikes may require some scrambling up rocks and will usually have a significant amount of elevation gain (>500ft up to around 1200 ft). Where it makes sense, we’ll try to tell you if it’s on the border between easy and moderate or between moderate and difficult. On a scale of 1-5, these trails would be somewhere between a 2 and a 4.
Difficult Hikes
In order to be considered a difficult hike, it must reach at least one of several criteria:
- The hike is very long (>8 miles) and/or has a significant amount of elevation gain (>1200ft)
- The hike has non technical climbing and requires significant amounts of scrambling over rocks
- The hike (regardless of distance) requires a climb up a very steep gradient for a large portion of the trail
In general, these hikes are ones Mike and I have to stop frequently to take breaks and put in a significant amount of elevation gain. On a scale of 1-5, these are a 5. These hikes may not be for everyone and you should ensure you’re prepared with the appropriate gear and are at least moderately in shape to attempt them.
Extreme Hikes
Right now, I would not say that we have completed any “Extreme” difficulty hikes, but there is certainly a level above where we are currently hiking that can be completed in one day. This would include hikes like Yosemite’s Half Dome, with almost 5000 feet of elevation gain and around 15 miles round trip. It also involves using cables to help you ascend the last point of the trail. On a scale of 1-5, these hikes are off the charts and should only be attempted by experienced and in shape hikers.
Where Have We Hiked?
Here are some of our top posts on our hiking trips!
