What's on your dream trip list?

[McKee80]

Hi everybody,

I've been chowing down on trip reports for the past year (even put a couple up myself) and been amazed at the variety of cool places to backpack. I've been resigned to going places around PIttsburgh (and a 4 day trip in Ansel Adams Wilderness last year) so far. This year, I have seven nights in the backcountry early-mid September with a buddy of mine. Anywhere in the US/Canada. You have all been many more places than I have. Where would you go?

I'll leave it open ended, I'm just looking for places to investigate to see if it is something I would be into. I'll be submitting my Glacier Northern Traverse permit in the morning, but I'll likely need a backup or maybe an alternative. Plus, I have to build up my bucket list

Thanks,
Sean

 

[Jackson]

This is probably out of reach without extensive planning and a decent chunk of change, but I'd like to go to and backpack in Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island.
In a similar vein of expensiveness and difficulty getting there, I'd like to backpack and packraft in Nahanni National Park in the Northwest Territories. Or walk/packraft the Canol Heritage Trail from Whitehorse to Norman Wells.
Canada has some extremely wild, rugged places that very few people go to, and it's my goal to get up to one of those places at least once in my life.

On the more tame side, here are a few I have a more realistic hope to get to sometime soon:

• Boundary Waters Canoe Area
• Bob Marshall Wilderness
• Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness
• Devon Lakes area in Banff

 

[McKee80]

This is probably out of reach without extensive planning and a decent chunk of change, but I'd like to go to and backpack in Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island.
In a similar vein of expensiveness and difficulty getting there, I'd like to backpack and packraft in Nahanni National Park in the Northwest Territories. Or walk/packraft the Canol Heritage Trail from Whitehorse to Norman Wells.
Canada has some extremely wild, rugged places that very few people go to, and it's my goal to get up to one of those places at least once in my life.

On the more tame side, here are a few I have a more realistic hope to get to sometime soon:

• Boundary Waters Canoe Area
• Bob Marshall Wilderness
• Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness
• Devon Lakes area in Banff

Love it!, thanks! Big plans are the best. I was looking at Banff and Devon Lakes looks beautiful, I think someone did a TR recently on here.

 

[Nick]

This is a river trip, not backpacking, but it's still a sweet dream trip. The Alsek/Tatshenshini in Alaska. I'm on the waiting list, hoping for a summer 2020 launch.

Not my photo...

For backpacking, Patagonia.

 

[McKee80]

This is a river trip, not backpacking, but it's still a sweet dream trip. The Alsek/Tatshenshini in Alaska. I'm on the waiting list, hoping for a summer 2020 launch.


For backpacking, Patagonia.

Holy crap! I'm a couple years/decades away from being ready for something like that. I've played beer league hockey for years. Hanging out in a locker room at midnight on a random Tuesday having a couple beers. I was recently asked how hard it was for me to find a new hobby that was even more intrusive to regular life (it wasn't that hard, this site had a lot to do with it). Good luck with the waiting list!

And thanks for all the work on the site. I, like many others I assume, am really happy to have a chance to contribute to the financial sustainability of the site! I'll make sure to represent with trip reports from way over here.

 

[MikeM]

7 days, anywhere in North America? I'd say the Wind Rivers would be on the top of that list for me.

 

[Ben]

I want to walk from the highway to Anaktuvuk Pass.

 

[Nick]

7 days, anywhere in North America? I'd say the Wind Rivers would be on the top of that list for me.

For backpacking, I totally agree with this.

 

[Outdoor_Fool]

Ben, stay in touch, I am contemplating a hike from Anaktuvuk to the highway. Not this summer, probably 2019 or 2020.

Otherwise, my entire list is too long to include here. And it keeps growing nearly every time I visit this site.

 

[Ben]

Ben, stay in touch, I am contemplating a hike from Anaktuvuk to the highway. Not this summer, probably 2019 or 2020.

Otherwise, my entire list is too long to include here. And it keeps growing nearly every time I visit this site.

You'll probably beat me there then. I'm shooting for three or four years out.

 

[slc_dan]

A month or so in Patagonia. 30 day river trip in the Grand Canyon. Triple Crown (PCT, CDT, ACT). I'd really love to be one of the 12 or 15 people who have walked the length of the Grand Canyon.

The rest is small in comparison, but I have several 7-10 day trip's I'd love to do as well.

 

[ZLmtns]

Holy crap! I'm a couple years/decades away from being ready for something like that.

I did that trip in 2004. It was a commercial trip and two of the people on that trip had never been camping anywhere. So you could do it too. It is an insane place to river raft

 

[b.stark]

I'd absolutely love to hike the Brooks Range. That's probably right at the top of my "dream" list. Nahanni is right up there too, and Baffin Island (or somewhere way up in the Canadian Archipelago) would be a trip of a lifetime also. Someday I'm going to make it to Iceland or New Zealand. Hopefully both.

Closer to home: A week in the Winds would be good. There's still plenty of them that I haven't been to. I've really been eying the Absarokas too. Another week in the Beartooths wouldn't hurt my feelings at all either. A week bumming around the Colorado Plateau would also be quite nice, if not a backpacking trip somewhere there.

 

[Wanderlust073]

Dreaming real big? Karakoram mountain range. Not even climbing the peaks, just trekking through for weeks/months.

 

[b.stark]

Dreaming real big? Karakoram mountain range. Not even climbing the peaks, just trekking through for weeks/months.

Forgot this one somehow! The hike to the K2 base camp would be excellent. Surely there are also other options as well out there.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Mine might sound a little weird but here it is.

During the Vietnam War, my dad was stationed atop a mountain in Oregon called Mount Hebo Air Force Base. Growing up, I heard lots of stories from him about his days at the base, the treacherous road up to it and the 20’ poles lining the road so it could be followed in the deep snow, etc. Not long ago I was thinking about those stories and googled to see whether the base still existed. I read that it was decommissioned about 40 years ago, has been returned to it’s natural state and has hiking trails to the summit. There's now a plaque at the summit commemorating my dad’s unit and a memorial looking over the meadow that once held the radar towers where he worked.

I thought about trying to squeeze it in this year, thought it would be better to plan it as part of a bigger trip to the PNW next summer. There’s so much out in that area that I want to explore. It's not far from Mt. Hood, Ranier, Olympic NP, etc. so that's sort of my dream trip right now.

 

[WasatchWill]

Wind Rivers and Sierras would be the next big ranges I'd like to wander around in.

 

[Yvonne]

my dream trips all involve volcanoes, of course.
Hopefully in the future I can do a cascades volcano trip and climb St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Baker. Do some backpacking in Oregon and Washington.

My biggest dream trip will be a trip to Vanuatu. There are expeditions to Marum and Benbow volcanoes and you rappel down several hundred feet to a lava lake. Pictures from this place look so insane.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

My biggest dream trip will be a trip to Vanuatu. There are expeditions to Marum and Benbow volcanoes and you rappel down several hundred feet to a lava lake. Pictures from this place look so insane.

Yvonne, there’s a great show on CNN called the Wonder List and there was an episode on Vanuatu. I can understand why you would want to go there. Seems like an amazing place. They didn’t show anything in the way of technical climbing but they did hike up to the top of one of the volcanoes so you might want to check it out. You can probably either find it on the CNN Go app or YouTube.

 

[andyjaggy]

Baffin island/Mt. Thor.