Slackpacker.com is designed to provide convenient access to websites with hiking and backpacking trail maps, trip reports, and photographs. It is not intended to compete with other hiking-oriented sites, rather to provide quick, organized access to those other sites. In addition, thousands of personal sites have been posted on free web servers -- only to be ignored by search engines. The purpose of slackpacker.com is to provide a way to find these pages, and make research easier for the hiker. Other sections cover activities related to hiking; please refer to the link buttons on the left hand side of this page.

Quick Links: New page announcement! We get a lot of questions about using hostels for hikers seeking low cost lodging, so you'll find our thoughts here on our new hosteling page.
One of our most popular and controversial articles is on our National Park Service Trivia Page. Think Yellowstone was our first National Park? Think again.
On the topic of National Parks, we're pleased to announce that Slackpacker.com is now affiliated with the National Park Lodge Architecture Society, which preserves the history of our iconic park lodges online at NPLAS.org.
Summertime and the burnin' is easy, so bone up on what the weatherman's UV index actually means.
We've taken a lot of heat over the years for our seemingly anti-hiking pole position. Fact is we aren't against hiking poles, just some of the ways they are employed. Really, hiking poles are quite harmless. It's some of the people who use them that are the problem. Click here if you must.
For winter pursuits, we invite you to visit our sister website, SkierNet.com, a complete guide to ski areas, skiing technique, and equipment in the same quick-loading, easy-to-use style as slackpacker.com.