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There are a couple pieces to planning.  Before anything, decide for yourself what kind of hiking trip do you want to take?  This is the goal.  Then, review four trip limits of timing, duration, logistics, and trail difficulty.  This review will quickly limit options so you can pick a location. Let’s walk through the trip limits:

Things to review when choosing a place to travel

1) Timing: Think of the season you plan to travel first, because weather will affect the quality of your trip.  Not just temperature, but rainfall as well.  Summer is obviously the nicest weather, but it will be too hot in many places.  Spring is variable with high rainfall and snow melt through June in places.  Fall is usually the best to have good weather and avoid the high season crowds.  Don’t rule out December-January either, as it’s Summer in the southern hemisphere!  Travel options will narrow once you pick a month.

2) Length: The more days or weeks available to travel, the more the trip should lean towards a larger mountain or park.  While this sounds obvious, most people never do the opposite.  Don’t visit the biggest mountain possible for a weekend trip.  Many times, there a state or local hiking trails with one or two amazing day hikes within a drive.  This leads to an easy trip, few crowds, and a unique experience!  The key is to be mindful of your time.

3) Logistics: think of how long it takes to get to and from the mountain or park, permits needed to access (let alone back pack or camp) the area, and lodging.  National parks and mountain trails can have varying availability of equipment, food, and lodging.  Many of the most popular trails need to be booked months in advance.  Other areas are popular but remote.  Make sure the places you initially have in mind are feasible to reach. 

4) Trail difficulty: now we can think of the difficulty and variety of hikes we want to take.  Check through the sites for various parks and rank the amount of trails for each one.  Some of the more popular parks are limited for long hiking.  For example, the Grand Canyon really has two main trails for day hikes, Bright Angel and South Kaibab).  Note, elevation gain most affects the difficulty of hikes.  Additional elevation gain, especially over 1,000 feet, is more difficult than additional length.  Almost all parks rank trails as easy, moderate, or difficult.  Use common sense when reading a park guide.

After reviewing these limits, you can narrow the trendy “top ten” and “world’s best” hiking lists to a few options.  Maybe you had your site set on Macchu Pichu but permits are sold out.  Instead, Shenandoah national park is nearby and has enough hiking to fill a long weekend in the Fall (when views are beautiful).  The nice thing about meta-planning is it doesn’t require much work.  Check the primary website for each trail or mountain for location and permit needs.  The nearest main city will show flights and representative weather.  The biggest thing is to return to the goal for the trip and maximize your hiking within limits.  This initial planning process (meta planning by my terms) will create a rough itinerary.  More the half the planning will be complete before you even start booking!

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