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Nine locations across the Four Corners region
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The National Parks, monuments, and public lands you visit are treasures held in trust for all Americans — and for future generations. The people who came before us built these landscapes (or preserved them). Our job is to leave them better than we found them.
These principles apply to every trail, canyon, campground, and wild place. Practice them faithfully.
Learn more at Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics
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Reserve campsites, book backcountry permits, find trail conditions, and discover dispersed camping across all National Parks, National Forests, BLM lands, and State Parks.
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From Cortez · sorted by distance · tap to expand
| Trail | From Cortez |
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From Cortez · sorted by driving distance
Southwest Colorado & Pagosa Springs · sorted by distance
A continuous trail connecting Denver to Durango through 8 of Colorado's mountain ranges, 6 wilderness areas, and some of the most spectacular high-altitude terrain in the American West. It shares miles with the Continental Divide Trail through several segments. The southern terminus is in Durango - which means the trail ends (or begins) in your own backyard. SOBO (southbound, Denver to Durango) is the more popular direction, allowing time to acclimate to high elevation gradually.
One of the Triple Crown trails - and widely considered the most challenging of the three. The CDT follows the Continental Divide from the US-Mexico border at the New Mexico Bootheel to the Canadian border in Glacier National Park. Unlike the AT or PCT, the CDT has significant stretches of unmarked cross-country travel, multiple official and unofficial alternate routes, and approximately 160 miles of gaps (road walks). This is a trail for experienced long-distance hikers with strong navigation skills. The Colorado section is arguably the most spectacular - 900+ miles through the San Juans, Sawatch Range, Wind Rivers, and the Front Range.
Named for Edward Abbey's fictional eco-warrior George Washington Hayduke in The Monkey Wrench Gang, this 812-mile route is not a trail - it's a backcountry route across the wildest canyon country on earth. There are no blazes, no signs, and no maintained path. Hikers navigate using maps, GPS, and route-finding skills through some of the most remote terrain in the American Southwest, including canyon bottoms, slickrock, river crossings, and off-trail desert. It is one of the most challenging long-distance routes in North America and passes directly through landscapes covered in the Day Trips section of this page - Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, approximately 150 miles through the Grand Canyon, and Zion.