Lonely Planet - Lonely Planet National Trails of America

L ast summer I spent several hours hiking along the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland on the South Loch Ness Trail. It was something of a fulfillment of a dream. Id wanted to visit the lake since I was a child, when I, like many of my generation, had become convinced by news reports and television shows that a mysterious long-necked monster lived in its dark waters. By the time I first gazed out across the lake in middle age, I knew better, but Ill admit I couldnt keep myself from half-searching for a sign of it. The story of Loch Ness ran deep within me, though Id grown up thousands of miles away, but once I started to walk, everything changed. Each step erased my idea of Loch Ness and replaced it with what it actually was the dozens of gorgeous and comical sheep who grazed near its shore, lifting their heads to watch me zigzag past them on the trail; the forested hills that climbed above the lake and opened up to rocky and windy knolls; the frigid water that lapped onto a stony spit of beach, where I squatted to submerge my hand in the lake in which I once believed a monster lived.

This has always been my favorite way to travel. At footspeed. Everywhere Ive gone in the world, the thing I most love to do is walk. Whether wandering through cities or trekking through the wilderness, experiencing a place at a pace achievable only by the efforts of my own exertions creates a sense of intimacy like nothing else. The slope of the land, the clamor of the streets, the way the flowers or the buildings or the mountains look when you round that bend, the smell and sound and sight and feel of that particular spot, there and then, with nothing between you and it thats the gift we get when we wander on foot or bike or beast. We dont only take in the view; we are taken in by it.

This book is about the love of that kind of travel. Of the sort we do when we venture down the most interesting paths. The sixty trails that are featured in these pages represent an astonishing range of landscapes, habitats, and climates that span the United States, but what they share in common is an open invitation to discover them one step at a time. Some of the trails pass through Americas most rugged wilderness, some are urban walks, and others weave through the territory between the two worlds. Several of the trails described in this book commemorate important, sometimes difficult events in our nations history the civil rights movement, the American Revolution, the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation; others celebrate and protect the beauty and diversity of our natural environment. These trails pass through national parks, historic town squares and seaports, vast deserts and tropical rain forests. The shortest trail in this book is less than a half a mile; the longest is 6800.

Every one of these trails tells a story of a place, a time, a people and most powerfully, if we allow them to, they teach us about our connection to each other, to history, and to the land. By exploring these trails, we become part of that story. Our perception of the places they pass through morphs from the idea we had of them to the understanding of what they actually are by sheer force of the fact that by setting foot on them we will forever know how it felt to be there. The impenetrable mountain range becomes the rainy day you sweated up its muddy slopes. The history lessons you learned about the Klondike Gold Rush or the Spanish explorers or the Ice Age become the things you saw, smelled, didnt know, but learned. The lake with the monster becomes the lake that once held your hand.

I hope you will venture onto some of these trails and savor reading about them all. This book is a glorious journey all its own. Happy trails.

By Cheryl Strayed
Oregon, 2019

CHRIS BENNETT / GETTY IMAGES

This 175-mile trail on the lush Big Island honors and protects Native Hawaiian culture and natural resources. Still in development, it traverses the coast from kiawe forest and beaches to petroglyph grounds and fishponds.

H awaii, also called the Big Island, is twice as big as the other Hawaiian islands combined, and its dramatic terrain will surprise you and take you to extremes. The islands history can be readily found along its coastal and mauka to makai (mountain to shoreline) trails, a network imprinted by the hands and feet of Hawaiis original Polynesian settlers and their descendants. The main coastal or Ala Loa (long path) trail formed the backbone of the trail network that supported communication and commerce between ahupuaa (land districts). In recognition of the importance of the coastal trail, the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail was added to the National Historic Trails register in 2000. Once circumnavigating the entire island, the coastal trail corridor, rich in historic sites, now stretches 175 miles from Upolu Point in North Kohala along the coast, rounding Ka Lae (South Point) and heading northeast and into Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The Highways Act of 1892, signed into law through the auspices of Queen Liliuokalani and the legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaii, dictated that any trail in existence at that time was a public right-of-way. This has become a critical tool for the establishment of trail segments for the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail and the states N Ala Hele trail system, which coincides with the Ala Kahakai at various points. When complete, the Ala Kahakai Trail will be the cordage that binds the island canoe together. The 175-mile trail includes four national park units and traverses 220 active ahupuaa. The NPS and community volunteer groups work closely with lineal descendants who have ancestral ties to the trail, its ahupuaa and its cultural resources, and who wanted the chance to manage their shoreline areas. The trail is a viable cultural corridor and a living source of Hawaiian history, as well as a treasure trove of ocean wildlife, native plants and birds.

The trail begins at a sacred site, the Puukohol Heiau, a massive temple built by Kamehameha I (17581819) and the hands of thousands, stone by stone. The heiau was dedicated to Kamehamehas war god Kukaiilimoku and is thought to have been instrumental in Kamehamehas success in unifying Hawaii Island and, ultimately, the entire island chain. Just north of the heiau is Pelekane Bay, where sharks often gather over the site of a submerged temple. In August, at the annual Hookuikahi i Puukohol Heiau Establishment Day Hawaiian Cultural Festival, visitors can experience living Hawaiian history.

As the trail meanders south, it passes through kiawe forest and along the shore, with spectacular panoramas of the azure Pacific and majestic Maui. There is a sense of timelessness as you imagine fisherfolk perusing fishing grounds for signs that it was time to throw the net, and in winter you may see humpback whales frolicking. Yet the trail also passes by massive beachside resorts. Its an apt reminder of how Hawaii plays hosts both to modern tourist infrastructure and indigenous cultural touchstones.

Later, the trail crosses the entrance to the Puak petroglyph field. With more than 3000 petroglyphs, this preserve is among the largest collections of ancient lava carvings in Hawaii. The carvings might not make sense to you, but viewed together, they are fascinating and worth a visit. The petroglyphs are a window into the history of the areas residents and are a recording of births and other important events.