Hard Hiking Trails
5,938 trails classified as hard — one of four hiking difficulty levels we use sitewide: easy, moderate, hard, and expert. Steep, technical, or long. Requires good fitness and experience.
How we classify hard trails
Steep, technical, or long. Requires good fitness and experience.
Classification uses OpenStreetMap sac:scale (Swiss Alpine Club grade), mtb:scale (mountain-bike technical grade), trail visibility, and trail length. Long backcountry routes push into harder buckets even without explicit grade tags — a 20+ mile day-hike route counts as Expert regardless of terrain.
Top states for hard trails
States with the most hard-rated mapped trails. Click a state for the full filtered list.
Sample hard trails
A cross-state sample of named hard trails. 48 shown of 5,938 indexed.
5,890 more hard trails available — drill into a state above to see them all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the hiking difficulty levels?
We classify every trail into one of four hiking difficulty levels: Easy (Gentle terrain, well-marked. Suitable for all ages and fitness levels.), Moderate (Some elevation gain or longer distance. Requires basic fitness.), Hard (Steep, technical, or long. Requires good fitness and experience.), and Expert (Long backcountry routes (20+ miles), alpine grades, via ferrata, or extremely technical terrain. For experienced hikers with proper conditioning, navigation skills, and gear.)
How is trail difficulty calculated?
We combine OpenStreetMap sac:scale (Swiss Alpine Club grade) and mtb:scale (mountain-bike technical grade) tags with trail length and visibility data. Long backcountry routes are bumped into harder buckets even without an explicit grade tag — a 20+ mile day-hike route counts as Expert regardless of terrain.
What makes a trail "hard"?
Steep, technical, or long. Requires good fitness and experience.
Are difficulty ratings the same as the SAC hiking scale?
Not exactly — our four-level system (easy/moderate/hard/expert) is a simplified version built on top of the SAC scale plus distance and elevation data. See our guide on how the SAC hiking scale works for the full technical breakdown.
From the OutsideAtlas Blog
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The SAC scale is the most common trail difficulty system on OpenStreetMap. Here's how to interpret each tier — and why a T3 can ruin your day if you're not ready.
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Photo: Tobias MrzykHow Trail Difficulty Ratings Actually Work (and Why They Lie)
Every trail app rates trails differently. Here's why an "easy" trail in one app can be a "hard" trail in another — and how to read between the lines.
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Summer at Yosemite means three-hour shuttle lines. Here's when each major US national park is actually worth visiting.