The biggest hiking stories of 2026 (so far)

Does it feel like we’re at the halfway point of the year? On the one hand, 2026 has passed, as it always does, and it is hard to believe that we will soon be closer to the beginning of 2027 than the end of 2025. On the other hand, thanks to the warm, dry winters experienced in my home state of Colorado, it feels, on some level, like it’s been either spring or summer since October.

As we approach the midpoint of the year, we’re stopping to take stock of what’s happened outdoors since the beginning of 2026. The past six months have brought disruption to America’s long trails, changes to the way national parks do business, and a series of headline-grabbing conflicts between hikers and wildlife. Here are five stories that have shaped the path this year.

Border issues affected the Pacific Crest, Continental Divide, and Arizona Trails.

In late 2025, as the Trump administration stepped up its push to militarize the US border with Mexico, it implemented a series of new restrictions on US long trails, including fencing off the southern terminus of the Arizona Trail and new access restrictions on the southern end of the Continental Divide Trail. In the first half of 2026, those issues continued to develop. In February, the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) announced that thru-hikers would no longer be allowed to touch the trail’s border wall; After an outcry, the US government reversed that ban a month later. However, restrictions continued to deepen on other routes. In April, the government closed the southernmost mile of the Arizona Trail as it began construction of the border wall, while in February photos shared by the Continental Divide Trail Coalition (CDTC) showed that a previously unpaved access road along the border was graded in preparation for construction there.

The running of bears and rattlesnakes attracts the attention of hikers.

Encounters with animals are a fact of life in the wilderness, even if bad encounters are extremely rare. But for a while this winter and spring, it seemed like more hikers than usual were suffering from wildlife bites and attacks, including some fatal attacks. Authorities in California, which typically sees about one fatal snakebite per year, recorded three fatal snakebites between the unusually warm winter and spring through late April. As the season progressed, a series of bear attacks – including one in Yellowstone and two in Glacier, one of which was fatal – made headlines in the western US. Scary? Sure. But also as a former Secretary of the Interior and current senator Ryan Zinke reacts to bear incidents by urging the federal government to relax wildlife protectionsExperts cautioned hikers against interpreting the increase in snakebites either as evidence of a major change in wildlife behavior. “It’s just a statistical anomaly, right?” Snake researcher Dr. Emily Taylor told backpacker After the second snake-related death. “That can happen sometimes. It’s not because rattlesnakes are becoming more aggressive or their venom is getting worse or any of these rumors you see floating around. It’s just because it was a tragic coincidence.”

SAR teams are further carrying out drone rescue operations.

Drones are now standard equipment for search and rescue teams across the country. Inexpensive, off-the-shelf aircraft let first responders keep an eye in the sky without relying on helicopters or fixed-wing craft, which are expensive to run and risky to operate in harsh weather. However, over the past few years, some teams have begun using drones in the rescue phases of their expeditions to deliver gear to stranded or injured hikers while they wait for better conditions to reach them. In late January, Colorado’s Summit County Rescue Group used a drone to drop a flashlight on a hiker stranded on 14,271-foot-high Quandary Peak; This follows an incident in December when the Phoenix, Arizona Fire Department used a drone to deliver blankets, cell phones, food and water to a hiker who was awaiting rescue at the top of Camelback Mountain. It was the first aerial delivery any group has made to the top of a mountain, but likely won’t be the last — although the Colorado team emphasizes that their new capabilities are not an excuse for hikers to become complacent. “This mission utilized volunteer backcountry SAR personnel in the rescue operation,” said Aaron Parmett, a public information officer and team leader for the Summit County Rescue Group. “This was not just a courtesy service.”

National parks get new rules (and new crowds).

Are you looking to visit one of America’s major national parks? You’ll probably have to get up earlier — and, depending on who you are, have to set aside a lot of money. Following Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s order to keep national parks “open and accessible”, the National Park Service eliminated timed admission to many of the United States’ most popular national parks. Glacier, Yosemite and Arches canceled their plans entirely, while Mount Rainier stopped requiring vehicle reservations during the busy summer season. So far, the results have been predictable: in A dispatch from Yosemite Valley, Ascent Associate editor Sam McIlvaine reported mile-long entry lines and “apocalyptic” parking lots.

New rules governing entry to national parks, which went into effect at the beginning of the year, have also made visiting the parks more complicated, especially for travelers from outside the United States. This year’s list of fee-free days (which, notably, does not include Juneteenth like in previous years) is only available to U.S. residents, while international visitors will now have to spend an extra $100 for entry to the 11 most popular national parks.

Hiking (and everything else) becomes more expensive.

Are you feeling like your money is not going as far as it did a year ago? This is not your imagination. Inflation reached a three-year high this May, with consumer prices rising 4.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Federal Reserve. And pedestrians are not exempt: This March, we asked backpacker Author and Appalachian Trail thru-hiker Maggie Slepian speculates on what rising costs mean for the Class of 2026. After looking at economic data and talking to business owners along major long trails, they concluded that AT thru-hikers can expect to spend about $8,000 during their trips, while Pacific Crest Trail hikers can spend an average of $10,700. (Notably, we published our story before energy prices rose due to America’s war with Iran, so it remains to be seen whether these estimates will hold.)