Done the big trails and fancy something harder? High routes are the answer for a certain kind of hiker: routes that stick to summits, ridgelines and alpine terrain rather than dropping into the valleys where normal trails live. That usually means real off-trail travel — bushwhacking, map-and-compass navigation, sometimes scrambling — and mileage numbers that are genuinely yours to decide. Here are five of the best-known examples.
The Wind River High Route in Wyoming is probably the most famous of the lot, running roughly 80 to 97 miles depending on whose line you follow. The Adventure Alan version is the friendlier starting point: shorter, doable in about a week, starting at Green River Lakes and finishing at Big Sandy. Andrew Skurka's variant adds extra highlights, including Gannett, Wyoming's highest peak, and bookends at Bruce Bridge and Trail Lakes trailheads. Continental Divide Trail hikers often use it as an alternate, so you may not be entirely alone out there.
Colorado's Pfiffner Traverse covers about 75 miles and 28,000 feet of climbing between Berthoud Pass and Milner Pass, crossing Rocky Mountain National Park, the Indian Peaks and James Peak wilderness. Another Skurka design, it's off-trail around 40% of the time but can be wrapped up in a week.
The Sierra High Route is the big one: roughly 195 miles and 60,000 feet of elevation gain, threading the high country above the John Muir Trail corridor from Road's End in Kings Canyon to Mono Village at Twin Lakes. The payoff is the JMT's scenery without the crowds and competitive permits — but only if your off-trail skills are solid. Keen hikers sometimes extend it with the ~100-mile Southern Sierra High Route, though the two don't link directly, so expect extra connector miles.
Skurka strikes again with the Yosemite High Route, a 94-mile core loop around the headwaters of the Tuolumne and Merced rivers, entirely inside the national park and about two-thirds off-trail. Most people start and finish at Tuolumne Meadows, which stretches the trip to around 162 miles. His guidebook covers the details.
Finally, the Pyrenean Haute Route is the epic of the list: about 465 miles and 167,000 feet of gain along the French-Spanish border from Hendaye on the Atlantic to Banyuls-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean. It threads between the GR10 and GR11, hugging the ridgeline, with roughly 20% pure cross-country travel — but spread over a much longer trek, so you're never lost in the wilderness for days on end. It's the rare route that blends serious off-trail backpacking with a hut-to-hut feel.
Why it matters: high routes reward the experienced backpacker who's ready for route-finding homework and self-reliance. These five all have guidebooks, established communities and planning resources, which makes them the sensible place to start before chasing more obscure lines. If your last thru-hike felt routine, one of these will fix that.
