National park hikes in 4K: Grand Canyon, Yosemite & more
Canyon trails, giant trees and mountain roads in the great parks.
14 walks · 15h 22m in total · 4 countries
Into the Grand Canyon: Bright Angel Trail Hike
Video by Treadmill Entertainment · Oct 2024 · All rights belong to the creator
All rights belong to the creator.
Grand Canyon National Park, United States · 1h 12m: more from United States →
National parks protect the landscapes people cross oceans to see, and the best way to understand them is on foot. These videos follow real trails in real time: down into the Grand Canyon, up the granite steps beside a Yosemite waterfall, along a narrow fin of rock in Zion and through a grove of the largest trees on Earth. Most are filmed with only natural sound, so you can walk along at home, plan a trip, or simply visit places that are a long way away.
The American classics
The United States created the world's first national park when Yellowstone was protected in 1872, and its parks are still the model for the idea. On the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Bright Angel Trail switchbacks down from Grand Canyon Village past layer after layer of rock; the park warns hikers not to try to reach the river and climb back out in a single day in summer. In Yosemite the Mist Trail climbs beside Vernal Fall on steep granite steps that are soaked in spray in spring, and in Zion the Angels Landing route follows a sandstone ridge with chains to hold on to and long drops on both sides. A permit is now needed for that final section.
Utah has more parks within a few hours' drive of each other than anywhere else in the country. In Arches, a climb of about a mile and a half over open slickrock ends at Delicate Arch, the free-standing arch on the state's license plates. At Bryce Canyon, trails drop from the pine forest on the rim into amphitheaters full of orange rock spires called hoodoos. Further north, Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs is a hillside of white and orange travertine terraces, still growing, crossed by wooden boardwalks.
East coast forests and mountain roads
Great Smoky Mountains, on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, is the most visited national park in the country. The Trillium Gap Trail climbs through old forest and rhododendron to Grotto Falls, where the path passes behind the waterfall. In Maine, Acadia's Ocean Path runs along the pink granite coast of Mount Desert Island, with the Atlantic on one side and spruce on the other. In California's Sequoia National Park, the Congress Trail loops through the Giant Forest from the General Sherman Tree, the largest single tree on Earth by volume.
Some parks are best seen from the road. Glacier's Going-to-the-Sun Road crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass on a ledge cut into the mountainside, and Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park climbs above the tree line to over 12,000 feet, the highest continuous paved road in the United States. Both close in winter, and both parks have used timed entry or vehicle reservations in busy months, so check the National Park Service website before you go.
Beyond the United States
Banff became Canada's first national park in 1885, and Johnston Canyon is one of its easiest walks: steel catwalks bolted to the canyon walls lead past a series of waterfalls to the Lower and Upper Falls. In Saxon Switzerland National Park near Dresden, sandstone towers rise above the Elbe and a stone bridge links the rocks at the Bastei, with narrow gorges such as the Schwedenlöcher below. In China's Hunan province, Zhangjiajie became the country's first national forest park in 1982; its thousands of sandstone pillars are part of the Wulingyuan UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Many of these walks are long, so they work well on a big screen or on a treadmill. Each video links to its country page, where you can explore the cities nearby.
Explore the cities nearby
Every walk on this page links to its country, where you can continue with 4K city walks.
