The world’s longest mountain bike route zigzags 2,490 miles (4,007 kilometers) along the Continental Divide from the Canadian border near Eureka, Montana, to the Mexican border at Antelope Wells, New Mexico. In the process, it climbs 200,000 feet/60,960 meters (that’s seven Everests) and ascends passes two miles (three kilometers) high. Naturally, the first nation-spanning fat tire route encompasses the best of our Rocky Mountain spine: alpine wilderness, undulant grasslands, scrub desert, solitude that frays the edges of your brain, and a sense of what the country would look like if wilderness were the rule, not the exception."

The W Circuit is one of South America's premiere hikes, with breathtaking views of the Cordillera del Paine in Torres del Paine, the heart of the Chilean Patagonia. The circuit's name comes from the shape the route makes as it traces the base of the mountains. The traditional W Circuit takes 4-6 days but there is also a 6-10 day "O Circuit" variant which loops the entire mountain range."

The cable car at Tianmen Shan (Heaven's Gate Mountain) in China's Hunan province is the world's longest -- it takes 28 minutes from start to finish.
China's scenic town of Zhangjiajie and Tianmen Shan are connected by the 7,455-meter-long cable car ride that gets as steep as 38 degrees in parts."

Forty years ago, conservationist Ron Strickland had a dream of connecting the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) would allow a hiker to make her way, like water, from the top of the Continental Divide all the way to the sea. Unlike other famed long-hiking trails, the PNT wouldn't just follow the backbone of a range of mountains—instead, it would cut a cross section through the varied topography and ecosystems of a whole region."

There are few places in the country where average Joes and Janes can play Olympian for a day, but Tennessee’s Ocoee River is one of them. This waterway hosted the whitewater events for the 1996 Olympic Games, and now, all summer long, raft companies guide aquaphiles on both the Middle and Upper sections of the river. The Olympic course itself, a quarter-mile-long (0.4-kilometer-long) section, was designed by engineers for maximum whitewater fun."

More than 120 miles of pure bliss. Whether you are looking for a great beginner ride to check out the scenery or you are a seasoned single track junkie, this trail has it all for you. Over 160 miles, 13,000 feet of climbing and descending, and some of the best views you could ever imagine."

When China, under Chairman Mao, was cut off from the outside world, Hong Kong provided a microcosmic reflection of its 'Great Within'. A more recent addition to this rich treasury of things Chinese is the Chi Lin Nunnery, a stunning recreation of Tang-dynasty architecture built in 1930. This extensive Buddhist complex covers some 33,000 square meters, including the nunnery itself, temple halls, Chinese gardens, a visitors' hostel and a vegetarian restaurant."

Connect the dots (six spare but well-outfitted huts spaced approximately 35 miles/56 kilometers apart) on a weeklong mountain bike expedition that starts in the jagged San Juan Mountains and ends in Moab. Harder and more isolated than its twin, the venerable Telluride-Moab ride, the 215-mile (346-kilometer) Durango-Moab route presents navigational and bike-handling challenges and a sense of unfettered freedom."

In general, Colorado’s famed fourteeners—the state’s 54 peaks over 14,000 feet (4,267 meters) tall—are pretty easy to climb. This makes the east face of 14,259-foot (4,346-meter) Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, which serves up the biggest buffet of multipitch, big-wall routes this side of Yosemite, even more of a prize. The east face’s sheer, 2,000-foot-high (609-meter-high) Diamond is a true, big mountain adventure that requires confidence in climbing 5.10 rock and the guts to sleep out in a portaledge."

The TransRockies six-day stage race from Buena Vista to Beaver Creek is the most spectacular and difficult trail run in the country. For pros, there’s a purse ($20K). For the rest of us, there’s a boast-worthy vacation: 113 miles (182 kilometers) and 18,000 feet (5,486 meters) of elevation gain, all above 7,500 feet (2,286 meters) amid grandiose ruggedness."

If the Wild West is still alive, it’s no more obvious than at Silverton Mountain. This scruffy mom-and-pop ski area is the country’s premier antiresort. The low-speed, two-person chairlift, the old laundry trucks they use as shuttles, and the wood-stove-heated base yurt are your first clues as to the owners’ no-nonsense philosophy: It’s all about the skiing. And skiing there is."

Leadville was always the epicenter of the core endurance mountain biking race scene, but when Lance Armstrong started competing—and winning—the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race, a hundred-mile (161-kilometer), high-altitude sufferfest, it became the showcase race of mountain biking pain. The course is so hard that even the mighty Armstrong was humbled the first time he raced it (in 2008), when Colorado local and six-time champion Dave Wiens beat him by two minutes."

The Scar Face run is notorious among skiers at Silverton Mountain and that’s saying something as the whole mountain is geared up for only the most skilled and courageous skiers. Such is its reputation for difficulty that fewer than ten skiers a year even attempt it, with locals stating that ‘Scar Face’ is a prediction rather than a description. Interested? Well, we certainly were, that’s the sort of challenge we can’t resist."

The ice of Hyalite Canyon, just south of Bozeman, has gained fame as the proving ground of legendary Himalaya climbers Conrad Anker and Alex Lowe, as well as a spot for the locals to just get out and swing their picks. Filled with countless waterfalls in the summer, Hyalite sets up with a smorgasbord of ice climbs in the winter. Routes range from popular, consistent classics to ephemeral wisps of ice that have only have been climbed one season."

No self-respecting river rat should resist the challenge of paddling the world’s longest nonstop river race, which traverses an entire state in three and a half days. The Missouri River 340, from Kansas City to St. Louis (technically, St. Charles) is something of a Wild West race, with few restrictions other than reasonable safety regulations (nav lights, no jousting with barges) and the need to finish within 88 hours."

The Arrowhead 135 race is long, difficult, and bitterly cold, but that’s all part of the fun. Right? Undoubtedly some competitors question this line of reasoning while standing at the starting line of this 135-mile (217-kilometer) ultramarathon in International Falls, Minnesota, a town that routinely registers the coldest temperatures in the Lower 48 and is more commonly known as Frostbite Falls."

The 277-mile (365-kilometer) Superior Hiking Trail, which hugs a ridgeline above the Lake Superior shoreline between Duluth and the Ontario border, is the best long hike in the country between the Continental Divide and the Appalachian Trail. It covers rugged terrain—bluffs, cliffs, and the spine of the ancient Sawtooth mountain range—as it traces streams and skirts wild rivers, rises to mighty bluffs overlooking the great lake, and plunges into deciduous forests of birch, aspen, and maple interspersed with redolent stands of boreal spruce and balsam."

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is one of the U.S.'s most visited wilderness areas in summer and fills with droves of fishermen and canoeists, but come winter, it’s deserted.
Outfitter Paul Schurke runs day trips out of his Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge as well as multi-day camping trips. Opt for the latter to get a suggestion of the sort of wilderness Steger experiences on his own expeditions. Guests learn how to steer the Canadian Inuit sled dogs, build snow shelters, and camp in comfort in subzero temperatures, but the most memorable parts are immaterial—taking in the spray of night stars, the trees encrusted in white, and the other wonders of a vast silent wilderness."

With its sheer peaks, wildflowers, alpine lakes filled with trout, grizzly bears, and, of course, glaciers, Glacier National Park is the ideal place to lose yourself for days. The park typifies the Rocky Mountain experience and yet has cathedrals of loose-rock mountains and yearlong snowfields that make it unlike anywhere else on the planet. This means backpacking options abound. Simple trips, like an overnighter to Akokala Lake, deliver a real wilderness experience, while a ten-day traverse of the Continental Divide across the backbone of the park is a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

Locals describe the Forks of the Kern in two ways: It’s either 80 rapids in quick succession or one really, really long one. These 22 miles (35 kilometers) of nonstop Class IV and V rapids make the Forks of the Kern, only 150 miles (241 kilometers) from Los Angeles, one of the country’s premier whitewater runs. But it’s also a brilliant escape."

Somewhere along the 80 miles (129 kilometers) of glorious northern California wilderness coastline between Fort Bragg and Eureka is a secret surf break as perfect in form as in setting. The Lost Coast wave is the stuff of American legend: a big, consistent, year-round swell that washes onto a rocky shore with high energy and perfect curvature—fast, clean, with long, long sweeps."

If the Sierra’s original pathbreaker and solitude lover, John Muir, were alive today, it’s a fair bet he’d hike the Sierra High Route instead of the trail that bears his name. The High Route, arguably the best kept wilderness secret in the lower 48, shadows the John Muir Trail as the two traverse the remarkable kingdom of granite that lies between Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks."