The Pacific Northwest Trail is a 1200-mile hiking trail running from the Continental Divide in Montana to the Pacific Ocean on Washington’s Olympic Coast. Along the way, the PNT crosses three national parks, seven national forests, two other national scenic trails, and against the grain of several mountain ranges, including the Continental Divide, the Cascades, and the Olympics. The Pacific Northwest Trail was designated as the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail by Congress in 2009.

The route was first conceived by Ron Strickland in 1970. Between 1970 and 1976 In that time, the Pacific Northwest Trail was cobbled together using pre-existing trails and Forest Service roads.

Few places in the world offer the diversity of hiking settings commonplace in the Pacific

Northwest. The Cascade Range is a major reason: this lofty volcanic rampart, stretching 700 miles from southern British Columbia to Northern California. Thus hikers can roam verdant temperate rain forest on the western flanks of Mount Rainier or Mount Hood. From the crest of the Cascade Range west to the Pacific Ocean, hikers explore some of the most spectacular forests anywhere on the planet.