Hiking Quotes: 116 Quotes to Inspire Your Next Outdoor Adventure
Hiking quotes can be nice to read as you plan your upcoming trekking adventure, or you daydream back to expeditions past. They seemingly transport you to the rugged mountain wilderness.
Hiking quotes help you envisage mornings waking up in cosy country cabins, cradling a steaming hot cup of coffee, and breathing in the crisp mountain air. They ignite the excitement of ambling along a well-trodden woodland trail, stepping on crunchy autumn leaves, and looking out to the path ahead, unsure of what is around the corner.
The hiking quotes detailed here come from an array of notable Authors, Expeditioners, and public figures. They also make nice captions for your photos of west coast national parks on social media, or as handwritten inspirational captions in your photo albums and scrapbooks.
Best Hiking Quotes
Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.
Jack Kerouac
Hiking and happiness go hand in hand or foot in boot
Diane Spicer
To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles
Mary Davies
The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot
Werner Herzog
Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility
Gary Snyder
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking
Friedrich Nietzsche
After a day’s walk, everything has twice its usual value
G.M. Trevelyan
Walking: the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise
Carrie Latet
The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk
Jacqueline Schiff
There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing
Sir Ranulph Fiennes
But the beauty is in the walking — we are betrayed by destinations
Gwyn Thomas
Jobs fill your pockets but adventures fill your soul
Jamie Lyn Beatty
Hiking isnt for everyone. Notice that the wilderness is mostly empty
Sonja Yoerg
Hiking is not escapism; it’s realism. The people who choose to spend time outdoors are not running away from anything; we are returning to where we belong.”
Jennifer Pharr Davis
Carry as little as possible, but choose that little with care
Earl Shaffer
Hiking is a bit like life: The journey only requires you to put one foot in front of the other… again and again and again
Unknown
If you allow yourself the opportunity to be present for the entirety of the trek, you will experience beauty every step of the way, not just at the summit
Unknown
More Hiking Quotes
In every walk with nature, one receives more than he seeks
John Muir
Trails are like that: you’re floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and expect to see nymphs and flute boys, then suddenly you’re struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in dust and nettles and poison oak…just like life.
Jack Kerouac
We dont stop hiking because we grow old, we grow old because we stop hiking
Finis Mitchell
In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous
Aristotle, Greek Philosopher
I slow down when hiking. The rhythm of nature is more leisurely. The sun comes up, it moves across the sky, and you begin to synchronize to that rhythm
John Mackey
Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt
John Muir
When everything feels like an uphill struggle, just think of the view from the top
Unknown
The long distance hiker, a breed set apart, from the likes of the usual pack. He will shoulder his gear, be hittin the trail; long gone, long fore he will be back
MJ Eberhart
Turn off everything once a week, including your brain, and walk somewhere quiet
Unknown
Another glorious day, the air as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue
John Muir
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going
Beverly Sills
Hiking side effects include sweating, euphoria, and general awesomeness
Unknown
Never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost, and you see a path. By all means, you should follow that
Ellen DeGeneres
These woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep
Robert Frost
The longest journey begins with a single step
Pantanjali
Hiking alone lets me have some time to myself
Jamie Luner
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.
John Muir
Hiking Quotes About the Mountains
It is not the mountain that we conquer, but ourselves
Sir Edmund Hillary
I like being near the top of a mountain. One cant get lost here
Wislawa Szymborska
You cannot climb a mountain with downhill thoughts
Unknown
The view up here is breathtaking, and I know its all downhill from here
Unknown
Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you
William Blake
Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing
Barry Finlay
The higher you climb on the mountain, the harder the wind blows
Sam Cummings
I go to nature to be soothed and healed and to have my sense put in order
John Burroughs
Youre off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.
Dr Seuss
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
Helen Keller
Nature is not a place to visit. It is home
Gary Snyder
Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.
Greg Child
General Quotes About Hiking and Travel
Its not where you go, its who you go with
Unknown
Not all those who wander are lost
JRR Tolkien
No television show, no movie, no book even, can impact your soul like a perfect moment in nature
Rev Kane
In America, alas, beauty has become something you drive to, and nature an either/or proposition–either you ruthlessly subjugate it, as at Tocks Dam and a million other places, or you deify it, treat it as something holy and remote, a thing apart, as along the Appalachian Trail.
Bill Bryson
When we walk into a grove of trees or under an open sky the magic of nature takes over and the heaviness of life lifts a little
Natassia Cassinero
There was nowhere to go but everywhere
Jack Kerouac
Between every two pines there is a doorway to a new world
John Muir
I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than trees
Henry David Thoreau
You need special shoes for hiking—and a bit of a special soul as well.
Terri Guillemets
A path is a prior interpretation of the best way to traverse a landscape
Rebecca Solnit
Walking is man’s best medicine
Hipocrates
Walking gets the feet moving, the blood moving, the mind moving. And movement is life
Terri Guillemets
You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.
J.R.R.Tolkien
Nature is one of the most underutilized treasures in life. It has the power to unburden hearts and reconnect to that inner place of peace
Dr. Janice Anderson & Kiersten Anderson
Deep down, at the molecular heart of life, the trees and we are essentially identical
Carl Sagan
Walking Quotes
You don’t have to set off right into the wilderness to go hiking. You can also enjoy urban hikes through cities or short, beautiful trails through your local National Park or nature reserve.
Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time
Steven Wright
I love walking in the woods, along the trails, by the beaches. I love being part of nature and I love walking alone. It is therapy. One needs to be alone, to recharge one’s batteries
Grace Kelly
I love walking because it clears your mind, enriches the soul, takes away stress, and opens up your eyes to a whole new world
Claudette Dudley
To be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… these are some of the rewards of the simple life
John Burroughs
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David Thoreau
If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk
Hippocrates
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread
Edward Abbey
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived
Henry David Thoreau
Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory
Ed Viesturs
Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top. Then you will see how low it was
Dag Hammarskjold
I’ve realized that at the top of the mountain, there’s another mountain
Andrew Garfield
Witty Hiking Quotes
To hike is to complain
Dean Johnston
I have two doctors, my left leg and my right
G.M. Trevelyan
Fact: Hiking is actually just walking, only on dirt or rocks or other uneven surfaces
Brendon Leonard, Semi-Rad
Woods are not like other spaces. To begin with, they are cubic. Their trees surround you, loom over you, press in from all sides. Woods choke off views & leave you muddled & without bearings. They make you feel small & confused & vulnerable, like a small child lost in a crowd of strange legs.
Bill Bryson
Hiking is just walking where its ok to pee
Demetri Martin
Always hike with someone in worse shape than you. The bears out there will know
Anon
My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven now, and we don’t know where the heck she is
Ellen DeGeneres
The closer you are to nature, the further you are from idiots
Anon
I have a therapist. Her name is hiking
Unknown
It is all fun and games until you hear a twig snap behind you
Unknown
Hiking is the only slightly less ugly stepsister of running
Linda Hughes
Sleeping bags are the soft tacos of the bear world
Unknown
Black bears rarely attack. But here’s the thing. Sometimes they do. All bears are agile, cunning and immensely strong, and they are always hungry. If they want to kill you and eat you, they can, and pretty much whenever they want. That doesn’t happen often, but – and here is the absolutely salient point – once would be enough
Bill Bryson
Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.
Bill Bryson
Until you walk a mile in another man’s moccasin, you can’t imagine the smell
Robert Byrne
Long Distance Hiking Quotes
The Appalachian Trail, the Camino de Santiago, the PCT, the Corfu Trail. Conquering a long-distance, multi-day hike is a different kettle of fish entirely.
Long-distance hikes can be as mentally challenging as they are physically. They also require an additional level of endurance, expert planning, and preparation. The hiking quotes in this section are dedicated to those in it for the long haul.
Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking. You have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits
Cindy Ross
All that is required of you is a willingness to trudge. There is no point in hurrying because you are not actually going anywhere. However far or long you trod you are always in the same place – in the woods. It’s where you were yesterday, where you will be tomorrow.
Bill Bryson
For hiking is one of those things that you can only do when you have the determination in you
Unknown
The trail leads not merely north and south, but to the body, mind and soul of a man
Harold Allen
Believe you can and youre halfway there
Teddy Roosevelt
The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity
Amelia Earhart
No pain, no rain, no Maine
Appalachian Trail Saying
The only thing more difficult than adjusting to life in the woods is adjusting to life indoors
Anon
There is a phenomenon called Trail Magic, known and spoken of with reverence by everyone who hikes the trail, which holds that often when things look darkest some little piece of serendipity comes along to put you back on a heavenly plane.
Bill Bryson
Hiking Captions
Sometimes, you want something light-hearted, short, and cute to accompany your social media posts. The hiking captions in this section have you covered!
- The mountains are calling and I must go
- When life gives you mountains, put on your boots and hike
- Head for the hills!
- Hike more, worry less
- Take a hike
- Never stop exploring
- Wander where the wifi is weak
- Two’s a company, trees a crowd
- Pack lighter and go further
- I’d rather be hiking in the rain, than sitting inside at a desk on a sunny day
- The mountains are calling and I must go
- Life is better in hiking boots
- Hiking? Bring a compass. Its awkward when you have to eat your friends
- Kicking it in the woods with my birches
- Hiking is the answer. Who cares what the question is
- I know I hike like a girl. Try to keep up
- That hike was unbe-leaf-able!
- Dear mountains, I think about you all the time
- All good things are wild and free
Parting Words
Do you have any more hiking quotes that you would like to share? Perhaps you would also like these climbing quotes or this guide to hiking alone as a woman.
Safe travels and happy trails! Melissa xo