4. ROUTE K, PLITVICE LAKES NATIONAL PARK, CROATIA
Distance: 11 miles
Time to Tackle: Five hours
Terminus: Entrance Station 1
To glimpse Plitvice Lakes—a chain of sapphire and emerald jewels cut into karst and connected by streams, many of them subterranean—is to wonder whether you’ve wandered into an AI-generated simulacrum of natural beauty. Not only are these gems at the core of Croatia’s oldest national park, but you can see many of them during day hikes on a network of serpentine trails. The longest one, Route K, is a circuit among the lower and upper lakes; it spools around the awe-inspiring Jezero Kozjak, like a Lake of the Ozarks retouched in Photoshop, and leads you across a series of boardwalks— ideal platforms to take in an unbelievable panorama of verdant forests, towering waterfalls, cascading seeps, and sprawling tufa embankments. Despite the place’s popularity (it’s affordable, and a quick trip from the Adriatic Sea, which separates this coastline from Italy), wolves, black bears, and wildcats prowl the landscape, a rarity in Europe. There's a nominal entrance fee; otherwise, you’re free to roam.
5. BACKBONE TRAIL, CALIFORNIA
Distance: 67 miles
Time to Tackle: Three to five days
Termini: Point Mugu (west) and Will Rogers State Historic Park (east)
Tell people you hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and they’ll wonder how many times you saw the ocean. (Answer: zero.) So here’s your chance to admire the big blue expanse from several thousand feet above Los Angeles. The Backbone Trail zigs and zags across the Santa Monica Mountains, just north of the lavish homes of Malibu, before descending to coastal coves. Slicing through a rare safeguarded stretch of Mediterranean ecosystem, this is arguably the country’s most anomalous trail—public land with ocean views, in an area where private interests buy up every scrap of acreage. During the pandemic, the Backbone became a hot spot on the fastest-known-time circuit, with runners racing it in ten hours. Assuming you’re not pursuing such a record, know that campsites are infrequent. So have a friend pick you up at day’s end, or recruit a guide via the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council to lead you and secure lodging, though it could cost upwards of $500. Otherwise,
if night sets in and you’re out of options, you’ll need to burrow in among the chaparral; if anyone asks, you’re from Calabasas.
