Get lost on these awe-inspiring hiking trails from across the globe
- Text by Briony Cartmell
- Photography by Lead image by Philipp Zieger // Wanderlust
Paths are formed by continual treading. When you follow a trail you’re contributing to the preservation of history; echoing the human urge to journey, to explore, and to look.
Between juggling the many pressures of modern life and navigating career paths, taking to the tracks is a powerful tool in breaking life down to its simplest form of orientation. Placing one foot in front of the other puts you, the walker, firmly in control of your chosen destiny.
Photo by Sanne Boertien and Herbert Schröer
Spiritual value does not lie in the destination, but in the experience of the journey itself. Deciding to walk is the antithesis to spending dead time in traffic or suffering a stuffy underground commute, allowing us to carve a route to mindfulness and stay conscious to sensations of the outdoors.
In Wanderlust: Hiking on Legendary Trails, published by Gestalten, contributors capture the diversity of the world’s landscapes, following routes that span from the traditional trade routes of China to mule paths, frozen rivers and dirt roads.
Photo by Quing Yu
Photo by Abhimanyu Bose
“The true beauty of trails is that they do not only exist in the world’s most spectacularly scenic places, the places fit for large-format glossy books of photography; they exist everywhere,” suggests Robert Moor, author of On Trails: An Exploration in this book’s foreword.
While Wanderlust includes helpful tips and route maps for those looking to sleep under the stars, Moor also sees the book as “a compendium of dream walks, some to be walked in our waking life, others to be walked only in the imagination.”
Whether you choose to live vicariously through these global portraits, or your crampons are waiting by the door, everyone can serve to be reminded to connect to the world around them.
Photo by Viktor Posnov
Photo by Jakub Polomski
Photo by Ashley Hill
Photo by Howard Brown
Photo by Jessica Craven
Photo by Karin Eibenberger
Wanderlust: Hiking on Legendary Trails is published by Gestalten.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck
The party starters fighting to revive Stonehenge’s Solstice Free Festival
Free the Stones! delves into the vibrant community that reignites Stonehenge’s Solstice Free Festival, a celebration suppressed for nearly four decades.
Written by: Laura Witucka
Hypnotic Scenes of 90s London Nightlife
Legendary photographer Eddie Otchere looks back at this epic chapter of the capital’s story in new photobook ‘Metalheadz, Blue Note London 1994–1996’
Written by: Miss Rosen
The White Pube: “Artists are skint, knackered and sharing the same 20 quid”
We caught up with the two art rebels to chat about their journey, playing the game that they hate, and why anarchism might be the solution to all of art’s (and the wider world’s) problems.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The Chinese youth movement ditching big cities for the coast
In ’Fissure of a Sweetdream’ photographer Jialin Yan documents the growing number of Chinese young people turning their backs on careerist grind in favour of a slower pace of life on Hainan Island.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The LGBT Travellers fundraising for survival
This Christmas, Traveller Pride are raising money to continue supporting LGBT Travellers (used inclusively) across the country through the festive season and on into next year, here’s how you can support them.
Written by: Percy Henderson
The fight to save Bristol’s radical heart
As the city’s Turbo Island comes under threat activists and community members are rallying round to try and stop the tide of gentrification.
Written by: Ruby Conway