The Best Moments of the Continental Divide Trail (2023 Survey)

As part of the Continental Divide Trail Hiker Survey, I ask hikers to share their hikes’ scariest moments, but I recently began asking hikers to share the best moments from their CDT hikes as well.

It’s good to remember that there will be difficult times on the Continental Divide Trail, but also, there are some damn good reasons that inspire people to begin (and stick out) a CDT thru-hike.

Some common responses to the question “What was your best moment on trail?” include:

• Finishing
• The Wind River Range (Wyoming)
• Glacier National Park (Montana)
• Cirque of the Towers
• The Gila

But there’s a lot more to tell than simply the names of some of the most scenic and most recognizable places along the CDT. Here are the best moments of this year’s CDT hikes.

Notes on the Data

• This year, 173 CDT surveys were completed. Are you hiking next year? You can sign up to take the survey here.
• Some responses are sorted and colored – e.g., northbound or southbound. More on this below.
• The Continental Divide Trail and thru-hiking generally use acronyms and jargon. If anything is unclear, the thru-hiker glossary may help. Please comment if you still can’t find what you’re looking for.
• I ask that respondents do their best to respond accurately. Not every hiker answers every question, and not every answer is guaranteed 100% accurate (e.g., someone may mistakenly report spending $10,000 on their hike instead of $9,000).
• I refer to survey respondents collectively as this year’s “class.” Remember, this is a sample and not a comprehensive survey of every person on the CDT.
• These results invoke basic statistics. To maximize your time here, familiarize yourself with average, median (M), and standard deviation (σ).
• For stats requiring the length of the CDT for a calculation (e.g., mileage/day), I use 2,974.5 mi / 4,787 km (from the FarOut Guides CDT app).
• To be notified of new survey results, click here.

Trail Magic

• A guy gave me a one-dollar bill while I was sitting in front of a supermarket.

• Four of us had gotten off the trail to wait for the snow to melt (we had skipped around and hiked all the areas without snow), but we went our separate ways and never got to hike together again.  I was in northern Montana ( just left Helena) and got a text message from two of my hiking friends (Jive Turkey and Lava) who had made it to Canada and were driving to complete the Wind River Range (we had skipped it due to snow).  He kept asking me where I was, and finally, I gave him my pinpoint location (he was going to give me a “shortcut” he had found).  About fifteen minutes later, I came to a dirt road and saw a car.  It was Jive Turkey and Lava who surprised me with trail magic, and then we drove to Marysville and had dinner. Afterward, they drove me back, where we said goodbye for the last time in person.  It was a terrific day!

• The Trail Oasis between Grants and Cuba, New Mexico, was the best trail magic ever. I was still feeling good before Colorado tried to destroy me.

• Immediately after my lowest moment on the trail, I met a group of ATVers who ended up buying the group lunch and hosted us at their incredible cabin for the night. They then drove us to West Yellowstone the next day.

• One of my friends decided to pay for the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone, and that was amazing.

Doing Hard Things

• After Completing the Wind River range after taking both the Cirque of the Towers and Knapsack Col alternates, I felt exceptionally accomplished and in awe of all the beauty I’d seen on the way.

• Hard to pick just one, but I’ll go with the day we scrambled along the Divide to bypass Knife’s Edge in the San Juans. I was worried about how we would get around the Knife’s Edge traverse on the ridgeline. Even though Ley said the ridge was passable, it looked very daunting due to the cornices we’d have to climb up and over and the vertical rocky cliffs we’d have to descend. It was a challenging scramble/climbing session with a pack on, with thousand-foot drops on both sides, but we made it along the Divide while the sun was rising and snow-covered mountains and forests stretched onto the horizon all around. My two partners and I made decisions together and helped each other out, and when we reached the summit of the mountain above Knife’s Edge, I felt so jubilant and happy. High risk, high effort, high reward situation in one of the most beautiful and remote landscapes of the whole trail.

• Traversing the Argentine Spine by myself. I felt like such a badass in such a tough and remote part of the trail just to crush Grays Peak the next morning. That stretch of trail was truly a momentum builder.

• Reaching the NM/CO border because I was injured when I started the trail and wasn’t sure how far I could make it, so I had set that as my first goal.

• The San Juans and the epic snow levels we experienced. Just about everyone else wimped out and skipped or went around, and the whole area was all to ourselves apart from a few footsteps ahead.

• Reaching the summit after the long climb, I was sure I couldn’t do it, but I did it regardless.

Broken Expectations

• All of New Mexico. I was expecting flat, desert hiking with a lot of monotony. Instead, I was treated to a constantly changing landscape, plant life, and animals. The Gila alt might have been my favorite place on the trail – no crowds, hot springs, fishing, stunning cliffs, good company.

• It was such a joy to make it to and then through the San Juans later in the season.  It had been my anxiety that after having flipped from Ghost Ranch to Waterton, I wouldn’t make it before the weather got scary and I would have to take the Creede Cutoff.  The weather turned out to be pretty perfect, albeit cold.  The San Juans were gorgeous, and it felt like succeeding at the last real challenge to finishing my thru-hike.

• Due to limited campgrounds because of bear activity, we had to detour away from the red line in Glacier National Park. We ended up taking the trail through the Ptarmigan Tunnel. The views were stunning on both sides.

Special Moments

• All our hot spring experiences – Gila, Witch Creek in Yellowstone, and Rainbow Hot Springs outside Pagosa Springs.

• The whole trail was one long moment where I experienced constant validation and acceptance from everyone I met on the trail. The experience allowed me to become more comfortable with myself and continue living authentically off the trail.

• The Perseid Meteor Shower in the Great Basin (Wyoming).

• Too many to count. Fantastic hiking, great support, and community with other hikers. Gila Alternate was magic. We were often forced off the red line due to snow conditions, but finding alternate routes was enjoyable, and they always provided a good/interesting experience (e.g., more culture/towns in Colorado was a good variety/contrast to all the solo hiking!).

• Hot springs at the Gila River, climbing 14ers, doing alternates in Colorado to stay on the Divide as long as possible, a road trip through Yellowstone, random acts of kindness from strangers, and meeting other hikers again after not seeing them for hundreds of miles.

• There were many moments of beauty and peace, feeling connected to the world, noticing the birds and interesting plants, etc. It’s pretty impossible to pick a single one.

• Sleeping in the shelter at the top of Parkview Mountain during a thunderstorm was a lot of fun. There was even a candle in there to cozy up the place, and I had service to watch YouTube with and talk to my family and friends.

Scenery

• For the first time, I slept above 12,500 ft / 3,800 m and watched a spectacular sunset followed by two distant thunderstorms. The ridgeline was exposed, but there was very little wind. For me, it was the trail’s high point, literally and figuratively.

• The mountains near Brooks Lake were beautiful. Eating dinner in Dubois with a bunch of hikers was the most fun I had. Reaching Gunsight Pass was a personal milestone for me. The most memorable was figuring out how to get home from the middle of nowhere in the Basin.

• Triple Divide Pass in Glacier! It was so amazing.

• Just endlessly waking up in natural places and so many hours of star gazing while cowboy camping.

• Going over Hope Pass in the evening and being greeted by an unexpected view of the Missouri Basin. It was stunning, and I cried.

• Running through the snow in the Collegiate Mountain Range with my trail family of four, I woke up before sunrise and hiked under the stars. I saw spectacular peak after peak and glissaded to my heart’s content.

The People

• I think anytime you see another thru-hiker you haven’t seen in a while, it’s like a high school reunion. You want to catch up and hear everything they’ve been doing. It was so nice to see people again when you least expected it!

• Running into a friend years after hiking with him on the Appalachian Trail.

• Running into all my northbound friends after I had flipped.

• Pulling a red wagon full of beer and water across the southern Great Basin in Wyoming with friends.

• I stayed up for four hours at night talking with my trail crush and staring at the stars and Milky Way on a clear, moonless night in the Great Basin.

• Having a nice campsite after a hard day of hiking and meeting your tramily again after not seeing them for days

Animal Encounters

• I added an extra 70 mi / 113 km in Yellowstone to visit the southeast corner of the park. One night, I was trying to find a good place to pitch my tarp in my backcountry campsite when I looked up and saw a white wolf watching me. I spent twenty minutes hanging out with two wolves who were casually checking me out and then spent several minutes howling.

• Honestly, every single day was amazing, and it’s hard to filter a favorite. However, there is one night that does stand out: On the Cirque Of The Towers alternate, I was camping alone above Lonesome Lake with the most incredible view of the sunset over the towers and lake when a fox looked into my tent! Then a herd of bugling elk started running from over the Jackass Pass around me and down towards the lake! It was absolutely magical.

• I saw grizzlies from ~50 m away in Glacier. We turned a corner, and they were downhill on the trail, and my girlfriend spotted them. A mom and two cubs were just chilling. They realized we were there but didn’t care. Beautiful animals!

• Seeing a wolf in Glacier National Park and doing a Class 4 ridge alternate in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

• Watching the animals in their natural habitat, getting to meet amazing, unique people, trail magic at the most crucial times, and quiet and solitude.

In Town

• Playing horseshoes at a giant hiker party at the bar in Lincoln, Montana.

• Lake City, Colorado – Stick Rodeo and dinner at the hiker center.

• Dinner and beer with other thru-hikers at the Little Toad in Silver City, New Mexico.

• Waking up early and hiking fast to make the Old Faithful Inn breakfast buffet.

The End

• Getting to Glacier and knowing there were only about 100 mi / 160 km left.

• Glacier National Park was by far the best section, with the most beautiful landscape and hiking. I loved finishing the trail in Glacier, and I have no regrets about keeping to a NOBO-only route.

• Standing atop Piegan pass, I wanted to cry. As the light, yet constant, breeze tickled my then-unruly beard hair, an overwhelming sensation of emotion and awe overcame me. The view was picture-perfect, and as I basked in its entirety, for the first time in eighty-nine days, the unfathomable realization of what I had accomplished hit me — I had fucking made it.

• It was my last day on the trail before the border, with my tramily for days. Great weather and beautiful lights in Glacier made everybody genuinely happy in the most simple way. It was the best communion of minds. We stuffed our faces with blueberries and laughed out loud the whole day, and one of our friends told us a poem at the top of the last climb of the CDT.

• The moment I figured out, “Holy shit, I can finish this thing!”

• Proposing to my girlfriend at the end of the trail.

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