tips to find less crowded trails and points of interest
As parents, we’re forced to weigh a lot of pros and cons when selecting hikes to take our young ones on. In years past I would probably have felt more comfortable on a busier trail. The logic being that should something happen, at least someone would be by to find us and go to get help. But in the era of global pandemics, less is definately more.
To complicate things further, more people are out using our state and national parks, as these pieces of public domain are some of the only recreational options available. In summers past we would take our kids to the amusement park several times a month (we had season passes and the park is ten minutes from our home). We would also frequent the Zoo, botanical gardens, and the science center. Covid-19 closed down all of these options for us and as such, we’ve spent more time than ever exploring nature. I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to do this, it’s made our family closer and has been a lot of fun for everyone.
So how is an aspiring adventure-parent supposed to find a slice of heaven that won’t be too crowded? After all, you don’t want to be responsible six days of the week only to contract coronavirus out on the trail. The answer shouldn’t surprise you, technology!
To illustrate how to determine which of two trails would be less busy we’ll use waterfalls recently reviewed here on famBeta. Even if you’re not too familiar with Instagram or AllTrails, this is a very easy strategy to implement. So let’s compare the stats for Catawba Falls and Toms Creek Falls.
You may be able to get all the information you need from AllTrails. If you aren’t familiar with the site you’re about to be hooked! AllTrails compiles information (beta) on literally “ALL TRAILS!” From state parks to national forests, private property, and game lands – AllTrails has the beta you need to find the right trail for your next excursion.
An AllTrails listing is typically comprised of a short write up about the hike as well as some facts related to the park or lands at which the trail is located. Their listings also show a trail map with elevation guide – a great resource to determine not just how long but how strenuous a specific trek will be.
Using the AllTrails description to determine how popular a particular trail is easy. The first line of the AllTrails writeup will typically give you a good indication. Consider the writeup for Catawba Falls, it begins “Catawba Falls Trail is a 2.1 mile heavily trafficked out and back trail located near Old Fort, North Carolina…“
Heavily trafficked is a nice way of saying “this trail is busy.”
While you’re on that page it’s important to take note of how many reviews have been done of the trail as well as how many are recent. You can get a lot of beta right from those reviews as well. You can even do a ctrl+f or similar page content search for the words “busy” “parking” “crowded.” But make note of the date of these entries and consider that against the proposed date of your travels. Regarding Catawba Falls you don’t need to look too hard, not only is it described as heavily trafficked but the most recent reviews all list how crowded the trail and waterfalls are (as of 8/31/2020).
But like we discussed, parks are busy, so maybe we’re trying to set ourselves up to find the lesser-busy of the two. Well, I have a little trick, and it involves Instagram.
Instagram is great, it’s probably my favorite bit of social media because I love pictures. I love to see people, places, events from all over the world, and one of the top features I use before packing up the van and heading to a new trail is searching for that trail on Instagram. When searching I’m looking for a few pieces of data.
- How many photos are there total.
- How many photos from last weekend.
- What does the crowd demographic look like.
So doing this search on Catawba falls I am seeing TONS of pictures posted regarding this place. By tapping on “recent” and then scrolling through the most recent photos you can see when the picture was posted (this doesn’t mean that’s exactly when the poster was there, but it’s a good indicator of the recent volume of activity – I’ll be discussing why you should always share photos after your trip in a future article on safety). Just doing a quick scroll at Catawba Falls and I lost track, easily dozens of people posted pics from this beautiful waterfall last weekend. You could infer from this that even more people visited but didn’t post pics about the falls. All-in-all there were a lot of weekend photos but few from during the week, if a weekday visit works for your schedule you could be in luck.
Lastly, the demographic is younger, but don’t let that fool you, Instagram has a younger demographic in general (compared to facebook). While I saw a lot of college-aged hikers I wasn’t seeing lots of family pictures meaning you may be the only group out there with young children (but so what, right?!?).
Comparing these outcomes to similar searches for Toms Creek Falls the obvious choice for a subdued hiking experience emerges. Toms Creek is hands-down the winner. But, that shouldn’t stop you from visiting both.
The number one, hands down, best tip I can give you to beat the crowds is to wake up early and beat them to the trail. If you can be at the trailhead around 9 am you are going to pass few other day-hikers. The folks you pass on the trail will be other people with families (come on, we’re already going to be up early), photographers, and campers.
Ultimately I want you to be prepared, don’t show up to a full lot at 11 am with no masks in your hiking bag, stressing about what you’re going to do with the day. If you do your research, leave early, and have a nearby backup trail as a plan B, you’ll be A-Ok!
