The Appalachian Trail is a 2,190+ mile long public footpath that traverses the scenic, wooded, pastoral, wild, and culturally resonant lands of the Appalachian Mountains. Conceived in 1921, built by private citizens, and completed in 1937, today the trail is managed by the National Park Service in the category of “National Scenic Trail”, US Forest Service, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, numerous state agencies and thousands of volunteers. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy claims the AT to be the world’s longest hiking-only trail. More than 3 million people hike segments of it each year.

The trail travels 14 states along the crests and valleys of the Appalachian Mountain Range between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine:

Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

The Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail informally constitute the Triple Crown of Hiking in the United States.