Interactive Trail Map

Interactive Trail Map courtesy the Pacific Crest Trail Association PCTA

Explore by Region

The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail is a treasured pathway through some of the most outstanding scenic terrain in the United States. Beginning in southern California at the Mexican border, the PCT travels a total distance of 2,650 miles through California, Oregon, and Washington until reaching the Canadian border. More about the Five Regions of the PCT. 

Maps & Publications

Pacific Crest Trail Interpretive Map Brochure (PDF 812KB)

PCTA Communicator Magazine

PCT Section Maps

Section maps of the PCT are available for purchase by visiting the USGS Store.

History of the Trail

Clinton C. Clarke dedicated much of his life to preserving a slice of the American West for future generations. A Harvard graduate, successful oilman, and avid Boy Scout, his vision in the 1930s was a border-to-border trail along mountain ranges in California, Oregon, and Washington, "traversing the best scenic areas and maintaining an absolute wilderness character." It would take millions of dollars, 60 years, and thousands of hours of labor, but eventually Clarke's dream would be realized. To create the PCT, Clarke recommended linking several existing trails: Washington's Cascade Crest Trail, Oregon's Skyline Trail, and California's John Muir and Tahoe-Yosemite Trails.

In 1932, Clarke (pictured on the right, photo courtesy PCTA) founded the Pacific Crest Trail System Conference to lobby for and plan the trail. The founding members of the PCT Conference included the Boy Scouts, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), and a young photographer named Ansel Adams. During the summers of 1935 through 1938 more than 40 YMCA groups, traveling in relays and carrying a logbook over 2,000 miles, hiked, explored, and evaluated a route for the trail from Mexico to Canada. One YMCA staffer in particular, Warren Rogers, was instrumental in exploring sections of trail after they had been mapped out - a feat all the more impressive because Rogers had been crippled by childhood polio. Today's PCT closely follows the route blazed during those relays in the 1930s.

On October 2, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Trail Systems Act, which named the PCT and the Appalachian Trail as the first national scenic trails. The Act defined National Scenic Trails as "extended trails so located as to provide for maximum outdoor recreation potential and for the conservation and enjoyment of the nationally significant scenic, historic, natural, or cultural qualities of the areas through which such trails may pass."

Over the next 20 years, land management agencies, the Pacific Crest Trail Association and other trail organizations, and countless volunteers constructed nearly 1,000 miles of trail. Finally, in 1993, at a golden spike ceremony in Soledad Canyon, California, the PCT was completed as a contiguous trail from Mexico to Canada.

The Trail Today

The U.S. Forest Service has overall responsibility for the PCT, but trail operation is also shared by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, California State Parks, and the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA), as well as managers of the tribal, provincial, state and county lands through which the trail passes. The PCT travels 2,650 miles through California, Oregon, and Washington. In California, the PCT travels through 15 National Forests: the Cleveland, San Bernardino, Angeles, Sequoia, Sierra, Inyo, Stanislaus, Humboldt-Tayyaba, Eldorado, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, Tahoe, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta-Trinity, and the Klamath. It also traverses Lassen Volcanic National Park (NP), Yosemite NP, Devils Post Pile National Monument, and Sequoia-Kings Canyon NP.

The PCT is open to foot and horse travel and closed to motorized and mechanized travel (i.e., bicycles). There are a few locations where the PCT is routed on the shoulder of highways and across bridges with motorized travel. In these instances, recreationists should use extreme caution by traveling only in daylight and wearing bright clothing. In some areas, the trail passes through privately owned lands. Although travel on the trail is not restricted, users need to respect the rights of the landowners. Wilderness permits are required for most of the congressionally designated wildernesses through which the trail passes. In cooperation with federal agencies, the PCTA issues wilderness permits for trips of 500 or more continuous miles in a single trip on the PCT. Trail users planning to stay in developed campgrounds may be able to reserve campsites in advance.