Our site includes affiliate links to products we recommend. If you use one to make a purchase, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!
We love trekking. It is on a trek that you can truly get away from real life and have your world shrunk down to the basics of sleeping, eating and walking. We have gathered the best trekking quotes including short quotes about trekking or mountain trekking quotes so that if you are looking for inspiration for your next trek or for the perfect trekking captions for Instagram we have you covered.
We quit our jobs over 10 years ago and have been travelling ever since. We have made it a point to seek out some of the best trekking around the world from Nepal to Europe to New Zealand, just to name a few. These are some of the quotes on trekking that spoke to us and reminded us of our favourite treks.
We have combined some of our favorite trekking quotes and favorite photos.
Find your favorite quote about trekking now!
Best Trekking Quotes
Here are one of our favorite trekking quotes to inspire you. They bring across the feeling that we get when we are on a trek.
“Trekking means a travelling experience with a thrilling excitement.”
– Amit Kalantri
“The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot”
― Werner Herzog
“Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.”
– Henry David Thoreau
“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.”
– Rosalia de Castro
“You need special shoes for hiking—and a bit of a special soul as well.”
– Terri Guillemets
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
― Beverly Sills.
“You need mountains, long staircases don’t make good hikers.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Mountain hikes instilled in me a life-long urge to get to the top of any inviting summit or peak.”
– Paul D. Boyer
“Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.”
– John Ruskin
“Always hike with someone in worse shape than you.”
“Happiness is hiking with friends.”
“Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.”
“Let’s travel together and get lost in beautiful places.”
“In life, it’s not where you go, it’s who you travel with.”
– Charles Schulz.
“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.”
– Tim Cahill
“There is a whole world out there. Pack your backpack, your best friend, and go.”
“Good company in a journey makes the way seme shorter.”
– Izaak Walton
“It doesn’t matter where you’re going, it’s who you have beside you.”
“A good friend listens to your adventures. A best friend makes them with you.”
“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”
– John Muir
“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”
– Frank Lloyd Wright
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.”
– John Muir
“Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence.”
– Nemann Buhl
“Climbing is as close as we can come to flying.”
– Margaret Young
“It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
– Sir Edmund Hillary
“Hike Your Own Hike.”
“Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.”
– Ed Viesturs
“After a day’s walk everything has twice its usual value.”
– George Macauley Trevelyan
“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
– John Muir
“The long distance hiker, a breed set apart, from the likes of the usual pack. He’ll shoulder his gear, be hittin’ the trail; Long gone, long ‘fore he’ll be back.”
– M.J. Eberhart
“Never quit on a bad day.”
― Ben Crawford, 2,000 Miles Together
“Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking; You have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits.”
– Cindy Ross
“Ignore the outside voices telling you you’re doing it wrong; there is no “wrong.” But also watch out for wanting to fit in so badly that you start hiking someone else’s hike”
― Ben Crawford, 2,000 Miles Together
“Anywhere is ‘within walking distance’.”
“Under gold clouds, he pushed the limits of my body, setting a faster pace—some days surpassing forty rugged miles, unstopping through morning’s thick peach haze; noon’s warmth; red evening sun.”
– Aspen Matis
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu
“I would walk 500 miles.” The Proclaimers
“Jumping from boulder to boulder and never falling, with a heavy pack, is easier than it sounds; you just can’t fall when you get into the rhythm of the dance.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
“The trail will only provide if you accept its offer. All of it. You must leave home. You must be broken. It will cost you your entire life as you know it. And then, and only then, can you receive. What you receive will be far greater than anything you had or anything you lost. It will change you. It might even heal you.”
― Ben Crawford, 2,000 Miles Together
“A significant fraction of thru-hikers reach Katahdin, then turn around and start back to Georgia. They just can’t stop walking, which kind of makes you wonder.”
― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods
“The old school of thought would have you believe that you’d be a fool to take on nature without arming yourself with every conceivable measure of safety and comfort under the sun. But that isn’t what being in nature is all about. Rather, it’s about feeling free, unbounded, shedding the distractions and barriers of our civilization—not bringing them with us.”
― Ryel Kestenbaum, The Ultralight Backpacker
“The long distance hiker, a breed set apart,
From the likes of the usual pack.
He’ll shoulder his gear, be hittin’ the trail;
Long gone, long ‘fore he’ll be back.”
― M.J. Eberhart
Mountain Trekking Quotes
Trekking in the mountains is when you really get away from civilization. We especially felt this on our treks in Nepal, Bhutan and Peru. These quotes for trekking in the mountains encapsulate that feeling of being surrounded by the mountains in the thin clear air and feeling so small in the grandeur of nature. If you like mountain trekking you might like our lists of Short Mountain Quotes, Inspirational Mountain Quotes, and Funny Mountain Quotes.
“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”
– Edward Abbey
“Every mountain has its soul… if the mountain does not accept you & you don’t submit to her will, she will destroy you.”
― Bernadette McDonald, Tomaz Humar
“I like being near the top of a mountain. One can’t get lost here.”
– Wislawa Szymborska
“The higher you climb on the mountain, the harder the wind blows.”
– Sam Cummings
“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied—it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.”
– Ansel Adams
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.”
– John Muir
“Chasing angels or fleeing demons, go to the mountains.”
― Jeffrey Rasley, Bringing Progress to Paradise: What I Got from Giving to a Mountain Village in Nepal
“Feeling LOW? Go on mountains.”
― Prajakta Mhadnak
“Mountains are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.”
– Anatoli Boukreev
“Mountains make me believe that nothing can be bigger than nature, not even human ego.”
― Jay Kumar Singh
“Trekkers at high altitudes sometimes sense a person walking a few paces behind them, just out of sight. Often this person is dead. I never feel this, but once or twice I imagine someone walking a little ahead of me.”
― Colin Thubron, To a Mountain in Tibet
“A mountaintop is not simply an elevation, but an island, a world within a world, a place out of place.”
― Paul Gruchow
“It is the mountain that has been calling me, and it’s time to answer.”
― Susan Jagannath, Chasing Himalayan Dreams
“There are two kinds of climbers, those who climb because their heart sings when they’re in the mountains, and all the rest.”
– Alex Lowe
“Each fresh peak ascended teaches something.”
― Sir Martin Conway.
“Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in an office or mowing the lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”
– Jack Kerouac
“The experienced mountain climber is not intimidated by a mountain, he is inspired by it.”
– William Artur Ward
“As climbers thronged the scope of Everest, the Rupal Face retained its solitude, remaining a formidable oabjective.”
― Bernadette McDonald, Tomaz Humar
“Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.”
– Dag Hammarskjold
“When preparing to climb a mountain—pack a light heart.”
– Dan May
“Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.”
– Greg Child
“Tomaz believed that 80% alpinism was mental and spiritual and that his third eye vision & openness of his mind to the language of the walls were critical”
― Bernadette McDonald, Tomaz Humar
“Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.”
– Sir Edmund Hillary
“Remember that time spent on a rock climb isn’t subtracted from your life span.”
– Will Niccolls
“Many climbers become writers because of the misconceptions about climbing.”
– Jonathan Waterman
And that is the roundup of our favourite trekking quotes.
We also have other lists of quotes and captions on mountains, hiking quotes, hiking captions for Instagram, climbing mountains quotes, funny hiking quotes, and funny hiking captions. Check them out!
Let us know in the comments if there is a trekking quote that we missed and we will update the list.
Pin it for Later!
About the Author
Laynni Locke
Laynni has been sharing her travel adventures and day-to-day life on Routinely Nomadic social media for over 15 years and appreciates the importance of finding the perfect quote or caption to showcase those experiences. Putting her extensive writing and education background to good use, Laynni has become passionate about researching and curating comprehensive lists of all the best quotes and captions for every occasion.
Other lists you may like
