Getting the flavor of ... hikes through U.S. history

You can almost “hear the bullets fly” as you hike through America’s most famous battlefields, said Nancy Prichard Bouchard in Backpacker. Here are some of the best places to take a walk through the nation’s history.

Hudson Highlands State Park

New York

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Near the start of the Revolutionary War, the British launched an attack to gain control of the “strategically critical” Hudson River. For a sweeping view of the river valley, visitors can climb five and a half miles up to the 1,610-foot Mount Beacon, where soldiers stood to signal George Washington that British ships were advancing up the river.

Big Hole National Battlefield

Montana

Here you can “hike where Chief Joseph fought.” When tribes of the Nez Perce refused to move to a reservation in 1877, Chief Joseph “shepherded” them through the backcountry to evade the U.S. military. The 1,170-mile Nez Perce Historical Trail memorializes the treacherous journey they made from Oregon, through Idaho and Wyoming, and finally to Montana. The 10-mile stretch in Big Hole was the site of “their narrowest escape.”

Gettysburg National Military Park

Pennsylvania

Relive what was the “biggest (and bloodiest) confrontation” of the Civil War. The bucolic Billy Yank Trail winds past the “granite labyrinth of Devil’s Den,” where “snipers shot so many soldiers that the nearby creek ran red.” Hikers can pay homage to soldiers from Florida, Virginia, and Mississippi at Seminary Ridge, and wander through the “cannon-flanked fields” near Cemetery Ridge, where the Union finally held off the South’s charge, sending Gen. Lee home to Virginia.

Contact: Nps.gov