Best Hiking Skirts
For Female and Male
Hikers

by Diane Spicer

Meet Hiking For Her's Diane

If you're searching for the best hiking skirts, you've landed in the right spot!

Let's get to it, shall we?

Each category of hiking skirts will present the benefits of each choice, so you can select the skirt(s) for your trail style, body type and preferences.

What to wear hiking can't get any easier than that, now can it?

Best hiking skirts
for warm weather hiking

Ah, the joy and freedom of swinging your legs on the trail - without being confined in hot hiking pant legs.

• Not to mention the ease of making a pitstop
  

But let's be smart about baring our legs, in terms of avoiding losing any epidermis to the trail.

Also, modest hiking skirts might be your goal (no flashing).

So your first decision:

Go long, or go short?

But definitely go hiking in your skirt!!

A nicely short option for hiking

Hiking in warm weather means working up a lot of sweat, which pools in the creases of your knees and groin.

A well made skirt well above your knees creates the perfect venting opportunity.

Take a look at this one from Skirt Sports:

Its elastic waistband plus interior drawcord makes it easy to customize to your preference: up high, or down low on your hips.

Comes in this bright color, or basic black.

You can also pair it with layers, as you'll see below.

Here's a trailworthy Savanna Trails skirt from REI. The material gives you a lot of move-ability, with four way stretch. The fabric also breathes, dries fast, and wicks away moisture.

The waistband is wide and won't compete with your backpack hip belt. The internal drawstring will allow you to tailor your layering system.

Want more coverage?

Back in the good old days of maxi skirts (the sixties, to be exact, and yes, I wore them back then), you couldn't turn around without tripping over one.

Now they're back, and suitable for the trail - except above the knee, right where it should be so YOU don't trip.

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The best hiking skirts
might be attached to a dress!

LadyHike makes some amazingly comfortable trail dresses.

Consider the Summer Day Dress:

• lightweight, breathable fabric
• lots of pockets
• sleeveless for unencumbered arm movements
• body skimming but not too tight
  

LadyHike makes great trail skirts, too!

• Check them out here.
  

Best hiking skirts
for cool weather hiking

Seriously?

Wear a skirt on a chilly trail in the fall and spring?

Yes, but add some leg coverage.

The reason?

When (if?) the day warms up, off go the leggings, leaving you free to enjoy the mild (hopefully sunny) weather when your legs get sweaty.

Here's a good pair:

The bottom layer has a lot of nice trail features:

• XS - XXL sizing
• four pockets
  
• wide, comfortable high rise waist band that won't fight with your backpack hip belt
• compressive, moisture-wicking, midweight leggings 
  

Or you can add tights to a skirt you already own.

Another choice

If you wear a skirt with built in leg coverage, you're guaranteed protection against a brushy trail, rocky outcrops you need to scoot over, or biting insects that didn't get the "it's fall, go away" memo.

Best hiking skirts
for cold (as in brrrr) 
hiking trails

Best tricks
for layering

Layering with tights is one way to get more mileage out of the best hiking skirts.

If you liked the look of any of the skirts above, layer them up!

Here's another worthy layering trick: leggings.

Thin leggings (a bit thicker than tights, also more resistant to snags) plus a quilted or insulated skirt, will give you mobility plus warmth

These REI Co-op Streelowe leggings give you a lot of versatility in a hiking outfit: wear them alone, pair with the skirt, or wear them underneath rain pants.

What about rainy weather?

Yeah, about that rain.

The Royal Robbins Discovery skirt you saw at the top of the page makes a good rainy day option, because it dries fast when the raindrops stop dropping.

• Add a pair of leggings or tights, and your legs are comfy all the way to the ankles without sacrificing mobility.

What about skorts?

Ah, yes, the ingenious fusion of shorts + skirt: the skort.

Some women love 'em.

Others despise them.

But you won't know which camp you're in until you try one!

That's one happy hiker wearing a good choice for a hiking skort: A Gym Girl Ultra Skirt with built in short shorts (5 inches) that kick in to cover you when you're bending over on the trail.

You can't see 'em here, but they are there when you need them!

One more worthy skort choice

This one from Title Nine features a mid rise cut, interior drawcord, built in mesh boy shorts, and fast drying poly/spandex material.

If you're a pocket kinda hiker, note the 2 front zips and one back velcro pocket!

Two nice color choices, in sizes 2 -14.

Best hiking skirts
for men

Never let it be said that Hiking For Her excludes males from the realm of hiking skirts.

• There are some mighty attractive male hikers sporting skirts on the trail, and looking cool and comfortable in their hairy bare legs.

Here's a review of a Purple Rain skirt on Garage Grown Gear, by a guy who uses it for all outdoor pursuits and can't imagine going back to wearing pants.

That's all she wrote!

Gotcha covered for all hiking skirt options.

Now it's going to be a challenge to select just one hiking skirt from this list.

But I have confidence in you!

A word of warning:

• You'll find, as with all hiking gear, you'll be adding to your collection of the best hiking skirts as the seasons roll along.

Be proud of your strong hiker legs in your hiking skirt.

• And enjoy the leg freedom :)

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Best Hiking Skirts

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