8 Best Backpacking Pants of 2026

A wide elastic waistband doesn’t sound like a reason to choose one pair of pants over another until you’ve spent a day with a hip belt cinched across a buckle, which is why this is the pair we recommend first to women packing for a multi-day trip. The waist sits high and flat with nothing digging in, and the fabric stays comfortable on a hot climb instead of clinging. The toggles at the ankles are the second thing we noticed: pull them tight and the cuffs stay clear of mud and wet grass.

Summer weight is the right description. Air moves through the fabric, it dries fast after a wash, and dirt brushes off once it’s dry. Zippered cargo pockets hold a phone and keys without swinging, and the cut allows a full stride without feeling like a flag in the wind. One design detail to look at before you commit: horizontal darts above each knee, coming in from the side seams, which read as a visible seam line on some legs. We don’t mind them; if you want a completely plain leg, you’ll spot them straight away.

Sizing is where the decision gets made. The waist and the thigh pull in different directions on this cut, so a size that’s right at the hip can be snug through the leg, and the elastic forgives less than the measurement suggests. If you’re between sizes, order both and return one — a return window is cheaper than a trip spent tugging at your waistband.

Water beads and rolls off these. The fabric is a nylon-and-spandex blend with a Teflon durable water repellent finish, and it does what a good DWR should: drizzle and wet brush sit on the surface, a shake sends most of it flying, and the rest dries out fast. On a trip where the forecast is genuinely bad, that’s the difference between a comfortable afternoon and a cold one.

The 14 percent spandex is the second reason they work. The stretch shows up on high steps and wet scrambles, where a stiff hiking pant pulls across the knee and this one doesn’t. The listed variant gives you hard numbers to order by — a 34-inch waist and a 30-inch inseam — so size them like a pair of jeans rather than guessing from a letter. It’s also thin, cool and rated UPF 50+, which makes it a genuine one-pant option in warm, wet weather.

The catch is noise. The nylon is loud enough that you hear it with every stride, which matters more on a quiet trail than it does in town. We still take these when rain is likely rather than possible: nothing else here handles sustained wet weather as comfortably, and the noise is a fair trade for dry legs.

Convertible pants for women are usually an afterthought — a men’s pattern taken in at the waist and recolored. These aren’t. There’s genuine room through the hips and thighs, the elastic waist expands without cutting in, and the legs zip off above the knee to make shorts that land at a length you can walk in. They’re the women’s convertible to buy for a trip with real temperature swings.

The detail we appreciated most is the cord at each hem. It gathers the extra length, which matters because these run long — on a shorter frame you’re either cinching them or hemming them. Storage is generous and closed: zips on the main pockets, Velcro on the rest, so nothing migrates down the leg on a descent. The fabric isn’t waterproof and doesn’t pretend to be; it dries quickly, so a shower costs you an hour rather than an evening.

Sizing needs a tape measure rather than a label. The largest size is listed as a 16, and that mismatch catches people out, so check the chart against your own measurements before you order rather than trusting the letter on the tag.

Sun is what these pants are built for. The fabric is light and rated UPF 50+, and it dries fast enough that a rinse at camp or a dunk in a stream isn’t a problem. Dirt brushes off once it’s dry, which sounds like a small thing until you’re on day four and everything else you own is grubby.

We pick these for hot, open routes — desert, exposed ridge, a summer trip where the forecast is all sun and no rain. The stretchy waist and deep zippered pockets make them easy to live in, the leg is wide enough to move in without flapping, and they pack small enough to justify a second pair. The fabric is thin, though, and the crotch seam is where wear shows first if you’re hard on a pant.

Fit settles who these are for. They run close to the body, and the navy cut is smaller than the black in the same size, so try the color you actually plan to wear before you commit to a size.

The cuff is the whole point. A tapered jogger keeps fabric away from your heels, packs smaller than a straight leg, and looks like clothing rather than gear when you walk into a café at the end of a trip. On a multi-day route it reads as the pair you change into rather than the pair you hike in, and that’s how we’ve used them.

What they do well is comfort. The fabric is soft, light and quick to dry, and it doesn’t swish when you walk — a small thing that stops being small on a quiet trail. The pockets are full-size and zippered, holding a phone flat against the thigh instead of swinging, and the length options, petite through tall, are what sold us: a jogger two inches too long ruins the cuff entirely.

One note from living with them: the pocket trim is grey on every colorway, which stands out on the darker pairs. It’s a small thing, but this is a pant you’ll wear into town, and it’s the sort of detail you notice in photographs.

So these are the camp-and-town pair in our bags rather than the trail pair: the evening at a hut, the drive home, the town day before a resupply. For brush, scree and long talus descents, a straight leg with a hem that stays put is the better tool.

These cost less than anything else we cover here, and what that buys is the basics done properly: a light, quick-dry synthetic, an elastic waist with a drawstring, and zippered hand pockets. Nothing about them feels technical, and that’s fine — on a warm trip, a plain light pant that dries overnight does most of what an expensive pair does.

The details are where the savings show. The pocket zippers are bonded to the fabric rather than sewn, so heat from a dryer can lift them; line dry these and that problem disappears. The cut is simple and roomy, and the elastic waist sits flat under a hip belt with nothing to press into you.

We keep a pair as a spare and a loaner. They pack down small, we don’t worry about them the way we worry about the expensive pants in this set, and they’re good enough for camp, the approach and a night in a hut. If you hike a couple of times a year and want one pair that won’t wreck the trip budget, start here.

The listing says waterproof; treat that as water-resistant at best. Light rain beads on the surface and a steady rain soaks through, which is fine if you’re carrying a shell and less fine if you were counting on the pants to do that job.

What they do well is the everyday stuff. The fabric is light and has some stretch, so stepping over a log or sitting cross-legged in a tent isn’t a fight. Pockets are zippered, a belt comes in the box, and they dry quickly after a rinse. The cut sits low through the crotch — comfortable standing, less so when you’re stepping high.

One thing to know before you wear them near a fire: an ember burns a hole straight through this fabric. That’s true of most thin quick-dry synthetics, and it’s worth keeping your legs back from the sparks.

We treat these as a dry-weather travel and camp pant: good value, comfortable, and not the pair to bet a wet trip on. Where rain is a real possibility, the coated FREE SOLDIER pair does the same job with better protection and, to be fair, more noise.