There are a lot of factors that go into a good hike. How long is it before there's a payoff? What's the elevation gain? What's the total length? How often does the scenery change? How much driving does it take to get there? Even some of my favorite places, like Glacier Park in Montana, have numerous official hikes that i find to be substandard due to monotony, or the ratio of effort compared to rewards. By the time i hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up in three different places i was completely disinterested in the idea of doing it again. The North Cascades suffer from the fact that too many trails involve hiking for hours and hours through the woods before you are high enough to see anything other than trees. Some of the not so good Alaskan hikes i've been on involve seeing the same view for hours on end while you walk down an long uniform-looking valley (only to turn right back around at the end), or the trails are created badly, in that they too often have a tendency to go straight up the side of the mountain. Although i'm not fond of switchbacks, going straight up wastes more energy, and creates a trail that degrades much faster.
It kept raining last summer until i would just go out regardless. However, i didn't want to waist a bunch of time driving somewhere that really needed a sunny day to appreciate, so i would go closer to home and some days just explore areas i'd been around before but never took the time to investigate. One day i went up to Hatcher Pass (the actual pass) and hiked up the hill from the top of the pass.
I had only planned on going to the top but that didn't take very long and i saw from the top that it was easy walking to keep going. I followed the ridge a while and eventually just decided to walk down into the adjacent valley and traverse around the bottom of the mountain back to the pass. It turned out to be a very good route to take. A loop hike that was just the right distance through constantly changing and interesting landscapes, and it never rained until i got back to the car. Now i've got a unique new moderately adventurous hike i can take visitors on who are up to task.
