The Lake District National Park is probably the best looking National Park across the UK and has attracted some of the most famous artists and writers to the area due to the beautiful countryside that this area has to offer. There is nothing better than spending some time either walking in this area, or even just spending time in the area relaxing and enjoying what the area has to offer. What does it have to offer? Fantastic scenery and some of the most beautiful countryside that you can find anywhere in the world. The area was designated a National Park in 1951 covers an area of nearly a thousand square miles that is split between Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire and offers walkers and hikers some of the finest walking locations across the UK with a wide selection of pathways and off-pathway walking to include Scafell Pike which is the highest mountain in the UK at more than three-thousand feet.
One thing to note with this area, it’s rather high at about three-thousand feet which does mean that it’s a place that you need to get used to otherwise you may struggle initially. My advice, if you want to walk in this location and you’re not an experience walker, then get here the day before your walk and take a day to acclimatize to the area and the height above sea level.
The area is typically split into four areas with three different types of landscape making it both a challenge and a joy to walk across. The low level is typically wooded or grassland that offers even the most basic of climber a varied number of routes and pathways to enjoy the area.
The downside of the Lake District is that it’s located in probably the wettest part of England where on average there are at least eighty-inches of rain. This means that whilst there are a number of easy routes in the low level area, they tend to be pretty wet parts of the world with which means that you will need some specialist walking equipment if you want to keep your feet dry.
The Mid-Range and Upper-Range is where the excitement really starts to kick into gear, however especially here I the lake district, it’s also where things can easily get a little dangerous given that the mid range feature steep hills of grass and boulders with the Upper-Range being predominantly filled with lose boulders that make the area very difficult to navigate and quite dangerous.
This together with the area being a very windy location with an average of one-hundred gales per year can really make for a difficult ascent and therefore if you’re planning to take a walk to the top of Scafell Pike, then make sure that you take some precautions otherwise you’re going to end up in trouble.
The views at the top are simply breath taking which make the Lake District and more specifically, Scafell Pike one the best locations for hiking and climbing in the UK. If Scafell Pike is not for you, there are three other high mountains in the area that offer climbs above three-thousand feet, Scafell at 3,000 ft, Helvellyn at 3,100 ft and Skiddaw at 3,250 ft.
If you’re looking for wildlife the wide range of varied topography, lakes and forests means this area is home to some amazing wildlife to include the red squirrel, England's only nesting pair of golden eagles, Ospreys and in one of the 14 lakes in the region a selection of fish meaning that the area offers some of the best fishing around the world.
If the lake district is not your thing and you want to do some serious walking, climbing and general mountaineering then you need to take a trip up into Scotland and visit the fantastic Cairngorm National Park which is the largest National Park in the UK and offers a serious challenge to even the best of hikers.
If you're going to visit the Cairngorm National, be prepared and make sure that you take both your wet weather clothes and some serious hiking equipment. We have never been there whilst it's dry and never really been able to see the views, but we have heard they are fantastic.
