HIKE for Mental Health is a national, volunteer-driven 501(c)(3) nonprofit built on a simple belief: the trail can change lives. For more than a decade, we have helped people move, connect, and talk openly about mental health through hiking — whether that means a multi-month thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, a single afternoon on a neighborhood path, or a community walk honoring veterans. Since 2012, more than 4,300 people have participated in our programs.
Sharing the healing power of the outdoors, while bringing hope to those who battle mental illness — that is what motivates us.
Hiking heals
Time on the trail helps many people reconnect with nature, with others, and with parts of themselves that get crowded out by daily life. A walk in the woods, a weekend in the backcountry, or even an hour on a local trail can restore clarity and calm.
For people living with mental illness, that path to wellness is rarely so simple. More than 59 million American adults live with a mental illness, and millions more face barriers of cost, stigma, or access that keep effective care out of reach. HIKE for Mental Health exists to make the outdoors part of the answer — removing the cost, the complexity, and the stigma that can keep people from ever setting foot on the trail.
Our mission
HIKE for Mental Health harnesses the healing power of hiking to raise awareness of mental illness, foster connection and well-being, support mental health research, and preserve the trails that bring people together.
How we bring this to life
Our programs meet people wherever they are on their journey, on whatever trail is closest to home.
Summit Mt. Washington, now in its 15th year, brings hundreds of hikers together each August for our largest annual event and a powerful shared experience of community and resilience.
Beyond Mt. Washington, dedicated volunteer hike leaders organize a growing number of established group hikes in their own communities year after year, alongside one-time hikes that spring up wherever a volunteer steps forward to lead one. Each of these hikes, large or small, recurring or one-time, carries the same mission and the same welcome.
Our Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trail programs invite long-distance hikers to register their journeys with HFMH, turning solo wilderness adventures into acts of mental health advocacy that reach communities across the country.
Hike Your Own Hike lets anyone, anywhere, register their own walk or hike as a HIKE for Mental Health event at no cost, no formal trail required, no barrier to entry.
#hikeOctober, our national campaign now in its tenth year, connects participants across the country in a shared month of outdoor movement and mental health awareness.
Every one of these hikes is free to join. Together, they have engaged more than 4,300 hikers since 2012.
The Pearland Veterans Day Walk, now in its 13th year, is a more traditional Walk that brings veterans, families, and the greater Pearland community together each November to honor the service of area Veterans and keep in the forefront the mental health challenges many veterans face in silence. Registration fees and sponsorships from the Walk have directed more than $144,000 to local Houston-area veterans organizations since 2013.
The impact we’ve built together
Over more than a decade, our community has directed more than $1 million to mental health research and trail conservation — while HFMH has spent less than $160,000 on operations over that same period. Eighty percent of hike donations support scientific research and stigma-reduction programs, primarily through our partnership with the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation and its NARSAD grants program. Twenty percent supports the wilderness trails that make our hikes possible, through partnerships with organizations including the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Pacific Crest Trail Association, and the Continental Divide Trail Coalition.
We are proud of that efficiency. It reflects a volunteer team that has given thousands of hours because they believe, as we do, that the trail can change lives.
What;s next for Hike for Mental Health
After 13 years of all-volunteer leadership, HFMH is preparing for its next chapter: hiring our first full-time Executive Director. This is not a step away from our volunteer roots — it is the investment that will let us reach more people, in more communities, especially those who face the greatest barriers to outdoor access and mental health care. We have already secured a significant portion of the funding needed for this transition through founder and community support, and we are working to close the gap so our first Executive Director can begin January 1, 2027.
If you want to be part of that next chapter — as a donor, a corporate partner, a volunteer, or simply someone who believes in what we’re building — we would love to hear from you.
Learn more
You can learn more about our Board of Directors and our financials, or contact us for more information.
