How to Make Money Hiking: 12 Best Paying Hiking Jobs

Last updated on September 21st, 2024 at 10:28 am

 

If you love nature and walking to places it is just enough to get you started with how to make money hiking and doing something you like. Imagine walking, climbing mountains and hills having fun as a way to get paid an income at the end of it all.

This is something that will require little to no professional qualifications to earn but as long as you’re passionate about what you’re doing. Practically, to understand the best practices, you need to know how it works to make the most out of it.

In case you’re serious about hiking, there are different ways to get paid for walking and climbing places. And guess what, some companies invest money in hiking practices as a way to keep nature alive.

I love nature and going to places that’s why I decided to write about the different ways one can make money hiking. You don’t need to go far or move to lots of places, start with the little you know about it.

How do you spend your holidays or vacations? Make money by having fun hiking to places you love.

What Is Hiking?

This is an activity usually done in the countryside moving distances on foot mostly to have fun. And it’s not only done to have fun but also has health benefits in life such as working on a sense of balance, heart health, and making bones and muscles stronger.

12 Ways to Get Paid Hiking

Honestly, there’re many ways to make money hiking around but you must do things the right way. You might have been doing this for fun, now it’s time you get paid for doing nothing at all.

Sure, you get paid to make life happy which is amusing and amazing at the same time. The different ways to turn hiking into a career and squeeze out some dollars are as explained down here

1. Starting Up a Hiking Blog

A blog is among the best paying hiking jobs, you can put up a blog about hiking best practices from which other people with interest can consult to get better it.

There’re many people out there looking for information about different things, a blog is a great tool to use to help people. Ensure to make information easily digestible by people interested in learning about hiking through your blog.

People need solutions to the challenges they are to face or they usually encounter hence you must be able to make the blog an information hub with value.

Hiking blogs make money through sponsorships from companies that would want to reach out to your audience for exposure to make sales.

Other ways to earn through your blog include affiliate marketing and Ads. Blogging is a great way to earn passive income by writing hiking blogs for your audience.

2. Hiking Photography

Whether you’re just starting or you’ve been going hiking at times you must have taken some photos. Now, it’s all about how to turn hiking into a career that brings some real money.

But do you know that the photos you gathered can get you paid some good money? You can sell those beautiful photos on stock sites at certain fees you think they are worth.

Some people are making an income from people ready to pay for those photos to be used for different purposes like decoration, advertising, and promotions. Ensure to take quality photos that are worth the price in marketplaces.

Photography is also among the jobs that involve hiking and it’s another great way to make money doing nothing since it’s out of something you like most.

3. Write a Book

If you love traveling to places you can write about your experience in a book for people to learn from it. There are many people out making money from books about their walking journeys in different parts of the world.

You write about how you have managed to go through the ups and downs of the practice such that others can have something to learn. Like some other hobbies, there’re challenges that you might face but all that makes you better at what you love.

Hiking is among those activities loved by most people in the world and with books to note like 2600 miles to home by Heather Anderson.

Books are a great way to make money from your hiking experience when you apply yourself to best practices. And behind any hiking success, there must have been hard work with catchy stories and experiences that will attract readers.

You don’t need to be an expert in writing or marketing to start writing books about your hiking experiences.

4. Become a Park Ranger

If you’re in search of hiking jobs near me, Park rangers are making some good money and different parks are looking out for park rangers. Here you’re working under the National Park Service which determines your earnings on the job as agreed in the terms of payments.

There’re requirements needed for one to get employed as a park ranger to enjoy the wilds yet get paid for keeping there. Yes, you need to know what it takes to get employed and some positions won’t require much to get hired.

5. Start Up a YouTube Channel for Hiking

I don’t know about you, but you hear people making thousands of dollars or more with YouTube. It’s not hard at all as long as you have original content, a microphone, a laptop, an internet connection, and a camera to get started.

Hiking Youtubers make money through YouTube content with Ads, affiliate marking, sponsorships, and more. But you need to be patient enough before you start earning through YouTube.

It takes time and you must keep on posting video informative content about hiking to get subscribers to earn.

6. Make Money as Cabin Caretaker

Here you look after cabins from different locations and earn an income for the service provided. People having fun hiking usually pay for cabins at state parks to have a life.

And this means that they also need people to take care of them known as cabin caretakers. So, caretakers get paid some money depending on the terms and conditions of the service to be offered.

Asking duties performed, right? Ensuring that the buildings are in good condition, offering cleaning services, and clearing the place. There’re lots of other activities that are to be performed by cabin caretakers but that all comes under the job description.

Working as a cabin caretaker it’s not as hard as most people think, but as long as you have the time to deliver. Last but not least, you don’t need professional requirements to work with state parks as a caretaker.

7. Organize Hiking Trips

With love for the game and experience, you can start organizing trips for hikers taking them through trails. And this can be another way to make money doing something that you love the most, we all don’t have to be professional hikers to get started here.

Sure, since you have the experience, this is something that you should think about now when you still have the energy to move. There are many people out ready to pay to learn from you as you take them for tours in different places around the world.

You need to apply some of the best practices which can enable you to succeed in the business. And don’t wait to have it all, it’s just fine starting with what is available according to experience and passion.

In this business, you need to be clear about where you plan to take a trip and inform your clients about what it’s going to be like before getting there.

Where it requires more professional experience than you do, it’s better to consult with the experts to avoid messing up to keep people’s trust in you to stay in business.

8. Freelance Writing for Publications

There are hiking publications that badly need you to share your experience in writing to pay you money. Honestly, you need to be experienced enough to be able to bring out something people will read about.

And this can become a full-time job in case you have lots of things to write about hiking trips and experiences. The publications reward you for any piece of good content that you bring out to the public through the platforms.

Also, you can reach an agreement with the publication to receive your earnings after every period. I love moving to those beautiful places in the countryside and in case you’re of the type but not yet into writing, you’re missing out on some money here.

9. Part-Time At an Outdoor School

Since you’re doing something that you love, you can easily get a job at an outdoor school to share your experience with learners. Children learn most when they are given real-life examples than just talking about places that even teachers have never reached.

Normally, when it comes to teaching children, some of the things taught about relate to keeping nature, love for wilderness, and camping best practices. As an outdoor teacher you have to ensure that you focus more on why students should keep nature since it’s what has made many like you, they admire.

Talk about more things that will grow children’s love for nature like animals, plants, parks, and physical features Would you want to become an outdoor expert? NOLs is one of those companies that manage professional outdoor schools.

If this is for you, then there’s no reason why you don’t up your hiking game to make money while you enjoy yourself.

Lastly, if working at an outdoor school is not your wish then try other ways in the list to squeeze some money out of your passion.

10. Offer Campground Host Services

Sometimes there are campgrounds in different places near you looking for campground hosts. However, you need to have some communication skills since you mainly deal with people.

The duties to be performed as a host include ensuring that the camp is clean and tidy, ensuring that hikers enjoy within limits and other related activities. Working as a host gives you more chances to unlimited hiking opportunities and exposure as you manage the campgrounds.

You get to understand more about the campground and how you can leverage the available offers. This enables you to cater to campers with best practices around providing value in terms of guidance and products to use.

11. Wildland Firefighting

If you love walking for adventure at different times, this is a great way to achieve it all. Wildland firefighters protect nature and if you’re somebody who loves nature you can apply where the offer is available to earn.

Some of the duties of the firefighter in the wild include servicing firefighting equipment, giving directions, and working on fire lines. It’s among those jobs that can make you enjoy life in the wilderness while being paid some money for a living.

12. Become A Brand Influencer

In case you don’t have a large social media following you can grow it to work as an influencer. Here you promote tried products and some services that you think your audience may need so that you get a commission from the creator.

For sure, if you have a potential social media following enjoying your posts, then why not monetize it with products it might want? Working as an influencer is not hard at all, provided you have content that matches the products and services you promote.

Therefore, as a brand influencer, you can make some real money through promotions using your platform.

7 Companies That Offer Hiking Job Opportunities?

There are different companies where one can look out for hiking sponsorships and employment opportunities to earn an income. And with some experience in the field, puts you at an advantage to qualify for hiking guide jobs in one of the professional hiking organizations.

• Exum Mountain Guides

If you’ve heard about the Grand Teton National Park hiking and mountain climbing, Exum is among the trusted companies providing service at its best. It’s one of the commonly known outdoor adventure service providers for hikers and climbers.

And when under Exum Guides you’re working with a company that has been around for over 6 decades in business. Whether you’re a hiker or a worker, the company ensures to provide the best service to its people and that’s why it has stayed in business that long.

• The North Face

The company works on reducing unemployment by investing in adventure through the program known as Live Your Dream Grant. It’s also mainly done to protect nature most especially mountain areas hence funding conservative measures.

And every person that engages in the program earns some money at the end of the day. For hikers, this is a great way to earn money doing nothing since it’s something you love.

• Wildland Trekking

This is one of those companies that have heavily invested in hiking holidays and tours. Wildland trekking company offers trips to almost every park that you can think about and it’s widely recommended by most hikers and travelers.

With this company expect to move up to over 40 beautiful destinations around the world. In case you want to know more about Wildland trekking company check them out through their platform.

• Inn Walking

This company offers service to trekkers in different countries around the world. Whether you wish to be in Ireland, Germany, France, Turkey, and other countries on your own, Inn Walking is there to support people in terms of accommodation and transport.

Look through their platform at no cost to you to see whether it’s worth your time when out there.

• Black Diamond

Another way to make the most out of your hiking experience is by working with companies such as black diamond. And in case you have an audience that is really into hiking you can provide them with cheap equipment with support from this company.

All this can be well attained when you join their PRO program. More on how to join the program can be gotten through their website.

• Glacier Guides

Are you looking for companies with exciting mountain hiking destinations in different locations? Glacier Guides is also among those companies which offer guided tours to travelers to different locations.

It’s a company that you’ll work for and enjoy the experience because of expert-guided destinations. And if you’re living in the United States, you stand a high chance of getting offers from the company.

Why not check out Glacier through their website to look through the available offers for employment to earn money?

• Garmin

You can also work with Garmin hiking trails to make money out of your hiking experience. But here you need to have a non-profit making organization to get payments in the form of sponsorships from Garmin.

Garmin supports several non-profit organizations put up by hikers in different locations. Therefore, if you think you can have it all then put up a non-profit organization to get sponsorships from Garmin.

FAQs

• How Long Does It Take for Starters to Make Money Hiking Trails?

In case you’re just starting this can be quite challenging since even most companies need people that have some little experience. It can take some time but with patience and applying the strategies talked about it may not take you so long.

In case you’re doing YouTube with best practices and consistently posting videos about your experience it can take about 6 months to 1 year to start seeing big results.

• What Does It Take to Go for Hiking Trips?

There are certain must-have things one must put into consideration when going to hike. Before setting off you need to plan the tour, mind weather conditions, set limits, get the right hiking wear, and more.

• How Old Does a Person Need to Be to Get Started with Hiking?

I have seen people of different ages on hiking tours and this tells me that there’s no exact age. However, with most people, the age range I normally see is about 13 to 70 years.

• What Are Some of The Challenges Faced by Hikers?

Though it’s having fun, some things challenge hikers in the process. And some of them include determining the right equipment to use, getting the right wear, deciding how long to move, when to move, and more.

Conclusion on How to Make Money Hiking

Hiking is a great way to make money doing something that you love from wherever you are around the world. With all that is in this blog, in case you’ve been doing it for free now you can find ways to make a decent income out of your fun time.

Hope you picked something out of here and in case there’s something you feel must be added please let us know.