Should you hike in pants or shorts?

Having the right clothes when you go hiking can be a major factor in how much enjoyment you get from your time outdoors. We need to dress in a way that will keep us comfortable while maintaining maneuverability. Most of us have a preference between hiking pants or shorts, but is one better than the other?

Hiking pants offer more protection and warmth over shorts, but shorts will keep you cooler and may feel less restricting. However, the best choice will depend on what type of environment you will be hiking in.

If you are hiking during warmer months, shorts might seem like the obvious choice, but if in wooded areas or tall grasses, hiking pants may be best due to the protection they can offer you from briars, mosquitos, and other creepy crawlers like ticks.

For more advice on warm weather hiking, I recommend reading my summer hiking outfit guide for a complete breakdown.

When choosing between hiking pants or shorts, you should always consider the environment of which you’ll be hiking, plus the expected temperatures and whether there is precipitation in the forecast. These factors don’t necessarily provide a clear-cut answer though because some people prefer to hike in the rain in shorts or may feel using a quality insect repellant on their clothes and skin is enough to keep the bugs at bay.

Personally, I choose to go with maximum protection by using hiking pants. Pants keep your legs covered which protects you from the sun, ticks, mosquitos, briars, and cold temperatures. As long as you have the appropriate pants for hiking, I feel like they just offer more and can still be quite cool and offer great flexibility when you need it during your trekking endeavors.

The Advantages of Hiking Pants Over Shorts

Hiking pants offers benefits that many hikers find advantageous over shorts. Among these are:

• Protection from the sun
• Protection from bugs/ticks
• Protection from poison ivy/oak
• Protection from falls
• Warmer
• More versatile
• Can keep rocks out of shoes

Now, let’s discuss these advantages in a little more detail.

Protection from the sun

While protection from the sun may not always be necessary, there can be times where you are hiking outside of shaded areas. Do this for too long and you may find yourself blistered which can cause severe discomfort. Your legs will be mostly protected with pants, but with shorts, generally anything below the knee will be exposed. Shorter shorts leave even more skin at risk of being burnt from the sun. However, this can be remedied by applying sunblock.

Protection from bugs and ticks

Mosquitos are definitely a nuisance on the trail and more skin exposed gives them more areas of your body to attack. Then there are other bugs that like to bite, including the infamous tick. Take extreme caution if you are hiking in areas where ticks are active. If this isn’t enough to warrant pants for you, then at least make sure you are using an adequate repellant.

Protection from poison ivy/oak

Hiking through the woods increases the chances of brushing up against poison ivy or oak which can cause an itchy rash wherever it comes into contact on your skin. Long hiking pants reduces the amount of exposed skin on your legs, meaning you’re less likely to have direct contact with these plants.

Protection from falls

Tripping and falling is always a risk when hiking. While wearing pants won’t always protect your knees, they do offer an extra layer of protection that can shield you from scraps and light cuts that you would be more susceptible to in hiking in shorts.

Warmer

It just makes sense that long hiking pants will keep you warmer than shorts being as you have less skin directly exposed to the outside temperature. That isn’t to say that pants are always comfortably warm, but they will be warmer than shorts. Of course, tights can be worn with shorts to help protect your legs from colder temperatures.

Can keep rocks and sand out of shoes

Pants aren’t guaranteed to keep rocks and sand out of your shoes, but they certainly do better than shorts since they typically stretch over your shoe. However, this is irrelevant if someone was to wear “skinny” pants while hiking, though I’m not sure if you can find “skinny” hiking pants, not including tights and leggings which I separate from pants. If you do want to use shorts, you can always use foot gaiters to help keep debris from landing inside your shoe.

More versatile

Hiking pants can be more versatile than shorts. That isn’t to say that all pants are more versatile than shorts, because that isn’t always the case, but pants can offer more pockets (which may not be an advantage) and space for carrying extra knick-knacks. But some hiking pants offer the ultimate versatility because they can be what is called convertible pants which, with the tug of zipper, can become shorts and if in a pinch, the zipped off legs can be used as an emergency tourniquet.

The Advantages of Shorts Over Hiking Pants

Given all the advantages of pants, shorts do have some benefits of their own to consider, such as:

• Cooler
• Lighter
• Easier to keep clean
• Easier to keep dry

Let’s elaborate on these advantages.

Cooler

Since shorts are usually cut off at or above the knee, they offer more air flow that helps to keep you cooler when hiking. On hot days, the more breathability your hiking attire offers, the better off you will be when it comes to keeping your body cool.

Lighter

Most shorts are going to be lighter than pants, and if you are trying to reduce weight, shaving a few ounces by going to shorts can help you feel like you can move faster.

Easier to keep clean

When hiking in wet conditions, we’re likely to encounter mud and pants can get quite dirty when you have to trek through puddles. With shorts, you don’t have to worry about them dragging in the mud and getting dirty

Easier to keep dry

Because of the length of pants, when you have to cross streams or creeks, your pants are likely to get wet. If crossing a deep enough stream your shorts might get wet too, but hopefully that would be a rarity. A rain kilt will also cover your shorts entirely, keeping them dry if you end up having to hike through the pouring rain.

So, are hiking pants better than shorts?

As I mentioned earlier, I prefer to use hiking pants for the advantages listed above, but to each person their own. It really isn’t that big of a decision but knowing the advantages and disadvantages might get you to thinking about things you haven’t thought about before. Maybe you like shorts but never thought about the threat of ticks.

Best way to answer this question is for you to answer it for yourself. Get out there and try both or go with some convertible pants. Either way, the more you hike the more you will discover your hiking preferences.