There’s a lot of sub­jec­tiv­i­ty when it comes to great beards; many peo­ple today think that they belong into this cat­e­go­ry. Some may even include a father, fam­i­ly mem­ber, or spouse. But when it comes to the great­est beards in out­door his­to­ry, there is real­ly only one accu­rate list. And that is this one.

John “Griz­zly” Adams

Griz­zly Adams did have a beard. This famous fron­tiers­men and bear wran­gler is the sym­bol for a true out­doorsy beard. When you rock a beard like this, you instant­ly have author­i­ty over all bears in the area.

Rein­hold Mess­ner

Don’t let his boy­ish good looks and wavy hair fool you, Rein­hold is a man’s man and bows his beard to no one; includ­ing Ever­est. Upon being the first per­son to ascend the mon­u­men­tal moun­tain solo, with­out sup­ple­men­tal oxy­gen, his beard grew in fur­ther.

Ponce De Leon

If the foun­tain of youth did indeed work, then the world would still be blessed with this Span­ish explor­er’s adven­tur­ous facial hair. Add in the 15th cen­tu­ry garb and cape, and he would of been a 21st cen­tu­ry ladies man.

Paul Bun­yan

Folk­lore leg­end Paul Bun­yan is best know for his epic beard as much as his blue ox. Also cred­it­ed for the cre­ation of the Grand Canyon, Mount Hood, and the last of the Great Lakes; don this beard and size 60 hik­ing boots and start cre­at­ing leg­ends of your own.

Leif Eric­son

Before the time of pho­tographs, there is no way this Norse explor­er did­n’t have the stereo­typ­i­cal Norse explor­er beard and lum­ber­ing appear­ance. After all, that par­tic­u­lar stereo­type is fash­ioned after him.

John Muir

Not­ed for his col­lec­tion of envi­ron­men­tal writ­ing as thick as his beard is long, John Muir gave a voice to the Nation­al Forests, and a face for a tru­ly man­ly beard. To repli­cate his work, sim­ply start writ­ing, and don’t stop until your beard grows down to the page your writ­ing on.

Gus McCrae

Chuck Nor­ris’s beard has lit­tle on fel­low Texas Ranger Gus McCrae’s mus­tache. (Lone­some Dove, Comanche Moon, & Dead Man’s Walk). This fic­tion­al cow­boy’s mus­tache still embod­ies every­thing the Wild West once was, and can only be pulled off by the man­li­est of men.

Ansel Adams

Best known for his pic­tures, and not for his pic­ture, Ansel Adams rocked the bald-head­ed beard almost as well as he cap­tured the most revered pic­tures of the Amer­i­can Wilder­ness.

Jere­mi­ah John­son

This clas­sic Robert Red­ford role would of stood no chance in the wilder­ness with­out his rugged looks. And it proves one thing, a man with this much beard can’t be left alone for too long.

John­ny Apple­seed

This nurs­ery pio­neer was best known for trav­el­ing the coun­try and shak­ing apple seeds out of his beard. Maybe not as well known, this eclec­tic char­ac­ter was a real life con­ser­va­tion­ist and can be con­tributed towards the pro­duc­tion of thou­sands of apple trees across Penn­syl­va­nia, Ohio, Indi­ana, and Illi­nois.