Hayduke Preview

I’ll be starting the Hayduke Trail today. From what I know this route is unbelievably beautiful and pretty intense. This is the first trail that I was not willing to do alone given its extreme remoteness (often in the depths of canyons) and occasional climbing/canyoneering of which I am untrained and probably below proficient. Thankfully I poached @the_fanciest_of_feasts from the GET website register and convinced her joining me on this adventure was a good idea. Haha what a fool.

I’m assuming the beauty of Utah is going to be indescribable, but here are some excerpts about the trail from the Hayduke website.

“The Hayduke Trail is an extremely challenging, 800-mile backcountry route through some of the most rugged and breathtaking landscapes on earth. Located entirely on public land, the trail links six of the National Parks on the Colorado Plateau in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona with the lesser known, but
equally splendid, lands in between them. Encompassed in the route are Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks as well as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and numerous National Forests, BLM Districts,
Primitive Areas, Wilderness Areas and Wilderness Study Areas. The Hayduke Trail is not intended to be the easiest or most direct route through this incredibly varied terrain, but is rather meant to showcase the stunning Redrock Wilderness of the American Southwest”

“Warning!
Because of the extremely challenging and dangerous nature of this route, you must be a very experienced desert backpacker in peak physical condition before attempting any section of the Hayduke Trail! Thru-hikers beware! The Hayduke Trail traverses intensely rugged terrain, is largely off-trail, is not signed and ranges in elevation from 1,800 feet in the Grand Canyon to 11,419 atop Mt. Ellen's South Summit!”

Let’s ride