The Hayduke: Part 1 of 3

For those who are aren't familiar with it, the Hayduke is a 800-900 miles route (depending on alternates) across Utah with a lengthy diversion down the Arizona Trail to Grand Canyon National Park with several exciting descents into the canyon. It begins in Arches National Park just outside Moab, UT. It then follows a meandering east by southeast path, with much more focus on aesthetics than practicality.

Our personal journey on the Hayduke took 52 days, with an average of about 16 miles covered a day, including zero days (rest days in town). This meant actual daily mileage varied from 9 brutal off-trail miles in the depths of the Grand Canyon to 30 miles on the North Kaibab Plateau. Our sweet spot was 20-24 daily miles over most of the terrain on this route.

Disclaimer: The Hayduke may often contain "trail" in its name and it does follow popular trails through several of the national parks, but the route is often well outside their boundaries and far from any established footpath. While modern GPS technology has eased some of the challenges of off-trail navigation, hikers must be prepared to cross hundreds of miles of desert, sometimes without so much as footprints to follow. Water sources are often infrequent and unreliable. There is significant exposure and fall risk along the route. A thorough understanding of ones' limits and capabilities is needed to safely complete this journey. Not trying to be a fear monger, I just think this needs to be said.

Bugs, Seth and I began April 4th, 2024, using an alternate start at Devil's Garden Trailhead in Arches Nation Park. This included more Arches highlights and provided a fun scramble down a 200 foot cliff only a few hours into the hike. The next few days included several sandstorms, an incredible off-trail alternate through the infrequently explored Behind-the-Rocks Wilderness Area just south of Moab and our arrival at Needle's Outpost outside of Canyonland's Nation Park.

I wanted to summarize the Hayduke in several paragraphs, a few hundred words, but when I began writing I realized I couldn't. In it's barest form the Hayduke is simply a hike. But like all great journeys, it transcends its basic nature and becomes something more. Perhaps I'm over romanticizing, but mustn't we? As humans, is it not our burden to take the mundane and elevate it. It's what gives us purpose and what inspires us. It's what challenges us and compels us. It's why we go forth into the unknown when it would be so much easier to sit idle.

At times the Hayduke felt like a personal 52 day saga to find the perfect sand dune where I could collapse at sundown, holding back welling tears while frantically trying to commit the sun's fading, luminous visage to memory before the scene disappeared.

Was this mental imagery inspired by our viewing of Dune: Part 2 a few days before our hike began? Or was it the early stages of sunstroke or dehydration? Either way I found this hike to be fully engaging and I'll do my best to capture some of that experience without too many more diversions.

some fun on day one

Behind-the-Rocks (below)

our harrowing descent off the Hatch Point Mesa Alt. (below)

After an interesting stay at Needle's Outpost, the only viable resupply before Canyonland's National Park (CNP), we hiked across the park using a combination of trails that included Chesler Park and The Joint, two "must see" additions to the Hayduke. Canyonlands continued to impress the entire day, with fun cairned trails, a great little slot canyon and even some small pools of water in an otherwise completely dry area. We had made reservations for a night at Bobby Joe, a backcountry, but vehicle accessible campsite on the south side of CNP and were surprised to find we were the only people there. The next morning we said our goodbyes as Bugs and I continued to hike south and Seth hiked north back across Canyonlands, his time on the Hayduke over, for now... But we'll all meet again soon in Tbilisi, Georgia for the TCT this year!

The two of us now headed south towards the fabled Dark and Young's Canyons. We chose to use the "Ruin Park" alt. to approach Fable Valley on our way to the canyons. This was a nice cruisy route, mostly on jeep track, a nice change after the added challenges of our first alternates. We eventually found the descent into Dark Canyon to be easier than many descriptions would lead you believe. Between the original Hayduke guide and Andrew Skurka's notes, the route was pretty straight forward with some loose rocks, but no more daunting than many other Hayduke obstacles. Dark Canyon was a magical place, a 1600' deep entrenched canyon with a beautiful, clear river flowing through a smaller limestone mini canyon on the canyon floor. A place worth visiting, perhaps even revisiting some day. We had Young's and Dark Canyon all to ourselves until the western end, where we saw the first people since leaving Canyonlands days before.

I haven't mentioned it yet but my knees have been hurting. Especially my left, my right knee is the one with a more painful history and I believe I was favoring it heavily during the early days of this hike. Was this due to longer than usual food and water carries? Steep and rugged off-trail terrain? All the above probably, though rough terrain isn't new to our style of hiking, so it might be the added food and water weight... Maybe should have made caches after all... A steady intake of ibuprofen has kept me mobile but as we approached the ascent out of Dark Canyon I was really feeling the need for a medically necessary break if I wanted to complete this trip. And if anyone out there every wants to enter or exit the west end of Dark Canyon via the "Sundance Trail", consider yourself warned, it is not a trail. It's a third of a mile long with 1000' of gain up a loose boulder field with useless cairns everywhere. Follow the path of least resistance, essentially straight up or straight down the slope, and try not to do it during the heat of the day like we did.

After climbing out of the canyon we pounded out another 13 miles, completing about 22 miles total that day. We made camp in a culvert just off Utah State Route 95 and after dinner decided to hitch into Hanksville, UT in the morning, about a day and half ahead of schedule. Two nights were spent in town icing my knees and accepting the fact we were going to miss about 30 miles of "trail". We left Hanksville with another six and a half days of food and about 120 miles to cover. First crossing the Henry Mountains, followed by the little visited and vastly underappreciated Capitol Reef National Park, and finishing the segment in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Days 1-7

Days 8-14

Make sure you read Part 2 of The Hayduke