hdt – Page 13 – Sagebrush Trails

Wet Feet?

HDT 2022 Day 2, April 2, Saturday
Start S1 mile 12 Willow Spring Wash
End  S1 mile 34.7 Ledge A Campground on Kane Creek 
Miles walked: 22.7

Willow Spring Wash has several large pools, too many to scramble around, so the only choice is to splash through.

The wash joins Courthouse Wash, a riparian area with thick tangles of willows. I see two fresh sets of footprints, likely HDT hikers.

At one point the water becomes very deep, too deep to wade, and a fallen tree provides the clue.

Arches?

HDT 2022 Day 1, April 1, Friday
Start S1 mile -4.4 Salt Valley Rd
End S1 mile 12 Willow Spring Wash
Miles walked: 16.4

Soon I enter the north entrance to Arches National Park, just a sign and no entrance station. This marks the official start of the Hayduke Trail.

My route turns off onto a jeep road, and after a few miles follows a BLM boundary fence, and I see footprints of other hikers making the same cross-country route, dodging low cacti.

Then the route drops into a narrow wash, with pools of water remaining in sandstone basins, called tinajas.

Another Adventure?

HDT 2022 Day 0, March 31, Thursday
Start Albuquerque
End Salt Valley Road, 4.4 miles from the start of HDT
Miles walked:4

My new long hike is the Hayduke Trail, which winds through most of the National Parks in Utah, drops down to Arizona to cross the Grand Canyon 3 times, then returns back to Utah to finish at Zion.

Unlike my hike of the Grand Enchantment Trail, this trip does not connect many existing trails into a longer trail, but more often defines a route on a map, crossing a canyon here, following a canyon there. The route is mostly rather far away from trail towns, so many hikers elect to cache food. Here is the route I drove last week.