Sunday April 30, 18.0mi/29.0km

Dark Canyon (132.1/4700ft) to Landing Strip on Browns Rim (148.9/4920ft) (UT) +1.2mi routefinding

Today was a difficult day for making forward progress. The stream in dark Canyon seemed to be running a little high, and I wasn’t 100% sure that getting through all 7 miles of the canyon was possible. If I couldn’t safely cross this stream, I would have to turn around and go back the way I came yesterday. To optimize my chances of success, I decided to minimize the number of stream crossings, and get an early start. I started hiking down the canyon at 6:45. For a while I was able to stay on the left bank of the stream, which was running loudly.

Early on I had 4 crossings in quick succession, all were at spots where the stream was wide, and therefore shallower.

Then I was able to walk for a while on the left bank, while watching the stream roar down this little chute.

Some of the hiking was actually nice, along these sandy benches.

At one point in the morning I stopped to refill my water. It looked like a translucent chocolate milk…gross. Even after letting it settle for 10 minutes it was still quite brown, though about half an inch of sand did accumulate on the bottom of the bottle.

The springtime wildflowers were a nice distraction.

Eventually the path on my side of the stream would dead-end into a cliff, as the stream meandered within the canyon, and I would have to backtrack to a spot where I could cross the stream. Sometimes I backtracked almost half a mile.

Crossing #5 was surprisingly straightforward, while crossing #6 took me awhile to find the optimal place to cross. After these two crossings, I was able to walk on nice rocky benches above the stream for a couple miles.

I came to Lost Canyon, which is a side Canyon that is almost to the end of this section, so I knew I was almost done with Dark Canyon. I dropped my pack and walked up Lost Canyon for 10 minutes to explore and perhaps find clean water.

No clear water to be found, but plenty of blooming cacti.

With only half a mile of Dark Canyon to go, I thought I was done with stream crossings. But they were two very tight bends in the canyon where the stream ran right up to the cliff. Bummer. These last two sets of crossings (#7 & 8, #9 & 10) weren’t easy but I was able to make it safely across. For crossing #10 I actually used my little rope as a hand line, and got pretty wet in the process. I dragged myself up onto the sandy shore and walked over to a shady spot to take a break and relax and have lunch. I was done with Dark Canyon! While I was walking to my lunch spot I actually came across another human, which was shocking. Jamie (and his dog Grizzy) are hiking down here on a 3 day weekend trip, going to camp in Lost Canyon.

I told him I was just there 30 minutes ago (and 4 stream crossings ago) and he told me I could’ve just hiked over this saddle between Lost Canyon and here, and avoided the last 4 stream crossings altogether. D’oh!

I sat under a tree by the stream and had lunch, and washed the sand out of all my stuff.

Once again I made my dinner (which requires boiled water) at lunchtime, since I have a water source here. Then I will eat my lunch at dinner.

I filled up on dirty water for the next 20 miles which will be dry. I then proceeded to hike 1200ft/350m up the Sundance trail, which goes straight up this scree field.

A hot and sweaty hour later, and I was on top of the climb and had a cool view back down into Dark Canyon.

For the next hour I walked a combination of the Sundance trail and some cross country walking. This little snake seemed just as surprised to see me, as I was to see it.

It was pretty easy walking on slickrock, marked by the occasional cairn.

I came to a dirt road and followed it for the rest of the day. This cool little rock formation was called “[a derogatory term] and Papoose Rock.”

To the west I could see the Henry mountains, where I will be next week, after my resupply at Hanksville.

There was technically one water source along the road walk, a neat little pothole. But unfortunately it was polluted by cows. Cows are the worst.

At 7pm I stopped for the day, and walked a ways off the road to setup my tent amongst the bushes.

I was so tired and so happy to lay down and fall asleep.

Happy Justin Timberlake day!

Saturday April 29, 19.7mi/31.7km

Beef Basin (115.8/6040ft) to Dark Canyon (132.1/4700ft) (UT) +3.4mi many wrong turns

It must have been a very cold night because I woke to a tiny bit of frost on my tent. But by the time I had packed up and started hiking, it was already 50F in the sun. After a couple miles, I came to the fable Valley trailhead.

It was hilarious seeing an official sign and registration book in the middle of nowhere. It was a beautiful trail though.

Gradually I got used to hiking on a trail again, so far it has been mostly walking in washes and on roads.

The trail stayed at the same elevation, while the valley below me started dropping rapidly…

… Until it was deep canyon. I’ll never get bored of the scenery here with the red rocks and green trees.

The trail even passed by this little arch, which was not on any map or sign. Secret arch?!

The trail turned away from the main deep Canyon and into a side canyon, and there was water there! Clear, cold water!

I think that is the point that the official trail ended, because after that I was mostly hiking on cattle trails up the valley. The hiking became steeper and rockier, until eventually I came face to face with a chimney. Hmmm…not climbing that!

I spent another hour climbing up that canyon, finding detours around the steep bits, and eventually coming out on top of Dark Canyon Plateau. I think those snowy mountains to the West are the Henry mountains.

I had lunch at a junction of dirt 4wd roads. Before I started my descent into Young’s Canyon and Dark Canyon, I thought I would stock up on water. After seeing the cow-polluted pond I decided to skip it.

The descent down Young’s Canyon started off familiar enough, in a shallow wash.

When there were giant pour-offs, I had to find a way around them through the cliffs on the side. Looking back at a big 50 foot pouroff that I detoured around:

That first these detours were like a fun puzzle I had to figure out the best way through the terrain. But after like 8 or 10 of such detours I started to find them annoying. The biggest one was a full-on climb out of the valley and back up to the rim, only to descend all the way back down to the canyon floor again. Blah.

The 1000-foot descent down the steep scree field was interesting.

Looking back up at what I had just descended from:

Eventually I got to actually walk on the canyon floor, and when I did it was pretty easy and fun walking. I even found this weird little cairn with a survey marker in it.

It’s easy walking on slickrock!

There were two bonus (surprise) challenges for the day. The first was the gauntlet of poison ivy, which I think I successfully dodged it all in the 1/4-mile section where it grew.

The other bonus challenge was actually leaving Young’s Canyon. The trail kind of ended at a waterfall, so once again I had to scramble up onto a ledge to be able to hike around it and get down into Dark Canyon. Finally I was in Dark Canyon! (And out of Young’s Canyon). By now it was after 7pm, so I decided to set up camp as soon as I found a spot. It took me another 30 minutes to find a flat spot, that was also safely above the stream. Crossing the stream was not trivial, and it seemed to be running higher than normal.

Tomorrow, the Hayduke route follows this stream downstream for 7 miles, which means constant crossings of the stream as it meanders back and forth within the canyon. I hope it remains cross-able for all 7 miles, otherwise I will have to turn around and go back up that terrible Young’s Canyon again….

Friday April 28, 20.5mi/33.0km

Devils Pocket Campsite (98.6/5400ft) to Beef Basin (115.8/6040ft) (UT) + 3.3mi Needles Alternate

I didn’t get my usual 8 hours of sleep, for some reason a random windstorm came through at 1am and tried to flatten my tent. It was gone after 20 minutes and I fell back to sleep. Weird. I was on trail at 6:45am, hiking through the Devils pocket.

I passed through the same gap I had come through last night (the first mile of today is just retracing my steps back to the main trail).

It was a perfect morning for hiking, probably 50F/10C. I quickly came to the Chesler Park trailhead, which meant I was almost out of Canyonlands NP.

I had no idea there were more campsites this far south in the park. Horsehoof used to be an arch until it collapsed about 20 years ago.

After about an hour of walking I left the dirt road I had been traveling and turned off into Butler Wash.

The rocky parts made for some really enjoyable walking, the soft sandy parts…. not so much.

I walked up Butler wash all morning, it was probably about 4 hours until I reached the top. To exit the wash I had to climb up the last rocky bit of it, which apparently contains this neat little arch formation.

I believe the guidebook authors called it “Seldom Seen” arch.

I passed through the arch and then had to overcome a small 6ft/2m cliff. Previous travelers had stacked some rocks and a large log as a sort of ladder, but it was still strenuous and awkward. I had to take off my pack, and then haul it up after me, using the small cord I brought for that purpose.

And then, right around lunchtime, I found an amazing surprise. Water!!

I had not expected to find water anywhere in this dry wash, and my next expected water source was another 5 miles away in dirty cow country. So, I stocked up. And I swapped my lunch and dinner meals, so I could boil water and make my dinner now and not have to carry that water all afternoon.

It was a relaxing little spot at the top of the Butler wash. After another 30 minutes of scrambling and hiking through rocky terrain, I exited the drainage and crossed over the divide into Beef Basin. The view to the west was spectacular.

I dropped down off the divide, and I hiked cross-country through Beef Basin.

Pretty soon I saw my first living beef (aka cows), though they were too shy for a photo. I did follow their paths all afternoon though.

Hiking down Beef Basin wash wasn’t that exciting, but I was able to avoid all the soft sand by sticking to the cattle trails.

By 5:30 p.m. I had come to the end of the wash, and decided to stop for the day. I didn’t want to setup my tent in the cow-infested valley, so I scrambled up 50 feet to the top of a little mesa, and pitched my tent under a small tree. Perfect!

Hopefully the wind doesn’t come back tonight, I’m 1000ft/300m higher in elevation, and it’s pretty exposed in this region.

Thursday April 27, 18.9mi/30.4km

Needles Outpost (84.0/4920ft) to Devils Pocket Campsite (84.0/5400ft) (UT) + 18.9mi Needles Alternate

I packed up early at 7am but then I had to charge my phone and headlamp at the camp store. I sat on the porch for an hour while things charged, and I caught up on my phone stuff. I hiked out at 8:15 and went cross-country up a wash for 30 minutes to Cave Springs trailhead.

It was funny that they put a sticker on the map to say they are updating the map. Why not just put a sticker with the new name over the old cringe-y name?

I walked up salt Creek Canyon for an hour and started seeing more needle formations.

The walking was very slow in the soft sand.

This formation looks like a mushroom!

These were cool, they had red bases with white hats.

After an hour I turned off on to the peekaboo trail. Love the name.

It immediately climbed up out of the valley, and on to a rock shelf. The first thing I saw was a little window….presumably to play peekaboo.

Right next to the window were these ancient pictographs.

The trail continued climbing slowly upward, and I followed cairns until I lost the trail. Or so I thought, it was hiding right behind me in a giant crack.

After I climbed the ladder, I was up on the uppermost rock shelf, which was really neat.

I walked on the slickrock high above the canyons below, for over an hour.

It was a very interesting trail, sometimes it even went through a small hole to cross over to the next valley.

Eventually I descended off the rock shelves and into Lost Canyon.

I followed Lost Canyon uphill until it ended, I climbed up and over another rock shelf, and then dropped into Wooden Shoe Canyon (the sign still had the old name).

I had to climb up and over another pass, to get over to Elephant Canyon. Along the way I had to hike through a tunnel between two enormous boulders.

I descended into elephant Canyon, and filled up my water. As soon as I started climbing back out of elephant Canyon, I saw heaps of Needles formations.

At the top of the climb, I turned around and saw behind me the snow-capped La Sal mountains in the distance.

I crossed a high plateau known as Chesler Park.

I turned on the trail toward Devils kitchen.

My assigned campsite was not in an ideal location, since it forced me to hike a mile off my route. But at least the scenery was nice. Finally at 5:30pm I arrived at “DP1” (Devils Pocket #1), my home Sweet home for the night.

Tomorrow I have just a couple miles in Canyonlands NP, before I rejoin the official Hayduke route. Unfortunately the official Hayduke route avoids the most scenic areas of the park, and it also avoids the only resupply option. So I think most hikers will do some sort of alternate route through this area like I did.

Wednesday April 26, 17.2mi/27.7km

Rustler Canyon (73.0/4240ft) to Needles Outpost (84.0/4920ft) (UT) +2.3mi Loop Overlook + 3.9mi to Needles Outpost

I started out at 7am and it was cold in Rustler Canyon.

After a mile I came to a huge pour-off, which was clearly impassible.

I skirted the obstacle to the left, weaving my way through shelves of rock. A few minutes later, I was at Indian Creek, which was clearly in some minor flood stage. And very muddy.

I

I knew I had to cross the creek at least once, but I was hoping I would not have to cross it 3 or 5 times depending on how it weaved through the canyon.

I hiked along one side of the river as long as I could, before I got squeezed up against a rock wall, and then I would cross at a shallow part and hike on the other side. Ultimately I did have to cross 3 times, but it didn’t make much difference since my legs were muddy from the first crossing.

After I crossed Indian Creek for the final time I had to ascend out of the canyon. Routefinding was a little tricky, but I managed to find a route through the cliffs via a gap.

30 minutes later and I was way above Indian Creek.

For the next hour I meandered through plateaus and pinnacles.

As I was stepping up on to a rock, it broke off from the ground and landed on my shin.

My bruised and bloody leg.

The cut was pretty deep, so I made sure to rinse it out with plenty of clean water using my Sawyer squeeze filter, which kind of acted like a syringe with the nozzle.

All bandaged up and ready to go.

Just before lunch I decided to take a detour to the “Loop Overlook”, a spot which has a view of the 270-degree Bend in the Colorado River. Unsurprisingly, I had to hike up a wash to get there. But this one was all smooth rock, almost like a water slide.

The Loop!

I ate lunch at the overlook and enjoyed the view and the breeze on the increasingly warm day. Rather than backtracking to rejoin to the main route, I hiked via a different track, which saved me distance but definitely didn’t save any time, given the amount of scrambling over boulders I had to do. Once I was back on the main route, it wasn’t long before I was on a dirt road.

I’m in Canyonlands! Number 2 of 6 National Parks. I hiked the road for almost an hour to the Needles Ranger station.

There were some really strangely shaped rocks along the way.

I refilled my water and dumped my trash at the Ranger station, and I tried to adjust my camping permit to get a closer campsite for tomorrow night….no luck. It was almost 3:45pm so I quickly left the Ranger station and hiked the 30 minutes over to Needles Outpost.

The Nedles Outpost is a privately owned campground, and I had a box of food mailed here a few weeks ago.

I paid for a campsite and a shower, and since it was a hot day I bought an ice cold root beer as well. Never tasted so good!

I exploded my food box on a picnic table outside. This is what 7 days worth of food (24,000 kilocalories) looks like.

Unbelievably, they also had a hiker box. I never thought I would see a hiker box on the Hayduke!

They also had it adorable puppy named Coco, I thought she wanted my food but really she wanted more belly rubs.

Once I had my food all sorted, I walked to my campsite and passed the weirdest sign.

I setup my camp, took a shower, rinsed out my socks, updated my blog, and charged my battery. As I was finishing dinner I got this nice view.

Interesting day. Tomorrow, Needles /Canyonlands!

Tuesday April 25, 22.3mi/35.9km

Due west of Canyonlands Overlook (53.0/4390ft) to Rustler Canyon (73.0/4240ft) (UT) +1.8mi bonus looking for Lockhart Cliffs shortcut +0.5mi water

I woke to a nice cool cloudy morning, and the temperatures were perfect. I was on the dirt road for an hour.

I could see across the Colorado River where the Sun was poking through the clouds.

After an hour on the road I came to the Lockhart cliffs. There is an alternate route that weaves directly through the cliffs, rather than going around them.

I spent an hour attempting to find my way through the maze of cliffs, but the GPS track was just a little off, and without photos or a text description, it was going to be nearly impossible to find the way down. For precision navigation like that it really is best to have a good written description. Oh well. I went back up to the dirt road and continued onward.

It’s springtime in the desert! All the flowers are out.

After a couple miles on that dirt road I turned off and headed downhill into a wash.

There was even some water! But I could tell from all the white minerals surrounding the pools, that the water was probably alkaline. It tasted funny too.

I came to the base of the cliff that I had attempted to scramble down earlier. Theoretically there is a route that starts at the top left and finishes on the bottom right of the photo.

I have been seeing hoof prints for the last hour, and I found more evidence of cows…

I departed the wash, and meandered around canyons, staying up on a plateau.

There was all sorts of interesting things up here. A random cairn!

A huge paw print!

And a Patagonia jacket!?

I picked up the jacket and strapped it to my backpack. I’d rather not carry extra weight, but can’t leave litter in the wilderness. I’ll bring it to the Canyonlands NP office for its owner to retrieve it. I left the plateau and headed down it into another wash, which I followed down to the Lockhart Canyon Road. It was another remote dirt road with no cars, but it did have a water source!

This water looked and tasted less alkaline then the previous source, so I filled up a bottle and filtered it.

I walked up the road for an hour, which was really pleasant with all the beautiful scenery distracting me.

There was even a tiny little arch in this cliff!

Eventually I left the road and began my descent into Rustler Canyon. It started off as a narrow rocky watercourse.

Eventually it became a wider sandy Canyon bottom.

There were so many springtime flowers blooming down here in the sandy canyon! I don’t know any of their names, but they came in so many colors. Red!

Purple!

White!

Yellow!

I hiked most of the way down the canyon, and stopped at little early at 4:30. My GPS told me I had already hiked 20 miles today, and I’m trying take it slow starting out, to avoid overuse injury. I setup my tent well above the bottom of the wash, in case there’s any rain during the night.

By 5:30 I had already completely setup and had dinner, so I read my book for a couple hours before falling asleep at sunset.

Monday April 24, 19.2mi/30.9km

Ledge A Campground (35.0/4140ft) to Due west of Canyonlands Overlook (53.0/4390ft) (UT) +1.2mi water

I was awake at 6:30 and saw one of the coolest sunrises. The tops of the cliffs were shadowed by cloud, with the middle part illuminated by the rising sun.

Most of today was roadwalking on 4wd roads. I started walking at 7 a.m. and within a mile I had my first obstacle. These remote dirt roads don’t have bridges you just drive directly through the creeks, which are dry most of the year. But not today!

I skirted around one of the edges and kept my feet dry. The middle part must be deeper than I thought since there was a small graveyard to lost front license plates.

I hiked another hour and a half, passing a few junctions and getting views along the way.

I took a break at the top of Hurrah Pass, which had views in all directions.

I met a mountain biker named Jake, he just rode some cool 3 day loop in this area. And I met 3 guys in jeeps, they were just finishing a trip, and offered me their extra water.

It was fun to meet so many adventure-minded people in such a random place. The view to the northwest from the pass looked like the horizon was curved. Its not just the photo!

I hiked down the pass for about an hour, and came to this place in the middle of nowhere.

I think this is where many of the vehicles were heading, since after this point I saw much fewer jeep traffic. The roadwalking was nice and peaceful.

I stopped for lunch under the shade of one of the only trees I had seen all day. From this point I could also access the Colorado River so I strolled over to refill some of my water. It was a nasty silty brown, and smelled strangely, so I double filtered it.

After lunch I hit a junction where I turned left, and pretty much all the remaining ATV and Jeep traffic turned right. It was a narrow steep wash.

There must have been water in here at some point, I saw a bunch of wildflowers including this paintbrush.

Not all traffic had turned right at the junction. This poor Jeep was stuck, high-centered on some rocks. I offered to help but there wasn’t much I could do.

The rough dirt road climbed higher and gained the top of a shelf, which it followed all afternoon.

Eventually by 2pm it had become too hot to hike, so I hid in the shade of some rocks and had a nap.

It was a nice relaxing afternoon of quiet roadwalking, which basically feels like a wide trail. At the top of this little pass I met another mountain biker on a 3 day loop, and he was debating whether to go back for water or go forward to the next (potentially dry) water source.

We talked for half an hour at that little pass, I think it was a tough decision for him to turn around…. but always better to play it safe and not run out of water in the desert. I continued onward for another 30 minutes before I stopped to setup camp. It was only 5pm, but I had already done 19 miles, and I don’t want to push hard early on and then get injured. I had a very interesting sunset, which was partially obscured by a wave of thunderclouds moving through.

Sunday April 23, 17.3mi/27.8km

Lower Courthouse Wash (19.7/4060ft) to Ledge A Campground (35.0/4140ft) (UT) +2.0mi thru Moab

I slept really well and actually didn’t wake up until 7am. My tent was wet with condensation, as I figured might happen….I was camped on grass and not under any tree cover. Oops. I toweled off the inside walls, packed up, and hiked out by 8am. The stream crossing routine continued today, as the trail switched sides of the valley frequently. The crossings were made much easier by these beaver dams. Why are there beavers in Utah? And in the desert?!

I hiked down the lower Courthouse wash for 3 miles / 2 hours, which was mostly enjoyable and entertaining.

The morning light on the red cliffs and green trees looked amazing.

I exited the wash and was on the main highway to Moab. I noticed it was only 10am, so I stopped to view some nearby rocks with pictographs. Cool.

There was a new-ish pedestrian bridge over the Colorado river, which felt much safer than taking the highway.

Sometimes sign graffiti is both funny and accurate.

I walked the 3 miles into town on the bike path, and stopped into a Wendy’s at 11am to charge my phone, battery, etc. I couldn’t resist a Frosty while I was there either! After an hour there, I walked 10 minutes down to the City Market to resupply. I had some snacks left, but needed meals for the next 4 days. I think there should be a hiker Olympics event for fastest resupply, I was done in less than 10 minutes! Ha. I went down the street to get a shower at one of the local outfitters, it was $5 well spent. By the time I left town it was 2pm, and I began the hot roadwalk heading south. Pretty soon I came to the Colorado River.

The road followed it for a couple of miles.

I stopped at the Moonflower Canyon area to have a snack at one of the picnic tables, and noticed some more pictographs!

I hiked on, and in another hour I found the water source I was looking for. Kane springs! It was just dripping out of a horizontal crack on the roadside.

As I hiked further, the canyon became wider and less deep, and I had longer views of the terrain ahead.

Around 6:30 I decided I was ready to be done for the day, so I pulled into one of the many BLM campgrounds along Kane Creek Road.

It was an easy day of mostly roadwalking, hopefully tomorrow is more interesting.

Saturday April 22, 22.0mi/35.4km

Devil’s Garden Backcountry campsite (11.1/5320ft) to Lower Courthouse Wash (33.1/4060ft) (UT)

I was awake a little later than usual, at 7am. I think it will take me a couple days to get back into a routine. I had breakfast with a view, as my campsite was perched on a fin of slickrock. It was a cold morning, so I was hiking in a few layers, but after 20 minutes I dropped some layers when I arrived at my first arch, Double-O arch.

I saw two people at the arch, which was pretty surprising since it was only 8am and I was a couple hours from the trailhead. The next arch was Black Arch overlook.

I didn’t see an arch there but I think it might have collapsed, as they all will eventually.

I loved hiking across the fins of slickrock, it’s easy walking and you get a view.

I saw a few more people at Partition Arch, and one of them took my photo. Probably one of the few times on the Hayduke when l can get my photo taken.

Just around the corner was Navajo Arch.

Sometimes the trail squeezed through these little slots between the rocks.

I hiked on another 10 minutes and then started seeing dozens and dozens of people. But I came around the corner and thought Landscape Arch, probably the most photographed arch in Utah. It’s huge!

There were two more arches that I don’t remember the names of.

I arrived at the trailhead and parking lot shortly after, where I saw hundreds of cars. Yuck. I refilled my water bottles, emptied my trash, used the bathroom, and then continued on. I walked the road for about a mile and then turned off to follow a gas pipeline route cross-country.

It was actually really scenic, and nice to be away from all the people and cars. After an hour of that I came to a fenceline, which was the boundary of Arches National park.

I made a hard left and followed the fence for a couple miles. It was easy walking, but there was one spot where I was “caught between a rock and a sharp place”, ha!

The rest of the day I spent walking down a wash or stream, which I really enjoyed. It started off sandy and wide.

Some places were narrow and rocky, with these little eroded out potholes that I had to navigate around.

I even found a spring, the first natural water I’ve seen on trail.

More rocky wash with eroded potholes.

After about an hour, the wash I was hiking down joined the much larger Courthouse wash. This is where I started finding quicksand. Neat!

From this point onwards the wash was wide and vegetated, so it was much easier to walk through the very shallow water than try to bushwhack through the bushes and weeds.

As I got lower down, the cliffs got much taller.

Apparently some very large bird lives down here!

It was a great afternoon of wading through Courthouse wash. Eventually the water mostly disappeared and I was hiking on dry land.

I started seeing prickly pear cactus!

I crossed under the bridge for the Park road, and entered Lower Courthouse wash. Down here the wash was less wide, and the stream was really deep. I stayed on dry land, but had to keep crossing and recrossing the stream as it meandered back and forth within the canyon.

At one point it became shallower as it dropped over a small waterfall, and into a pond.

A mile later, I was at my assigned campsite, which was perched up on a flat sandy bench. It’s always better to camp up high, away from water and the valley bottom…less condensation. Very nice spot!

These first two nights my camping locations are dictated by my permit from Arches national park. For most of the hayduke though, I will just be camping wherever I decide. Tomorrow I’ll pass through Moab again, before I enter some really remote terrain for a week!

Friday April 21, 11.1mi/17.9km

Eastern Terminus/Hwy 191 (0.0/4520ft) to Devil’s Garden Backcountry campsite (11.1/5320ft) (UT)

I woke up at my campsite just north of Moab, and drove my van to the storage place south of town. They’ll be storing my vehicle for two months while I hike this trail! The owner, Don, was very nice and gave me a ride into downtown. I was planning on hitching to the start of the trail, but I got a nice surprise. A friend from the PCT, whom I hadn’t seen since 2015, was in town! Julia saw my Instagram post tagged in Moab, and messaged me, and we ended up having coffee, and later grabbed lunch.
The coffee was DIY, but I had help, haha.

She very generously gave me a ride to the trail, and we even had some 80s music to sing along to, I’m sure all the nearby pedestrians were jealous. After a couple photos at the start, we parted ways and I was off.

I’m calling the 2nd one the terminus monument, ha! I think it was just an old piece of railroad equipment.

I hiked cross-country for a couple miles, leaving the highway behind.

After following a dirt road briefly, I crossed into Arches NP.

The rock formations began to appear.

This one was called Parallel Arch.

And the main attraction in this part was Tower Arch.

Looking back thru tower arch.

I had a snack break and met another hiker sitting there. Jake was from the Pittsburgh area, and had most recently lived in the climbing town of Fayetteville WV. Turns out that we had been to the same climbing event last May, and had probably already met before…. amazingly small world. Two surprise meetups today!

I departed the Tower Arch and marveled at the random rock formations. The trail went thru a wide crack!

This formation was called Marching Men.

Looking north at the sandstone cliff bands.

The trail ended at a gravel parking area, and I had a short 1 mile roadwalk.

And then a mile-long cross-country section thru short bushes, followed by scrambling up a short cliff. The view from the top was great, the setting sun was even shining thru the thick clouds.

I heard a noise, and saw a herd of…deer?

The last rock formation of the day was Dark Angel.

I watched the sunset, and then hiked another 30 minutes to my assigned campsite, and setup my tent in the deepening darkness. A great first day!