The Hayduke Trail isn't really a trail, but 800 miles of bushwhacking backcountry, a route through six national parks — Utah's Mighty 5, plus the Grand Canyon — that will challenge the toughest hikers.
Mike Coronella stops to take a selfie at Capitol Reef National Park, during a largely solo 2005 trip along the Hayduke Trail, an 800-mile trek he mapped through six national parks.Maier was just outside Zion National Park, days away from the conclusion of the Hayduke Trail, and couldn’t find an exit route from the deep gorge he had to cross.
Hikers said the trail showcases some of the Colorado Plateau’s finest scenery but, in traversing stark landscapes with unreliable water, can seriously test those who try it. Some said it also requires skills increasingly lost in modern through-hiking — grappling with the unknown; problem-solving in the backcountry; and contending with an unbroken, immense solitude.
Coronella said he and the friend, Joe Mitchell, immediately started crafting a cross-country route that would take them from Arches National Park to Zion National Park, passing through Bryce, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands along the way. The addition tacked on another 300 or so miles to the already 500-mile route. It also introduced the duo to some of their wildest experiences as they started the trek again, backwards.
“‘If you die out there, the coyotes are going to scatter your bones,’” Coronella recounted the ranger saying. “And we were kind of OK with that. … Today, the Hayduke Trail follows a different Grand Canyon route than what Coronella and Mitchell attempted in 2000. Then, they were piecing together routes written up by earlier hikers. The connections didn’t always work as well as they’d hoped.
They had high hopes for the trail, envisioning it as the newest addition to the National Scenic Trail network. “The Hayduke Trail to me is more of this ephemeral thing that depends on who you are and what the weather is and what kind of time you got and your skillset,” Coronella said. “It might be a little different than the next person’s.”
“Edward Abbey would be rolling in his grave if he was told that a long-distance trail in his name was going to be built through southern Utah and northern Arizona,” Skurka joked. “There is no resource that’s going to tell you everything, and that’s kind of what I was looking for,” Maier said.
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