Looks like a trail to me – the end of my Hayduke walk

While in Zion National Park, looking toward Angels Landing, sadness mixed with joy.

I had done it. I finished the Hayduke trail. I had completed the most difficult hike I had ever undertaken and now it was time to return home. There was pride in doing it, but also, already, a melancholic longing for these days gone by.

Once again, I was no longer a hiker. This time I knew what awaited me in the days to come. That sad feeling of nostalgia, waking up in the morning without a walk to follow. Return home, where no one would understand what he had just done. What it took, but also what it gave me.

Hiking the Grand Canyon

In the last two weeks, I’ve been in and out of the Grand Canyon for the second time on this trip. From the South Rim to the North Rim, where I had to say goodbye to my tram and continued with another friend the rest of the section. Luckily for us, we were able to hike this part of the Canyon before it burned just a few weeks later, and everything I had admired so much was destroyed by a wildfire.

As I climbed the North Kaibab Trail, I knew I had one more stretch of hiking through the Canyon, and that it would be as challenging and rewarding as the rest. From the few scraps of information I had, I deduced that this section was one of the most challenging on the entire trail. It was an intimidating thought. I had already managed to overcome many things, but this At what point would it become even more difficult? As if the last two months hadn’t been challenging enough already.

After following dirt roads along the North Rim for a while, we fell back into the abyss at Muav Saddle and spent the next two days bushwalking and making some of the slowest progress on the trail yet. Saddle Canyon is not a place that many people visit, and it shows. At the end of Saddle Canyon, three pools required total commitment. There is no turning back after that. And right after that came Tapeats Creek, the famous one. A little spring runoff could make it impassable and we’d be stuck between a rock and, well, more rocks. All my worries turned out to be in vain. Tapeats was well behaved and, more than that, it was idyllic. I expected a beast, but I found a beauty. A stream surrounded by whispering cottonwoods and beautiful cliffs. Instead of struggling, he was thriving.

Tapeats Creek

Water on a desert trail

And then we came to the point where Thunder River plunged into Tapeats from the mountains above. An impressive view and the signal for us to go up towards the mountains. I had hiked this section before, so I knew it was beautiful and easy from here to Deer Creek Falls. As we followed the Thunder River to its source, gushing directly from the rocky cliff above, the force of all that water invigorated us.

Tapeats Creek, Thunder River, Deer Creek and then back to Colorado again. So much water. I felt almost dizzy from that. Getting to Deer Creek is a highlight of any river trip, and it’s just as good if you arrive on foot. As we filled our water bottles with ice water, we knew it was almost time to say goodbye to the Canyon for the last time.

From here it would be nothing but rock hopping and hiking until we reached Kanab Creek, our detour and our goodbye to the Canyon. A notorious stretch that offers a full body workout for hours on end. We turn off our thinking minds and simply move forward, focusing solely on the end goal. Perhaps it was this lack of thought that caused us to miss the detour. I knew we were in for hours of type 2 riverside fun and I didn’t check the map first. We ended up on a rocky cliff next to the river, with no way out. There was shade and a small leak that dripped water. Exhausted, we dropped into the pleasant shade to discover where we had gone wrong. And he remained there until late in the afternoon. The shade and cool water were so inviting that we dared not go out into the scorching sun again. We should have left the river about an hour earlier and climbed a strip of cliffs to avoid the insurmountable obstacles. The prospect of turning back was not appealing, but in the end we had no choice.

The end of my hike – overlooking Angels Landing

One last replenishment

Kanab Creek itself was shaded and easier to traverse, although the canyon soon narrowed and large rocks increasingly forced us to detour and climb. For the next two days, we traversed this wilderness until the water in the creek dried up and we turned off toward Hack Canyon. The abundance of water soon became a distant memory, but the red rocks surrounding us at night and the stars overhead were worthy substitutes. I was back in the desert and the familiar rhythm seemed like an old friend. Soon enough we reached the end of Hack Canyon and were spit out onto the Arizona Strip.

We needed resupply and attempted to hitchhike to Colorado City, but after a nine-hour wait along a deserted highway, we began to despair: would we ever leave this arid landscape? The heat was oppressive, the sun relentless and the shade minimal. It was after five in the afternoon when the first car finally drove past us and stopped to take us.

Walking the Grand Canyon with my PCT tram

decision time

My time in the field was running out and the time had come to choose a goal for my hike. The unofficial nature of the Hayduke Trail gives its hikers many opportunities and freedom to choose their own route, and since the Trail’s original terminus at Weeping Wall in Zion NP has been closed for years, Haydukers are free to choose any location as their terminus. I decided I also wanted to hike Zion, something that is not included in the Hayduke, but is a must see in my opinion. After all, I’d already been to all of Utah’s other national parks, so why skip the fifth and final one?

A return from Colorado City to the Arizona Strip wouldn’t have left me time to explore Zion, so we headed straight to the park and got permits for the Rim Trail, from Lee Pass in Kolob Canyon to Springdale in four days. This would be my farewell to the trail. An established route, designated campsites. So different from the rest, but beautiful in its own way. And that’s how I found myself here, near Angels Landing. It seemed as good a place as any to call at the end.

So many things had happened. Another walk that comes to an end. I managed to complete a hike that few even considered. And I came away with a new love for the desert, for Utah, for the Grand Canyon, for myself. One thing I know for sure now: it won’t be long before I walk through another desert again.

Are you curious to know what happened before? Click here to read about my adventures on the Hayduke Trail. Want to read even more about my journey? Check out all my other items here.

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