As printed on the site

Arches to Hite, the first three sections

The first three sections on the route page run from the northern boundary of Arches National Park to Hite. The mileages printed on them are 39.7, 47.1, and 67.9. The page's warning applies here as on every other section: off-trail, unsigned, and not a sufficient guide by itself.

What follows is the course the route page prints for those three sections, plus the permit line under each one. It is not a new description of the canyons.

Section 1, Salt Valley to Hurrah Pass

Section 1 begins at the northern boundary of Arches in Salt Valley and follows Courthouse Wash to the Colorado River near Moab. The route then follows the outskirts of town and re-enters the Colorado River gorge through the place the page puts in quotation marks, The Portal. From there a dirt road leads up Kane Creek Canyon to Hurrah Pass. The page gives this section 39.7 miles. The permit line names Arches National Park.

The updates page has Ryan Choi's March-April 2008 notes on this same section. He wrote that hikers could use a newly constructed footbridge just upriver instead of crossing the Colorado on the Highway 191 bridge. His water lines from that trip say Willow Spring had a good trickle, Courthouse Wash flowed to the Colorado except for a short dry section above the Arches bridge, and Matrimony Spring and Kane Spring were good. Those are his 2008 lines. The note on the updates page keeps that date on every spring it mentions.

Hurrah Pass is only the end of the section. Section 2 starts there and drops back to the river. The town outskirts are a few sentences on the route page, not a street guide.

Section 2, Hurrah Pass to Big Spring

From Hurrah Pass the route drops quickly to the Colorado and follows the river into Lockhart Basin. It goes down Rustler Canyon into Indian Creek, then enters the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park by an overland route, and ends at Big Spring Trailhead. The mileage is 47.1. The permit line names Canyonlands National Park.

Choi's April 2008 note on section 2 mentions a green cattle gate on the slope up to the road above the river, stone columns marking a drainage, and a dripping spring that was no longer piped, so the water collected in a small puddle. He recorded a faint trickle in the Lockhart drainage and wrote that Indian Creek was flowing. The route page does not repeat those details. They live only in the dated note. The Needles District is named as the entry, not mapped turn by turn.

Big Spring Trailhead is the start of section 3 as well as the end of section 2. The route page does not describe the trailhead as a town or a store. It is a name on the section title.

Section 3, Big Spring to Hite

Leaving Big Spring, the route follows a park service trail to Elephant Canyon and on into the Grabens. It leads through Cyclone Canyon and Red Lake Canyon, then up Butler Wash into Beef Basin. From there it goes overland into Fable Valley and up onto the Dark Canyon Plateau. It descends Young's Canyon and Dark Canyon, ascends the Sundance Trail, and follows dirt roads to Hite. The mileage is 67.9, the longest of the first three. Permits named: Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

The July 2008 note on this section is the one that says South Spring was dry, that lower Fable Valley had no running water, and that a flowing spring in the reeds before the Dark Canyon confluence was the first water since Fable Valley. It also says water was good the whole way down Dark Canyon, and that no water was found in the bottom of Young's Canyon. The note calls Fable Spring, three miles up from the valley floor, reliable in that July. That word is the note's, for July 2008, not a standing label.

Hite is where section 4 begins, by the Flint Trail. The next note picks up there, on the way toward Mount Ellen and the Burr Trail.

What the three permit lines cover

Arches for section 1, Canyonlands for section 2, and both Canyonlands and Glen Canyon for section 3. The route page does not say where one permit stops inside section 3. A reader gets two names and the place-name sequence, not a milepost for the boundary.

The links page lists Arches, Canyonlands, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area among the government sites. It does not reprint permit rules. The six-parks note puts these three sections in the order of the whole route, next to Capitol Reef, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, and Zion. The homepage's public-land sentence is the general claim. These three permit lines are the specific claim for the opening. The route page still does not supply a form, a fee, or the mile where Canyonlands gives way to Glen Canyon. The form is not on this site.

The maps page links overview drawings for sections 1, 2, and 3. Those files are not being served, so the links do not open. The text above is the course the route page actually prints.

How this stretch sits in the warning

Nothing in sections 1 through 3 is marked as an easy start. The warning is printed once, above all fourteen descriptions, and it says any section. Salt Valley to Hurrah Pass is 39.7 miles of wash, river gorge, town outskirts, and a dirt road up Kane Creek. The page still files it under the same warning as the Grand Canyon sections.

The insufficiency sentence matters here because the descriptions are short. Courthouse Wash, The Portal, Kane Creek, Lockhart Basin, Rustler Canyon, Indian Creek, the Grabens, Fable Valley, Dark Canyon, the Sundance Trail, Hite. Those are the nouns the page gives. They familiarize. They do not replace a map or a permit.

The full list of mileages shows how these three sit against later, longer sections. Section 7 is 80.8 miles and section 13 is 87.2. The first three are the Arches-to-Hite opening, not the bulk of the route page's miles. The Portal, in quotation marks on the page, is a named re-entry to the gorge, not a signed gate. Kane Creek is a dirt road in that description, not a posted trail.

Questions

Where does section 1 start and end?

At the northern boundary of Arches National Park in Salt Valley, and at Hurrah Pass. The route page gives it 39.7 miles and names an Arches permit.

What did the 2008 note say about South Spring?

Ryan Choi's July 2008 note on section 3 says South Spring was dry. The same note says a spring before the Dark Canyon confluence was the first water he found after Fable Valley. That is a 2008 note, not a current report.

Which agencies does section 3 name?

Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The route page does not mark the mile where one gives way to the other.