As printed on the site
An 800-mile route on public land
The homepage calls the Hayduke Trail an extremely challenging 800-mile backcountry route through rugged country, entirely on public land. It links six national parks on the Colorado Plateau in southern Utah and northern Arizona, and the lands between them. The same page says the line is not meant to be the easiest or most direct way through that country. It is meant to show the redrock wilderness of the Southwest.
That 800-mile figure is the homepage's. The route page then splits the walk into 14 sections and prints a mileage on each one. This note stays with what those two pages actually say.
What the homepage says the route is for
The homepage says the site is the official source for people walking the Hayduke in sections and for thru-hikers. It lists what a reader should find inside: maps, brief section descriptions, a thru-hiker resupply strategy, the condition and rating of water sources, and links to other information sites.
The resupply strategy is named there and not spelled out as a town-by-town list on the homepage. The section course is the route page. The water lines that are actually printed sit on the updates page, and they are Ryan Choi's notes from 2008, each one dated. The homepage's phrase about current condition is the homepage's own claim. It is not a new survey.
The page also says the route takes in lesser-known country between the parks, and that this country is as much the point as the park names. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, national forests, BLM districts, primitive areas, wilderness areas, and wilderness study areas are all named in that sentence. Forests and study areas stay in that list only.
Public land, as the page states it
Located entirely on public land is the homepage's wording, not a boundary survey added later. The route page's permit lines name the agency for each section: a national park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, or Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, depending on the stretch. Those permit lines are the practical edge of the same claim. They say whose permission the route page expects, section by section.
The homepage's reason for the route sits next to that claim. It says the trail pays homage to Edward Abbey for his defense of these public lands, and that it is meant to heighten awareness and promote the conservation of the wild places the page says people have come to need. The name attached to that purpose is on the next page of this set of notes.
Nothing on the homepage turns that public-land sentence into a list of closed roads, permit offices, or seasonal gates. The links page points at the park and monument sites, and at two organizations, for anything beyond the route text.
Not the shortest way through
The homepage is explicit that the Hayduke is not intended to be the easiest or most direct route through this terrain. The route page's warning is the harder version of the same idea. It says the route is extremely challenging and dangerous, largely off-trail, and not signed. It says the elevation runs from 1,800 feet in the Grand Canyon to 11,419 feet on Mount Ellen's South Summit. It says a person should be a very experienced desert backpacker in peak condition before attempting any section.
The route page also says its own descriptions are not enough for a safe trip. They are there to familiarize a reader with the course. Each section can be its own walk, or the sections can be linked. That is the page's invitation, and its limit, in the same paragraph. Section 5 is where the summit is walked, not merely named in the warning.
A reader who wants the course in one list, with the mileage printed on each section, can use the fourteen-section note. The parks named around that course are on the six-parks note.
Who the homepage names
The contact line on the homepage is one person: Hayduke Trail creator and co-founder Joe Mitchell, linked to info@hayduketrail.org. The other co-founder is not named on that line. Photo credit on the homepage reads Brian Frankle Photo, set beside the pictures on that page.
The gallery page repeats the same address for a different job. It asks people who want a picture published to send JPEGs with a name and a caption to info@hayduketrail.org, and says the site would like to hear about the trip as well. That is a submission line, not a trail report. The links page repeats the same credit and the same address, and it still does not name the other co-founder.
The homepage quote, printed under the title, is Abbey's: may your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view, and may your mountains rise into and above the clouds. The route, maps, updates, and links pages each carry a different Abbey line. Those lines are collected on the note about the name.
What these notes will not add
These ten notes do not extend the route, rename a canyon, or replace a 2008 water line with a newer one. Where the route page gives a mileage, the note uses that mileage. Where the updates page dates a spring, the note keeps the date. Where a section map is linked from the maps page and the drawing is not among the files this site is serving, the note says the link does not open a map.
The homepage's 800 miles and the route page's fourteen separate mileages are left as two printed statements. They are not averaged into a third figure. The same restraint applies to permits: the note names the permit the route page names, and does not invent an office, a fee, or a season.
The gallery is the place for pictures the site already captioned, from Rainbow Point and Round Valley Draw on the homepage to the Henry Mountains, the Dirty Devil, Coyote Gulch, and the East Fork of the Virgin. Those captions are the gallery's, not a new trip report.
Questions
Is 800 miles the route page's total?
The homepage says 800 miles. The route page prints a mileage for each of 14 sections and does not print a sum. These notes do not add a sum of their own.
Does the site publish a current water report?
The homepage says the site is a place for the condition and rating of water sources. The notes that are printed are Ryan Choi's, on the updates page, dated 2008. They are not rewritten here as this year's conditions.
Who does the homepage say to contact?
Joe Mitchell, named there as Hayduke Trail creator and co-founder, through info@hayduketrail.org. The gallery uses that same address for photo submissions.