As printed on the site

Fourteen sections, and a hard warning

The route page says the Hayduke is fourteen sections. Each one can be its own walk, or they can be linked. Above that list the page prints a warning: the route is extremely challenging and dangerous, largely off-trail, and not signed. Elevation runs from 1,800 feet in the Grand Canyon to 11,419 feet on Mount Ellen's South Summit. The reader the page asks for is a very experienced desert backpacker in peak condition, before any section.

The same page says the descriptions that follow are insufficient for a safe journey. They familiarize a reader with the course. The route page is that course. This note is the list.

The warning, before the miles

Thru-hikers are addressed directly. The page says the terrain is intensely rugged. Off-trail and unsigned means the section titles are not a promise of tread or posts. The 1,800-foot figure is placed in the Grand Canyon. The 11,419-foot figure is placed on Mount Ellen's South Summit, which section 5 describes as the high point of the climb along the Henry Mountains, before the drop to Tarantula Mesa and Swap Mesa.

The Abbey line above the warning says you cannot see this country from a car, and that the walking is over sandstone, thornbush, and cactus. The warning is the operational sentence. Experience, condition, and the statement that the page itself is not a sufficient guide.

Nothing in the fourteen titles cancels that. A short section is not labeled easy. Section 12 is the shortest mileage on the page, 34.9 miles, and it is the Grand Canyon crossing from Horseshoe Mesa to the North Rim, including the South Kaibab, a footbridge, and the North Kaibab. Short, on this page, is not mild.

The fourteen mileages

These are the figures the route page prints, in order. Endpoints are shortened from the page's own titles. Permits are the permit line for that section, not a new requirement.

Section	From, to	Miles
1	Arches to Hurrah Pass	39.7
2	Hurrah Pass to Big Spring	47.1
3	Big Spring to Hite	67.9
4	Hite to Poison Springs Canyon	35.8
5	Poison Springs to the Burr Trail	48.9
6	Burr Trail to Hole-in-the-Rock Road	72.5
7	Hole-in-the-Rock to Round Valley Draw	80.8
8	Round Valley Draw to Willis Creek	49.0
9	Willis Creek to the stateline trailhead	66.3
10	Stateline to Nankoweap	60.9
11	Nankoweap to Horseshoe Mesa	47.1
12	Horseshoe Mesa to the North Rim	34.9
13	North Rim to Hack Canyon	87.2
14	Hack Canyon to the Weeping Wall	69.9

The homepage's round figure is 800 miles. The route page does not print a total of these fourteen numbers, and this table does not add one. The maps page uses the same fourteen titles as links. On that page, section 4's canyon is spelled Poison Spring Canyon, without the s the route page uses. The drawing files behind those links are not being served, so the links do not open.

Where the longer notes pick up the course

Separate notes follow the same order without adding places. Arches to Hite covers sections 1, 2, and 3: Salt Valley, Hurrah Pass, the Needles, Dark Canyon, and Hite. Hite to the Burr Trail covers sections 4 and 5: the Flint Trail, the Dirty Devil, Mount Ellen, and the Waterpocket Fold. Those notes use the route page's miles, 39.7, 47.1, 67.9, 35.8, and 48.9, and they do not insert a town the page never named.

Escalante country to Round Valley Draw covers sections 6 and 7: Coyote Gulch, the Kaiparowits, and the Cockscomb, at 72.5 and 80.8 miles. Willis Creek, Bryce, and the Kaibab cover sections 8, 9, and 10: the Paria, the Pink Cliffs, Buckskin Gulch, and the Arizona Trail, at 49.0, 66.3, and 60.9 miles. The titles are a reading order. They are not new endpoints.

Sections 11 through 14, the canyon crossing and the walk to Zion, are in the note that ends at the Weeping Wall. The route page's permit for 11, 12, and 13 is Grand Canyon National Park. Section 14's permit is Zion National Park. The miles on those four are 47.1, 34.9, 87.2, and 69.9.

Permits, in the page's own words

Section 1 names Arches National Park. Section 2 names Canyonlands. Section 3 names Canyonlands and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Section 4 names Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Section 5 names Capitol Reef. Section 6 names Capitol Reef, Glen Canyon NRA, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Section 7 names Grand Staircase National Monument, the shorter form. Sections 8 and 9 name the monument in full, and section 9 adds Bryce Canyon National Park. Sections 10 through 13 name Grand Canyon National Park. Section 14 names Zion National Park.

The route page does not print a fee, a quota, or a phone number next to those names. The links page points at the park and monument websites. That is as far as these pages go.

A permit name is not a description of the walking. Section 7's permit line is a single monument, and the section text runs from the Kaiparowits through Navajo Canyon, Last Chance Creek, the Cockscomb, and Cottonwood Canyon Road. The place names are the description. The permit line is the line under them.

What the page says a reader still lacks

The route page's own limit is the sentence about insufficiency. Brief descriptions, not a turn-by-turn guide. The updates page adds Ryan Choi's 2008 notes, with mile and page references and dated water. Those notes are not a substitute for the warning, and they are not current. The note on those pages keeps the dates attached.

The maps page offers overview drawings section by section. Because those files are absent from the pages being served, a reader who needs a map is pointed by the links page toward the guidebook, the Skurka bundle, Li Branfors' maps and tracks, and Buck 30's 2013 data. Those are titles on the links page, not downloads hosted here.

The gallery does not fill the gap. It shows captioned frames: moonrise over the Henry Mountains, Coyote Gulch, the Little Colorado, the Paria, the North Kaibab, Kanab Creek, the East Fork of the Virgin, Rainbow Point, Mount Ellen, the Dirty Devil. A caption is not a junction instruction. The gallery captions are pictures the site already chose.

Questions

How many sections does the route page describe?

Fourteen. Section 1 starts at Salt Valley in Arches. Section 14 ends at the Weeping Wall in Zion Canyon. Each title on the route page includes a mileage.

Which section does the page give the most miles?

Section 13, North Rim to Hack Canyon, at 87.2 miles. The shortest figure on the page is section 12, Horseshoe Mesa to the North Rim, at 34.9 miles.

Are the descriptions enough to walk a section?

The route page says they are not. They are meant to familiarize a reader with the course. The warning asks for an experienced desert backpacker in peak condition before any section.