As printed on the site

Six national parks, and the land between

The homepage lists six national parks on the Hayduke: Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, and Zion. It places them on the Colorado Plateau in southern Utah and northern Arizona. In the same sentence it names Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, national forests, BLM districts, primitive areas, wilderness areas, and wilderness study areas.

The route page is where those names become a sequence. The fourteen sections start in Arches and end at the Weeping Wall in Zion. This note follows that order and stops where the page stops.

Arches, Canyonlands, and the way to Hite

Section 1 begins at the northern boundary of Arches National Park in Salt Valley, follows Courthouse Wash to the Colorado near Moab, and reaches Hurrah Pass by Kane Creek. The permit line is Arches National Park. Section 2 leaves Hurrah Pass, follows the Colorado into Lockhart Basin, drops Rustler Canyon to Indian Creek, and enters the Needles District of Canyonlands overland, ending at Big Spring Trailhead. The permit line is Canyonlands National Park. The mileage on those two sections is 39.7 and 47.1.

Section 3 stays with Canyonlands at the start: Elephant Canyon, the Grabens, Cyclone Canyon, Red Lake Canyon, Butler Wash, Beef Basin, then Fable Valley and the Dark Canyon Plateau. It descends Young's Canyon and Dark Canyon, climbs the Sundance Trail, and follows dirt roads to Hite. The permit line adds Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The section is 67.9 miles. The Arches-to-Hite note stays on these three sections.

Hite is the handoff. It is the end of section 3 and the start of section 4, still inside the recreation area on the permit line, before the route climbs toward the Henry Mountains.

Capitol Reef, the Escalante, and Bryce

Section 5 ends by climbing the Burr Trail switchbacks in the Waterpocket Fold of Capitol Reef National Park. The permit line for that section is Capitol Reef. Section 6 starts on the Burr Trail, follows Lower Muley Twist to Hall's Creek, crosses a pass in the Circle Cliffs, and reaches the Escalante River by Middle Moody Canyon. It follows the Escalante downstream to Coyote Gulch, then Hurricane Wash, and ends at Hole-in-the-Rock Road. Permits on that section are Capitol Reef, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The mileages are 48.9 and 72.5.

Section 7 is the long monument stretch, 80.8 miles, from Hole-in-the-Rock Road to Round Valley Draw. The route page's permit line shortens the name to Grand Staircase National Monument. Section 8, 49.0 miles, goes down Round Valley Draw and Hackberry Canyon to the Paria, then up to Willis Creek, with the full monument name on the permit line. Section 9, 66.3 miles, climbs toward Bryce, follows the Under the Rim Trail along the Pink Cliffs to Riggs Spring, and leaves the park by Lower Podunk Creek. After Highway 89 it uses Buckskin Gulch and Wire Pass to reach the Arizona Trail stateline trailhead. Permits: Bryce Canyon National Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The gallery captions that sit in this part of the route are Coyote Gulch, striped hills along the Paria, and a frame near Rainbow Point in Bryce Canyon. They are captions, not a log of water or of a season.

The Grand Canyon, then Zion

Section 10 follows the Arizona Trail across the Kaibab Plateau from the Utah-Arizona line to the North Rim, at the Saddle Mountain-Nankoweap trailhead. It is 60.9 miles. The permit line is Grand Canyon National Park, and it stays Grand Canyon National Park through sections 11, 12, and 13.

Section 11 descends the Nankoweap Trail to the river, uses a boat ferry to the south side near the Little Colorado, and follows the Beamer, Escalante, and Tonto trails to Horseshoe Mesa. Section 12 crosses back on a footbridge by the South Kaibab Trail and climbs the North Kaibab Trail to the North Rim. Section 13 leaves the North Rim on dirt roads to Swamp Point, drops to Tapeats Creek and Thunder River, crosses Surprise Valley, and goes up Kanab Creek to Hack Canyon. The mileages are 47.1, 34.9, and 87.2. Section 13 is the longest figure on the route page.

Section 14 leaves Hack Canyon, crosses the Arizona Strip into the Vermilion Cliffs, and follows the East Fork of the Virgin through the cleft in Checkerboard Mesa to the Weeping Wall in Zion Canyon. It is 69.9 miles. The permit line is Zion National Park. The gallery captions a cataract in that East Fork, a slot in the Zion backcountry, and the North Kaibab Plateau. The canyon-to-Zion note stays with sections 11 through 14.

The lands the homepage groups with the parks

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are not an extra slogan under the six parks. They are on the permit lines. Glen Canyon appears on sections 3, 4, and 6. The monument appears on sections 6, 7, 8, and 9, once under the shorter name the route page uses for section 7.

National forests, BLM districts, primitive areas, wilderness areas, and wilderness study areas are named only in the homepage's list. The route page does not assign a forest or a wilderness study area to a section number. These notes do not invent that assignment. The permit lines are the only place a monument or a recreation area is tied to a section. No forest mile is assigned.

The links page sends a reader to the six park sites, Glen Canyon, the monument, and Zion's neighbors in that same list, plus the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Grand Canyon Trust, and the American Long Distance Hiking Association-West. Those are the page's onward links, not a rating of the agencies.

How the six parks sit on the homepage

The homepage's job is the list and the purpose. The route page's job is the order, the miles, and the permit name. The maps page repeats the fourteen section titles as links to overview drawings. Those drawing files are not among the files this site is serving, so the links do not open a map. The text of the course is still the route page.

A reader can treat the six parks as the chapter heads and the monument and the recreation area as the pages between the chapters. That is how the homepage's sentence is built. It is not a claim that every mile is inside a park boundary. Sections 4, 7, and 8, among others, are described outside a park name and inside a monument or a recreation area.

The warning at the top of the route page covers every section, park or not. Off-trail, unsigned, from 1,800 feet in the Grand Canyon to 11,419 on Mount Ellen's South Summit. The six names do not soften that warning.

Questions

Which six parks does the homepage name?

Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, and Zion. The route starts in Arches and ends in Zion Canyon at the Weeping Wall.

Where does Glen Canyon show up?

On the permit lines for sections 3, 4, and 6, as Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Section 6 uses the shorter form Glen Canyon NRA.

Do the section maps open?

The maps page links an overview for each section. The drawing files are not being served with these pages, so those links do not open a map. The route text is on the route page.