Walk The Parks Completed Route
Walk The Parks Route
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So this whole trip was huge: I hiked over 14,000 miles on the Walk The Parks Trip alone, but I've also been lucky enough to have even more adventures. This page describes a route I dreamt of, created, and completed from Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon.
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I created then completed (via human power) a route of approx. 3,000 miles from Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon. It's really a unique and interesting experience creating your own route that I really enjoyed.
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Summary: I thought it'd be cool to connect as many National Parks in a continuous footpath as possible. I started my Walk The Parks journey at the world's first National Park: Yellowstone, at the most iconic location within the park: Old Faithful. I then connected 13 National Parks in WY, CO, UT, NV, and AZ on a 3,000 mile route, creating my own route both in the truest sense and utilizing other existing routes and trails. It was a truly amazing experience. If someone ever wants to repeat the route, below are some details of my trip as well as some things I might consider changing to have a better experience. Feel free to reach out with any questions or comments or anything. walktheparks@gmail.com
Route: Yellowstone National park to Grand Canyon National Park.
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Random Takeaways:
- I was completely alone for almost the entire route, other than towns. I found this kept me motivated to do more miles, but of course lonely at times, particularly on long road walks.
- There are so many opportunities to create your own route in this greater area of the country. Utah in particular is just endless if you've got the grit, knowledge and water.
- There are some exiting routes across Utah like the American Discovery Trail and the Hayduke Trail. I found it more fun to combine them or make up my own route looking at the map. While I fully respect the trailblazers before me, I think it can be a fun and useful skill to plot your own course at times... Sometimes I'd take a more conservative route due to water or snow, other times a much more adventurous route: Waiting for 4 days for a raft hitch hike at the bottom of the Nankoweap Trail in Grand Canyon National Park.
- Someone much fitter than me could do something crazy like start at the Eastern terminus of the Pacific Northwest Trail, go to Glacier, then head south on the CDT, do this route, then take the Arizona Trail to the Mexican border. Or lots of other variants... Chase your dreams, kids!
- I started on July 22 in Yellowstone and kind of took my time in some ways. This caused me to be in CO at the end of October so a lot of the higher trails were non-ideal conditions for my hike.
- I hiked in an extreme drought year. This hurt and helped me in Utah. It was quite cold but not much snow, but I barely came across any natural water. I rented a car in Grand Junction and hid some water caches for myself every 40 miles or so. Due to a 100 mile waterless stretch from Milford, UT to Great Basin National Park to Zion National Park I opted to ride a bicycle for this portion of the journey. Winter bike touring I found challenging: so cold downhill, so hot uphill.
- I significantly hurt my knee towards the end of this trip. Kind of a combination of too much cycling too fast combined with a bike too small for me, and being required to carry full winter gear, 10 days of food and 12 liters of water for my Grand Canyon Shenanigans, haha. No regrets, but if I didn't hurt my knew for those few weeks I intended to finish the AZT sobo, but alas this was the route I ended up doing. No regrets.
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Route Basics: It's always funny when someone asks: what was your route. I always immediately reply with: you sure you want to know? I think the question is typically sincere, but the answer with no map is a ridiculously huge list of trails and whatnot.
- Continental Divide Trail until Heart Lake, Yellowstone, Boundary Trail exiting park (Snake River ford was scary, lol), Sheffield Creek Trail, Arizona Creek Trail, Colter Bay, AMAZING trail and road walk to Jenny Lake over hurricane pass, Teton Crest Trail to Phillips Bench TH, some road walks and bike paths into Jackson, WY. Traverse Gros Ventre Wilderness, Granite Highline Trail, Gros Ventre River, connect back to CDT at Lower Green River Lakes, CDT to Rocky Mountain National Park (hilarious to just write that in so few words, the Great Divide Basin and Wind River were both insane), I did an off-trail route in RMNP over Boulder-Grand Pass just to explore the park a bit more, CDT to road walk into Salida, CO. Road walk out of Salida, CO to Rainbow Trail to Medano Pass to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Long Road Walk to Mesa Verde National Park, Road Walk to Dolores, CO, Loading Pen Trail, Pipe Creek Rd, Calico Trail, Lizard Head Pass, Telluride, CO, Road walk to Montrose, CO and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, slept at the bottom of the Gunnison Route on the river, then road walk to Grand Junction, CO. Bike trails to Loma, CO, Kokopelli Trail to Moab and Arches National Park. Kane Creek, Hurrah Pass, Lockhart Basin, Indian Creek, Hamburger Rock, Needles District Canyonlands National park, Beef Basin, Dark Canyon, Sundance Trailhead, Hite, UT, Henry Mountains, Tarantula Mesa, Capitol Reef National Park, Oak Creek Canyon, Boulder, UT, Boulder Escalante Mail Route, Escalante, UT, Dirt Road walk to Bryce Canyon National Park, Road Walk to Circleville, UT, dirt roads and trails to Beaver, UT. Dirt road to Milford, UT. Bike tour to Great Basin National Park, Lehman Caves, Zion National Park, Angel's Landing, forced hitchhike through tunnel, bike tour to Arizona Trail Northern Terminus, Arizona Trail to Jacob Lake, mostly road walk to avoid snow on AZT to snow covered dirt roads to Saddle Mountain Trailhead, Nankoweap Trail, 4 day wait for river hitch to Little Colorado River Confluence, Beamer Trail, Tanner Trail to South Rim.
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Going into a bit more detail on each route section:
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Yellowstone: I got lost almost immediately and left quite a bit later than I was planning so had quite a rushed day one. It was rather hilarious. Then I was pretty nervous about fording the Snake River. There had been a warning on the backcountry page until literally the day before my arrival, but then the night before my crossing it stormed and poured almost the whole night. Crossing was definitely scary, but after 2 or 3 failed attempts I found an ok place to cross.
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Tetons: Depending on snow conditions, going over Jackass Pass and hiking the full Teton Crest Trail and doing some cross-country work and coming out around Solitude Lake would be preferred. Although: Colter Bay is freaking amazing. Also, the road from Colter Bay to Jenny Lake has to have one of the most stunning views in all the world. Enjoyed on foot, bike, or via car, it's simply astounding on a nice day and had some tears of joy for me.
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Gros Ventre Wilderness: The wildflower "superbloom" the year I was there was beautiful, but I was COVERED in wildflower sap of all varieties, literally caked with the stuff. Not ideal. Trail was challenging to follow too. I've met several people who have spent a long time in the Jackson, WY area and so many of them enjoy the ruggedness and overlooked Gros Ventre wilderness. I remember setting up camp one night and there were literally ZERO places without a game trail going through them (something you'd typically avoid). I just chose a place and as I was cooking dinner I looked up and over 1,000 elk just stood and appeared a hundred yards above me or so. Very cool. Connecting back to the CDT at Green River Lakes is interesting. I startled a huge moose and a badger, which was cool, but in all of the maze of roads all of the gates are marked either "No Trespassing" or have a Forest Service logo and say "Please Close Gate". I came across one that said no trespassing near the Green River and decided to walk along the fence line to the next gate which was a Forest Service Gate. I came upon one final gate about a mile before reconnecting to the CDT and.... neither sign! Not sure if I had to trespass briefly, but I think I solved most of the issues. I hope more CDT folks take this route. I should make a more detailed version, as there's an obscure alternate that has some pretty long exposed Gros Ventre bushwhacking that my route avoided.
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Wind River Range - My how Magicial! Such a cool place. Did have one scary moment on a pass with frozen snow in the morning and I thought I could sneak around the scary snow but ended up in a scarier place that I couldn't retreat from. Glad I still had my ice axe!
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Great Divide Basin/Red Desert, WY - I happened to stumble across the Adventure Race World Championship and that was extremely inspirational (though annoying that all of the leaders shined their lights in my tend the night before. I found the Great Divide Basin to be stunningly beautiful. Such huge beautiful skies and open spaces. Kind of crazy to have to herd several hundred head of cattle and a few wild horses to get to the only water source within 20 miles though. Beautiful place
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Continental Divide Trail in Colorado - so beautiful but also such audacious routing. Seems like you're always on the highest possibly ridgeline, aka the Continental divide. This is so awesome but also so freaking stressful at times during Colorado's monsoon season. I enjoyed thinking of the contrast between so many "caution" or safety signs we're faced with in normal life compared to the crazy Ridgeline route of the CDT. At a random trailhead with no cars I walked a couple of minutes and sat down for a break. A car pulled in and no lie let off about 500 automatic rounds within a couple of minutes and then immediately left. Good warning about camping at trailheads with no cars.
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Rainbow Trail - Kind of a neat trail, almost the opposite of the CDT, staying low in the trees its entire length. Some interesting erosion damage from wildfires in a couple places on the trail.
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Great Sand Dunes to Mesa Verde to Black Canyon to Grand Junction - A very long road walk. Kind of weird in a state with so many trails. There was an early snowstorm which made most of the higher trails in the San Juans have too much snow to fuss with. If this was not the case I would have gone the many miles out of my way to stay on trails a bit more, but it's all good. I got Giardia and had to run off the road very frequently which was not ideal. I thought I was going to be charged at a hotel in Pagosa Springs for the terrible things I did to those sheets. I'm sorry. Stayed with an amazing and knowledgeable ranger in Mesa Verde. Also camped within the park and saw a Bobcat which was cool. I love Black Canyon! I feel like so many people skip this park, but it's truly spectacular. I would explore additional routes from here to Grand Junction, maybe I could have gone into Dominguez/Escalante? Had the only weird human incident occur of the trip here, a guy got out of his car and started following me, but wouldn't say hi or anything. I sped up and he eventually left. Weird.
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Utah - So cold and dry. It was November and December. I had broken my tent and was using an A-Frame tarp which I absolutely love in the hot summer, but those same qualities are freezing cold in the winter. Water: Almost all natural sources were dry this year for me after a huge drought and I was too late in the year for any campground taps to still be on. If you stick more on the ADT I think there's a trail angel that stocks water caches. I was unable to find this person during my hike, however, so I rented a car in Grand Junction (a 2WD car, mind you) and cached water about every 40 miles along the Kokopelli Trail and my other route through Utah. Full winter gear plus 40 miles of water made for a heavy pack. I kind of like adventures like this though. While I certainly LOVE hiking the Appalachian Trail and the like, I also LOVE truly adventurous trails where water can be uncertain and there's no possibility of a shuttle to town for some food. At one point I followed Mountain Lion tracks from the moment I woke up until the moment I set up my tarp. Didn't ever see the lion... I adjusted my route from resupply to resupply a bit, based on the cold, some snow at higher elevations, and how much risk I was willing to take on more technical canyoneering. Dark Canyon was really neat. Also, I met a gentleman on the road into Moab who knew a ton about the surrounding area and took my friend and I up in his plane over the future route I'd follow. He also made me fly most of the way.That was amazing, thank you! Bryce Canyon was so cold, but I love being there with the contrasted snow on the red rocks. Strike that: I like being in Bryce any and all the time, but the snow is purty too. I did a presentation to a full school in Milford, UT, which was really fun, thank you for the opportunity. Super remote in the area between Beaver/Milford and Great Basin. The Lehman Caves are truly spectacular if you're ever in the greater area.
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Arizona Trail and Grand Canyon - Most normal people would certainly just do the normal Arizona Trail route through the Grand Canyon North Kaibab Trail to South Kaibab or Bright Angel. Me? Absolutely not. Nankoweap all the way! The trail starts at a remote dirt road trailhead, loses over 6,000 feet of elevation from Rim to River, the most for a named trail in the park. The Arizona Trail was in interesting shape at the end of December: enough snow to be annoying once on the plateau, but not enough for water. I tried to melt snow for water once and got some disgusting mud I was far from tempted to drink. My only water source that wasn't frozen or literal mud was the store at Jacob Lake. There was a sign at Jacob Lake explaining they only close a couple days per year, and I was there on one of those days... And there was no water I could find. I knocked on all the doors and eventually met a nice caretaker who let me fill my bottles that I needed to make it all the way down to the Colorado River with. Again, a more sane person would have just gone the traditional route as the North Rim Ranger Station has a year round water source, but again, that person is not me. Nankoweap was amazing. The ruins and view at the bottom are something I dream of quite regularly. BUT: I had to wait 4 days to get a ride downriver. There is no bridge across the River. Only 1 river trip launches per day that time of year. The first group was kayakers: no way for me to get a ride. The 2nd group said no kind of quickly, which made me laugh and walk away. In hindsight I could have pursued this more, but I found it kind of hilarious they said no.... The 3rd group said Yes, but they were taking a full day off first, haha. I also met a Grand Canyon Ranger down there, which was quite surprising, but he was cool, and we both had a chuckle at my predicament.River trips and hikers have a bit of an interesting relationship in my experiences. Sometimes they will give you anything and everything you could ever dream of: snacks, fruit, amazing meals, soda, beer, and even more. Other times, they can be a bit more.... standoffish? Like I'm almost scared to have any of the food as then I'll be forced to clean the pan they burned a pound of their dinner to? Or they've created a river bond and I feel like an intruder? My group this time was somewhere in the middle. The were nice though, and I certainly had no expectations and was very happy to have a ride down river when the time came. Thank you! I met another ranger on my hike out who, after I explained I walked there from Yellowstone, quickly offered to alter my permit to absolutely anything I wanted. I was out of food and my knee was quite injured though I was hiding it the best I could, so I was forced to regretfully decline. Eventually I made it to the rim, convinced a family from Brazil to give me a ride to Grand Canyon Village (National Parks can be frustrating as hitchhiking is prohibited, but asking for rides forces people to lie vs. just driving by if they don't want to pick you up.) I ended up spending several days with the family and they were super cool.
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Such an incredible trip! My knee took quite a few weeks to heal and honestly kind of made me freak out a bit, thinking the rest of my trip was cancelled. Have no fear though: within a couple of weeks I figured out a way to go on a 22 day raft trip the entire length of Grand Canyon National Park and I made it 504 days on my first stint of Walk The Parks. And, in the end, with over 1,100 days, 14,000 hiking miles, and infinite smiles, I visited all 51 National Parks in the lower 48 and the thru hike described above was the very beginning. Ahh, I feel so lucky to live my dreams sometimes. Please reach out with any questions or anything at all. Would love to see someone repeat this route someday.
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