Uploaded March 2019 | Updated September 2026, 44 minutes ago
This report summarizes the first part of a 72 mile section hike of the Hayduke Trail. The original route of Section 6 as outlined in The Hayduke Trail by Joe Mitchel and Mike Coronella spans 72 miles between Lower Muley Twist Canyon in Capitol Reef National Park and the Hurricane Wash Trailhead near Coyote Gulch passing through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and 28 miles of the Escalante River.
The Hayduke Trail is an extremely challenging, 800-mile backcountry route through some of the most rugged and breathtaking landscapes on earth. Located entirely on public land, the trail links six of the National Parks on the Colorado Plateau in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona with the lesser known, but equally splendid, lands in between them. Encompassed in the route are Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks as well as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and numerous National Forests, BLM Districts, Primitive Areas, Wilderness Areas and Wilderness Study Areas.
The Hayduke Trail is not intended to be the easiest or most direct route through this incredibly varied terrain, but is rather meant to showcase the stunning Red Rock Wilderness of the American Southwest. Named after George Washington Hayduke III, a fictitious character in Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, the trail seeks to pay homage to Abbey for his tireless defense of these fragile and threatened public lands and to heighten awareness and promote the conservation of the wild places that he and so many other people have come to need and love.
Here in Utah, feelings run strong and deep as to how public lands should be managed. While weighing both sides, it's important to keep in mind that the Colt Mesa property is located on lands that were purchased by U.S. taxpayers as a part of a larger congressional land exchange for Grand Staircase in 1998. We spent $50 million from the U.S. Treasury to ensure that this and other parcels would be transferred from the state of Utah to Bureau of Land Management ownership to be permanently protected — not mined.
On June 13, 2018, a Canadian company, Glacier Lake Resources, announced that they’d acquired copper and cobalt mining claims at Colt Mesa, inside the original boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The company’s press release detailing the acquisition is loaded with cheerful optimism, and the company’s web page on the project states benignly that: “The Colt Mesa mine area was sterilized from exploration and development in 1996, when President Clinton created the ‘Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument,’ However, the size was recently reduced by Presidential proclamation in December 2017, which put Colt Mesa outside the new boundaries of the restructured national monument.”
The release claims that “[s]urface exploration work will start during the summer of 2018 on the Colt Mesa property and drill permitting will be initiated shortly.” As it so happens, these lands are the subject of several lawsuits asserting that President Trump acted unlawfully in attempting to gut Grand Staircase. And because that action was unlawful and void from the get-go, any mining claims staked in the area removed from the monument are void too.
According to a research paper, the mine was worked only intermittently from 1971 to 1974. What brought an end to mining and led to the abandonment of the claim?
Lack of available water. Water doesn’t suddenly appear with time in the desert. Also lacking at the mine site are heavy-duty haul roads, electricity, and access to rail lines.
The nearest town — Boulder, Utah — is doing quite well with agriculture and tourism, and it’s not about to reimagine itself as a mining service community.
After staking a claim, a mining company must, at the very least, notify the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of its mining plans and give the BLM a chance to demand more safeguards for our public lands. The BLM must sign off on plans to mine more than five acres.
In the meantime, you can share your views by email with the BLM at:
blm_ut_so_public_room@blm.gov
Some of the text in this description was sourced from the following locations:
grandcanyontrust.org/blog/new-mining-claims-filed-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument
hayduketrail.org/index.html
Special thanks to Joe Mitchel and Mike Coronella for piecing together this route and sharing it through their book "The Hayduke Trail".
Special thanks also to Alex Maier at Five Aces Media for his gorgeous night sky photos captured along the Hayduke Trail during the Spring of 2018. For more info on his adventures visit:
youtu.be/-7jOVeMqOWY
fiveacesmedia.net
Special thanks to Nate Prudhon for help with voiceover work.
Soundtrack by:
Washed Out
"Eyes Wide Closed"
Royksopp and Robyn
"Momument"
Royksopp
"What Else is There?"
Royksopp
"Alpha Male"
This report summarizes the first part of a 72 mile section hike of the Hayduke Trail. The original route of Section 6 as outlined in The Hayduke Trail by Joe Mitchel and Mike Coronella spans 72 miles between Lower Muley Twist Canyon in Capitol Reef National Park and the Hurricane Wash Trailhead near Coyote Gulch passing through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and 28 miles of the Escalante River.
The Hayduke Trail is an extremely challenging, 800-mile backcountry route through some of the most rugged and breathtaking landscapes on earth. Located entirely on public land, the trail links six of the National Parks on the Colorado Plateau in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona with the lesser known, but equally splendid, lands in between them. Encompassed in the route are Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks as well as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and numerous National Forests, BLM Districts, Primitive Areas, Wilderness Areas and Wilderness Study Areas.
The Hayduke Trail is not intended to be the easiest or most direct route through this incredibly varied terrain, but is rather meant to showcase the stunning Red Rock Wilderness of the American Southwest. Named after George Washington Hayduke III, a fictitious character in Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, the trail seeks to pay homage to Abbey for his tireless defense of these fragile and threatened public lands and to heighten awareness and promote the conservation of the wild places that he and so many other people have come to need and love.
Here in Utah, feelings run strong and deep as to how public lands should be managed. While weighing both sides, it's important to keep in mind that the Colt Mesa property is located on lands that were purchased by U.S. taxpayers as a part of a larger congressional land exchange for Grand Staircase in 1998. We spent $50 million from the U.S. Treasury to ensure that this and other parcels would be transferred from the state of Utah to Bureau of Land Management ownership to be permanently protected — not mined.
On June 13, 2018, a Canadian company, Glacier Lake Resources, announced that they’d acquired copper and cobalt mining claims at Colt Mesa, inside the original boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The company’s press release detailing the acquisition is loaded with cheerful optimism, and the company’s web page on the project states benignly that: “The Colt Mesa mine area was sterilized from exploration and development in 1996, when President Clinton created the ‘Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument,’ However, the size was recently reduced by Presidential proclamation in December 2017, which put Colt Mesa outside the new boundaries of the restructured national monument.”
The release claims that “[s]urface exploration work will start during the summer of 2018 on the Colt Mesa property and drill permitting will be initiated shortly.” As it so happens, these lands are the subject of several lawsuits asserting that President Trump acted unlawfully in attempting to gut Grand Staircase. And because that action was unlawful and void from the get-go, any mining claims staked in the area removed from the monument are void too.
According to a research paper, the mine was worked only intermittently from 1971 to 1974. What brought an end to mining and led to the abandonment of the claim?
Lack of available water. Water doesn’t suddenly appear with time in the desert. Also lacking at the mine site are heavy-duty haul roads, electricity, and access to rail lines.
The nearest town — Boulder, Utah — is doing quite well with agriculture and tourism, and it’s not about to reimagine itself as a mining service community.
After staking a claim, a mining company must, at the very least, notify the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of its mining plans and give the BLM a chance to demand more safeguards for our public lands. The BLM must sign off on plans to mine more than five acres.
In the meantime, you can share your views by email with the BLM at:
blm_ut_so_public_room@blm.gov
Some of the text in this description was sourced from the following locations:
grandcanyontrust.org/blog/new-mining-claims-filed-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument
hayduketrail.org/index.html
Special thanks to Joe Mitchel and Mike Coronella for piecing together this route and sharing it through their book "The Hayduke Trail".
Special thanks also to Alex Maier at Five Aces Media for his gorgeous night sky photos captured along the Hayduke Trail during the Spring of 2018. For more info on his adventures visit:
youtu.be/-7jOVeMqOWY
fiveacesmedia.net
Special thanks to Nate Prudhon for help with voiceover work.
Soundtrack by:
Washed Out
"Eyes Wide Closed"
Royksopp and Robyn
"Momument"
Royksopp
"What Else is There?"
Royksopp
"Alpha Male"
