No, You Don’t Have to Cache on the Hayduke Trail

Caching on the Hayduke Trail is one of the major questions many would-be hikers face. The route is a serious undertaking that should only be attempted by those with plenty of backcountry experience. For much of the route, there is no defined trail to follow, zero signposts or trail blazes indicate you’re on the Hayduke, and technical terrain needs to be navigated carefully.

Even for experienced backpackers and backcountry travelers, one complication on the Hayduke that many hikers encounter for the first time is the need to cache food, water, and supplies ahead of time – or at least the perceived need to cache things ahead of time.

Caching on the Hayduke requires a ton of extra preparation, a personal vehicle, and extra time both before and potentially after your hike to cache your supplies and then retrieve your cache remains (depending on how you cache your supplies and whether or not you carried out all your garbage/packaging with you when you retrieved your cache while hiking).

Here’s why I didn’t cache and why I don’t recommend caching on the Hayduke Trail.

My Experience

Before hiking the Hayduke, I spoke with friends who had hiked it previously, and based on what they told me, I decided that I would be fine without caching anything.

Everything went just fine. At no point did I run out of food, water, or supplies. Yes, sometimes I had to manage how much I ate and/or drank, but this could be said about any food/water carry on any trail.

If I hike the Hayduke again, I will not cache anything. If any of my friends ask me whether they need to cache anything for their Hayduke hikes, I’ll tell them “no,” then I’ll tell them to read this article when they ask me for details on why.

It’s worth pointing out that I hiked the Hayduke in the spring. Typically, people do this as either a spring or a fall hike. Spring generally has more reliable water sources than the fall, and spring hikers are more likely to encounter snow and/or swollen creeks. Other than that, there’s little difference between the two seasons (regarding anything that could impact caching).

Yes, this may mean there could be more or longer water carries in the fall, but there’s nothing about a spring versus fall Hayduke hike that would prevent someone from hiking who hasn’t cached (I know four people who have hiked in the fall – none of them cached anything and none of them told me they wish they had cached).

Hiking the Hayduke, I wasn’t doing especially massive days—my longest day of hiking on the Hayduke was 32.72 mi / 52.66 km with just 984 ft / 300 m of elevation gain. Meanwhile, my single largest elevation gain in a day was 6,532 ft / 1,991 m, the day I climbed up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Despite nothing too crazy being required to complete the route without caching, there were some heavy carries. But the good thing about heavy carries is that they only get lighter, and typically, your heaviest carries happen right out of town, which means you’re (hopefully) well-rested.

The Big Carries

The biggest downside to not caching on the Hayduke is you will have heavier food and water carries at various points in the hike. Also, you’ll probably have to send yourself shoes at some point (or buy shoes in Escalante); the Hayduke eats shoes.

Here are the spots where I carried the most water; each time, I carried 10 liters of water. I hiked the Hayduke westbound (the “normal” way).

• Leaving Lost Canyon in Canyonlands (I took the Peek-a-Boo/Joint Trail Alternate)
• Leaving Dark Canyon
• Leaving Hole-in-the-Rock Road (after stopping in the town of Escalante)
• Leaving Showerbath Spring

My longest food carry was eight days—from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to Hack Canyon Trailhead. However, after the South Rim, I was forced to take a non-traditional route through Grand Canyon National Park because the North Kaibab Trail was closed, which made the route longer. A swollen Shinumo Creek meant that I spent around 18 hours attempting to find a safe place to cross—time that could have been spent progressing forward.

That said, I got a ride to Kanab from Hack Canyon Trailhead (which isn’t typical), which made this section slightly shorter. It was another day to Colorado City/Hilldale from Hack Canyon Trailhead.

Basically, if you’re willing to carry a large amount of food and water for some sections of the route, you’re going to be able to hike the Hayduke without caching.

Benefits of Not Caching

Here are the benefits of not caching any food, water, or supplies for your Hayduke hike:

• You don’t need to drive all over Southern Utah before your hike to cache your supplies.
• You don’t need to spend time after your hike driving around all over Southern Utah to collect the buckets you buried your caches in (if you buried your caches in buckets and/or didn’t pack out your cache trash)
• You can be more flexible if you take an alternate that completely bypasses your cache.
• You won’t end up with way too much food or supplies to pack out at some point when picking up your cache.
• You don’t risk getting to your cache only to discover that you didn’t properly secure it and an animal (or human) has raided it.

I think all the above makes up for a few heavy carries, but the Hayduke is all about making your own adventure, so if you want to cache, more power to you.

But I Want to Cache!

If you’re dead set on caching for the Hayduke and you have the time and means to do so, don’t let me stop you.

There’s nothing wrong with caching on the Hayduke Trail. You just need to be sure to legally deploy your caches and follow Leave No Trace principles. I’ll follow up on this with another article detailing how and where to cache on the Hayduke Trail for anyone interested.

The short version is that most people cache at one of (or some of or all of) the following spots:

• Needles Outpost Campground just outside Canyonlands National Park (you can mail a resupply here as well)
• Hite – west of Highway 95, where the Hayduke crosses the Colorado River (via the highway)
• The top of the Burr Switchbacks in Capitol Reef National Park
• Grosvenor Arch
• Lower Hackberry Trailhead
• South Big Saddle Point at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
• Hack Canyon Trailhead at Mount Trumbull Road

Again, if you are going to cache, just be sure you do it safely, properly, and legally.

The Verdict

Listen, friends, the Hayduke is not a route to be taken lightly. It requires that you be comfortable with backcountry and off-trail navigation and know how to get yourself out of potentially sticky situations.

I am not saying everyone who sets off on the Hayduke is better off not caching. It could be the case that caching food, water, and/or supplies on the Hayduke, in your case, would be a good – even a necessary – decision.

However, if I were asked by an experienced thru-hiker friend, I would advise them that caching on the Hayduke is a huge waste of time and energy. Yes, you’ll save some time by caching. And yes, you’ll save some energy that would have been otherwise spent carrying an extremely heavy pack for some sections, but I don’t think it’s worth it.

On this note, any money you may save by pre-purchasing your food at more affordable places instead of small Utah towns will almost certainly be offset by the money you’ll spend on transportation, hotels, or additional meals while you drive around setting and retrieving your caches.

But I’m open to hearing other’s experiences and opinions on this. Have you hiked the Hayduke? Did you cache? Do you recommend it? Would you do it again? Leave a comment below and let me know!