{"id":11144,"date":"2026-09-13T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yetihikes.net\/wordpress\/?p=11144"},"modified":"2026-09-19T22:18:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T05:18:29","slug":"grand-enchantment-trail-day-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yetihikes.net\/wordpress\/2026\/09\/13\/grand-enchantment-trail-day-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Enchantment Trail: Intro"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It has been a little while since I’ve posted anything on this blog, but that was for a lack of new long distance hikes. I’m aiming to rectify that situation on the Grand Enchantment Trail through New Mexico and Arizona in Fall 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had wanted to do the Hayduke Trail linking together the National Parks in southern Utah and northern Arizona for a long time, and when I finally did it in the fall of 2021, I was astounded by the desert scenery hiking through canyons for most of the trail. The trail is just a route with not a single marker or sign other than a few cairns here and there to point the way and some faint treadway on occasion. In large part, you are left to your own devices to follow that route. The trail is a wash most of the time and you navigate the wet or dry streambed and waterfalls to hike the trail. On occasion the route joins some 4×4 track or forest roads, but in general it was a route that made you think and make many more decisions along the way to make forward progress versus other more maintained trails. I only had water information from one other fall season, so I didn’t even know for sure where I would find water, so I was just conservative in my carrying along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved the Hayduke Trail, but at the end of it, it had been quite some time since I had completed a social trail like the Appalachian Trail. I met a grand total of 3 other thru-hikers on the Hayduke Trail, so in fall of 2022 I did the Arizona Trail which is a National Scenic Trail and has a lot more hiker traffic, presuming I would hike with others along the way for the first time in a while. There were enough thru-hikers that I met on the Arizona Trail, but after the scenery of the Hayduke, the Arizona Trail just didn’t come close to comparing, which left me disappointed, since part of me wanted to relive some of my Hayduke experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went again for the social trail experience with the Pacific Crest Trail in 2024, which unsurprisingly had a few too many hikers for my taste, though there were many fantastic people along the way. It was also an incredible trail through one of the best mountain chains in the United States. On the AZT and PCT I could open an app and see which water sources were flowing just in front of me from hikers providing updates, and there was not really anything unknown about the trails. You could blindly follow the well-trodden trail ahead of you with a liter or two of water and be fine most of the time. It was nothing like the Hayduke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew that after the PCT, future long distance trails would be more like the route of the Hayduke for me with their greater unknowns, harder travel, fewer people, and less information for planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grand Enchantment Trail fits that mold. It is a Brett Tucker trail which uses trails where possible, though frequently unmaintained, some roads, and also some cross-country travel. From the creator’s website<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Grand Enchantment Trail\u00a0is a 770+ mile wilderness trekking route across the Southwest U.S., connecting mountains, deserts, canyons, and places of cultural and historic interest. Beginning in the Sonoran desert near Phoenix Arizona, the route meanders eastward, crossing unique and diverse Sky Island mountain ranges, deep and water-blessed desert canyons, the pine-studded Continental Divide, and toward the southernmost Rocky Mountains, where it descends dramatically to the outskirts of Albuquerque New Mexico at its distant terminus.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Another reason I want to do the Grand Enchantment Trail now is that it has been increasingly destroyed by wildfires. Large sections of the trail have been rerouted or are through recent burn areas that will probably take a century or more to recover if they ever do. The above map is mostly desert as you can see, but the higher altitude forests are going away. Who knows how many more years this route will be viable for without just walking roads the whole way? It is happening more and more in the west, with more forest destroyed every year. Even now, at the end of the normal summer monsoon season there is a fire burning directly on the trail about 60 miles from my starting point in Albuquerque. That is at the end of the summer monsoon season which would normally prevent fires to begin with. The land is changing, and I want to see what I can before it changes to something unrecognizable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along the way I will record what I see and post it here for posterity; both the unblemished landscape and that already impacted by fires. I am mainly going to explore the land and enjoy the wilderness, but I believe this will be a valuable side benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will start September 19, 2026 from Albuquerque, NM and aim to complete the route in about a month and a half to Phoenix. At this point only one other hiker has posted about hiking this fall, but significantly later than I am leaving. I don’t know if I will see other thru-hikers out there, but that is fine with me. The area is experiencing various levels of drought from moderate to extreme<\/a>, but water should be good enough to make it work. I will likely have to go around the Whiskey Fire currently burninig on the trail which may involve roadwalking, but such is the adventure of a trail. You take what it gives you and figure it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will post when I’m in town, but I have heard there is little signal or good internet through the center of the trail, so I may just have to catch up at the end of the trail. In any case, I will try to post what bandwidth and time allows, or my Where am I?<\/a> page will follow along with my inReach tracker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll see you on the trail!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Yeti<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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