Just southeast of Moab, UT is a fantastically well-hidden mountain range that supplies any desert lover with the occassional taste of the mountains. Steve Hawkins floated the idea of completing what's known as the La Sal Skyline Traverse sometime in the Spring of 2022. He first came across the idea when browsing a blog post from Jared Campbell. The idea is to complete all the peaks in the range that rise above 12,000ft of elevation. Our plan was to close the loop, which nearly doubles the distance and adds an additional 5,000ft of gain. On June 10th we headed out from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (where we both resided) with our sights set for Moab. 

 We arrived late in the evening and parked at La Sal Pass very close to Medicine Lake. We were the only car parked at the trailhead and parking seemed ample. We hit the sack as soon as possible in order to get an early start the following morning. The next day, we woke up around 05:00 and started preparing for the big day. We only had guesses as to how long this day was going to be. We planned for some route finding, some insecure terrain, and some other unspecified delays. We set out on the Burlfriends Trail at 05:48, heading for our first destination, Mount Tukuhnikivatz, or, 'Tuk' as some refer to it.

Descending La Sal is a bit challenging. There seems to be an (obvious) consensus that of the two descent paths. One goes directly down the shoulder from the summit, and the other descends the gulch from the saddle of La Sal and Castle. Steve and I took a look at the shoulder and it struck some fear in our hearts, so we opted for the saddle route. 

This starts off easy, but gradually the loose scree starts up again, and it becomes very slow going. Steep, scree, and always making sure the rocks are stable - this is what the entirety of the descent is.

Eventually we hit quite an impressive waterfall (not really a waterfall, but the runoff is impressive). **Fill up water here** Steve and I made the mistake of not filling up here, and we paid the price for it later. Eventually Steve and I found our way on the Bachelor Basin Trail which would be our home for the next many hours. 

We started heading southbound and we got somewhat turned around in Bachelor Basin. This area is very helpful to have a GPS device (Gaia for example) to make sure you're on the right path. I don't recall there being good trail markings, compounded with the fact that there was still snow on the ground, partially obstructing the trail (keep in mind this was in July). 

We quickly hustled our way to Miners Basin where we could fill up water, and about this time is when the sun officially set. In some ways this felt like a relief. We were rushing to try to get progress done before this happened. However, once the inevitable did happen, it was a just one big shrug, and we put the head lamps on, ate some more food, and headed out into the night. Apologies that I don't have any more photos from this point on, but I didn't see much point seeing as it was completely dark outside. 

The next checkpoint is 'Warner Campground' ~3.5 miles away. Again, more places to fill up water here if needed at Warner Lake. 

Up next is 'Oowah Lake', less than 2 miles away (more fill up for water if needed). As an aside, although this return journey took many hours due to exhaustion that was setting in I did enjoy the shorter distances between campgrounds, lakes, and roads, to make it feel like we were making progress :)

From here it's 2.5 miles to the forest service road '50071'. Halfway there, there is a junction that will take you east to 'Geyser Pass' **do not go east, just keep going straight** Once we got to the road, for whatever reason, we got a little turned around staying on the trail at this juncture (probably due to snow and what looked like construction). Just keep in mind that you will come to an official trail starting point from the road, with signage and a maps + information, so just keep your eyes peeled for that.

From here it's ~4 miles back to the dirt road. I'll tell it to you straight, this sections sucks. Not only does it feel like it goes on forever, but toward the end of this section the trail really stops becoming a trail. Once you get to this little 'pond scum' type marsh, you really have to just get creative and hope you find a social trail that sends you in the right direction. You're not too far from the road, so just take the path of least resistance. Also, there were a couple cows standing in this pond scum staring at us in the middle of the night that scared the bejesus out of us (me). 

Finally you've reached the road, but alas.. you still have over 3 miles, and ~1,500 ft. of gain to get back to your car. This is about the time that I started hallucinating very mildly. Grind it out, start thinking about the food and drink that you will get to eat to motivate you to get back. 

If you'll remember, Steve and I started at 05:48 in the morning, and we arrived at the car ~04:00 in the morning, the next day. Around 22 hours was our elapsed time for completing this monstrous day. One of the biggest time consumers of the day was the return journey (18 miles, and ~5,000 ft of gain). Normally, this would be a big day by itself. The problem is, you just destroyed the entire La Sal Range.

This was an epic journey, but Steve and I agreed that if we ever did something like this again, it would be best to either get a ride from the northern terminus back to the start, or park a car there for the return journey. That being said, the La Sal mountain range is criminally underrated, most likely due to it's proximity to Moab and the surrounding natural beauty. Enjoy it out there, be safe, tell someone your plan, and soak it all up! Click below on the link to check out my strava file if you want to download the GPX file!