The Desert Trail (DT) is a 2,223mile / 3577km route across the Mojave Desert in California, Great Basin Desert in Nevada, and the arid Columbia Plateau in Oregon. It follows a route across mid- to high-elevation desert valleys of the American west, crossing 17 Wilderness areas, 4 state parks, 2 National parks, and 2 National Wildlife Refuges along the way. The route is almost entirely on public land, and most of it is off-trail, either cross-country (60%) or disused dirt roads (30%), with the remainder on trails or herd paths. It starts at the Mexican border, near the town of Jacumba Hot Springs, and continues north thru several National Parks and National Monuments, including Anza-Borrego State Wilderness, Santa Rosa Wilderness, Mecca Hills Wilderness, Joshua Tree National Park, Sheephole Valley Wilderness, Mojave National Preserve, Kingston Range wilderness, and Death Valley National Park. The 1,565mi “guidebook route” finishes at Drinkwater Pass in Eastern Oregon, but Buck “Colter” Nelson has mapped a 658mi extension that continues north to the Canada/Washington border, which was the trail founder’s original vision.
The main challenge of the route will be drinking water (we will be caching/burying water, more details in a later post); the weather should be quite pleasant in April and May, and there isn’t much elevation gain/loss. The highest point is Steens Mountain (9,733ft/2967m), and the lowest point is in Death Valley at -282ft/-86m, though much of the trail stays around 4000ft (1200m). The trail doesn’t take the most efficient route thru the desert, but rather meanders around to link together interesting terrain and the exceedingly few natural water sources. This map shows the general route of the Desert Trail:
And I’ve also created an overview route in Google Maps (not for navigation!)
The hike should take us between 4 and 5 months, as we likely will cover about 20 miles per day, plus some rest days in towns and for resupply. I learned about this trail in 2018 when prolific hikers “Buck-30” and “Steady” traveled it, but I wasn’t ready to hike such an advanced trail. The trail is very remote and dry, and this environment was outside my comfort zone until more recently.
Trail History: The route itself is actually fairly old, having been conceived by Russell Pengelly, a biology teacher living in Burns, OR. From the guidebook: “The idea for the Desert Trail came to Russell Pengelly as he stood atop Steens Mountain in Southeast Oregon. He realized what an interesting and exciting area this would be for the establishment of a border-to-border hiking trail. Russ was familiar with the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail, but the other trails were almost all routed through the mountains. Because of winter snows, they were restricted almost entirely to summer hiking….A Desert Trail? Of course! With varied routes runnin gfrom Mexico to Canada, it would be open to hiking almost any time of the year. The variety of terrain, from true desert to alpine country, would provide an exciting sample of many different ecosystems through which to hike.” Soon Russ began publicizing his ideas, and by 1972 the Desert Trail Association was officially incorporated in the State of Oregon, and the trail began appearing on BLM maps in Oregon. The trail was officially established by an act of congress in October 1976. In the same month, Backpacker Magazine published an article about the Desert Trail. In the 1980s, a California section of the DTA was organized, and 300 miles of the trail were mapped, documented, and publicized by various public agencies. In the 1990s, further route development was done by the Desert Survivors, and desert veterans Darrel “Ol Creosote” Tomer, Steve “Pathfinder” Tabor, and George “Grubstake” Huxtable. In 2000, Steve Tabor started publishing guidebooks, with an emphasis on the natural history and geology of each section. These guidebooks were available from the DTA, but that organization was dissolved in May 2020. They are now available directly from the author himself (via email/phone), who has almost no online presence (and I’m guessing prefers it that way).
Despite the Desert Trail’s longevity, its almost completely unknown, even in the long-distance hiking world. My extensive searching only yielded 8 hikers who have documented a thru-hike of the trail, though I’m sure hundreds more have hiked sections, mainly due to the efforts of groups like the Desert Survivors. These are the few Desert Trail journals/blogs I’ve found:
Buck “Colter” Nelson’s 2012 hike and trail info
Ryan “Dirtmonger” Sylva’s 2018 hike
Brian “Buck-30” Tanzman & Heather “Steady” Werderman’s 2019 hike
Gerald & Anke’s 2023 hike
Amanda “Not a Chance” Timeoni & Jason “Out & About” Tompkins‘ 2024 hike
And now, in 2025, TopShelf and I will spend several months exploring the beauty of the desert, and I’ll document the journey here. I’ll still write daily journals, but due to limited connectivity, I’ll likely only post them when I’m online in towns.
Daily Blog Posts:
Preparing for the Desert Trail
Water Caching, part 1
Finishing Water Caching
Day 1: