Find True Solitude on These 12 Perfect Hikes

Want a true wilderness experience? Head west and trek endless empty miles on the BLM's best terrain.

Author:: Ryan Wichelns and Morgan Sjogren
Updated:: Jun 25, 2019
Original:: Jun 10, 2019

We talk about solitude like its last bastions are disappearing. But there’s a place where isolation still rules and evidence of the last travelers is erased before the next ones arrive. You just have to head west to the vast wilds held by the Bureau of Land Management. There are few permits, fewer fees, and next to no people. It’s all the solitude you can handle—and sometimes just a little more.

Grand Gulch, Grand Gulch Wilderness Study Area, UTWith its intricate side canyons, cultural sites, and plentiful water (at least by desert standards), Grand Gulch is the sort of place where you could spend a lifetime exploring and still see something completely new on each return. What you’re likely to not see? Crowds. The BLM enforces a strict quota system, which keeps the place unspoiled. In high season, it issues 20 permits a day in the Cedar Mesa zone, and though 12 are set aside for reservations, eight are issued to walk-ups—meaning you can score a free pass to one of the Southwest’s grandest canyon networks if you’re willing to camp near the Kane Gulch Ranger Station the night before.Permit in hand, hike across the street to tackle one of the best routes in Grand Gulch: the horseshoe through Kane and Bullet Canyons. Navigation is relatively easy for a canyon route, and you pop out of Bullet 8 miles south of Kane Gulch. Descend into the sandstone maw, following the deepening canyon about 3.8 miles to its confluence with Grand Gulch. Continue southwest through Grand, looking for the Turkey Pen Ruin, an ancient neighborhood at the base of an overhanging canyon wall. Other ceremonial kivas, granaries, and rock art dot the way to the junction with Bullet Canyon (mile 12.6). Camp in the riparian zone near a seasonal spring, then, next morning, head east up Bullet. Keep an eye out for the intact wooden, latticed window of the Jailhouse site and the reconstructed entrance ladder to Perfect Kiva in the upper portion of the drainage. Climb steadily out of the canyon via a social path to the trailhead on South Road.Distance 20 miles (point to point) Time 2 days Elevation change +2,200 feet, -2,200 feet Trailhead Kane Gulch (37.5244, -109.8958) Shuttle car Bullet Canyon (37.4308, -109.9495) Permit Required ($8); obtain from the Kane Gulch BLM station. Season Spring and fall

Desert Symphony

Tortilla Mountains, Arizona Trail, Pinal County, AZ

For 800 miles, the Arizona Trail charges across its namesake, serving up equal parts desert glory and mountain grandeur. Within that, the BLM manages 45 lonely, dust-caked miles just east of Phoenix that pack in all the splendor but none of the crowds. And, according to the trailhead register, there’s an average of just five visitors a day. Echo-o-o-o-o-o-o!

This segment is invariably dry, so save yourself the hassle of caching water and tick off an 18.6-mile out-and-back from the Florence-Kelvin trailhead, spending a night in the Tortillas. Start at the Gila River and speed south past brittlebushes and saguaros—some as tall as 40 feet—into the 4,000-foot range. The going is easy, but slow down to see the Spring Mountains rise out of the heat waves like a mirage to the north and the Sonoran Desert spread out to the south. Make camp above a wash near mile 9.3 and keep an eye out for desert A-listers like Gila monsters, desert tortoises, and javelinas.

Distance 18.6 miles (out and back) Time 2 days Elevation change +2,600 feet, -1,600 feet (one way) Trailhead Florence-Kelvin (33.1023, -110.9749) Season September to May Permit None