Our April 23-28 canyon country backpack trip is a wonderful walk through the fairly large but relatively little-known Paria-Hackberry Roadless Area. This chunk of wild southern Utah is a land of expansive juniper-dotted sandstone mesas cut by rugged steep walled canyons with clear streams and lush riparian vegetation. There are slots, arches and big red canyon walls! We rate this trip “fairly strenuous”, mainly because on one day we will pack water up to a dry campsite at the high point of a mesa with a spectacular view. But aside from that, most of the walking is pretty mellow.
But first things first. A billionaire real estate developer from new York City, who knows nothing about public lands, sits in the Oval Office and is working with his cronies to dismantle many public land protections. As you probably know, the Trumpeteers have dismantled much of the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument. This won’t affect our trip, at least in the short term, because the Paria-Hackberry is an official Wilderness Study Area that pre-dates the National Monument (designated by President Clinton). So the BLM is legally required to manage it for the perpetuation of wilderness character. For now.
Nonetheless, if the monument reduction holds up in the courts, adjacent lands will see an increase in off-road vehicle abuse, over-grazing and maybe even mining, oil-drilling and the new roads that always accompany such examples of wild-land industrial development, and this will indeed impact the Paria-Hackberry. So stay tuned. Join Wilderness Watch and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. And by all means, sign up for this great guided Utah backpacking trip while the backpacking is still a wild experience!
