# South-to-north route through Utah



## Cordillera Cowboy (Jun 6, 2014)

I just watched a documentary called "Unbranded". Some Texas A&M grads rode From the Mexican border to the Canadian border. Their route took them through Utah. They stayed on public lands and only seemed to use roads when they had to go to town for supplies. They used a combination of GPS and old fashioned map reading. The 2 experts in each method seemed to argue a lot. There was also quite a bit of brush busting where the trails just ran out. Much of that was on foot scrambling up or down steep, rocky mountains. 

There may be some info in the credit roll of that film that could help you.

ETA: They did lose at least 3 horses in the process. Two with injuries (one bowed tendon, and one torn muscle). One horse died, possibly from a broken neck after spooking and getting loose.


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## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

They didn't injure or kill the horses in Utah. The two injured horses got hurt in Arizona and the one that died was near Jackson hole. But that is not the point of this thread. They did have their horses get loose in Utah and wasted a day or two trying to catch them

Look into the Great Western Trail. It is the trail that traverses Utah South to North. In some areas of the state the Great Western is made up of numerous trails that run some what the same direction.

Also the Great Western is Multi-Purpose in many areas, Meaning you will share it with ATVs or Motorcycles as well as hikers.


Utah is 75% public lands, So you have a good chance that any place you choose to ride will be public lands and open to riding. These odds drop considerable as you enter Northern Utah and Wasatch Front where there is more private land than across the state in general.

Ranchers run cattle across almost the entire state other than the developed areas. These cows graze the mountains and desert on BLM and Forest Service Grazing permits. As such, The cows follow trails from water to grass and back. You should be able to find your way up or down almost any drainage by following the cow paths. And not having to bushwack.

Water and Feed will be much more of an issue and depend a lot on the season that you cross each area. Too high up the mountain, you will be wet, but snow may block your trails and the grass may not yet started growing. To late in the season and the high desert areas may be dry and the grass burned off. The same can be true for the fall. Frost and colder temps may have slowed the grass to almost no growth and late grazing by cattle or sheep will have eaten what had grown during the summer months.


Choose a route that will take you past the areas that you want to see. Bryce Canyon or Canyonlands for example are far enough apart ( East to West) that will not see both on the same north south trip.

Major hiways seems to follow the lowest elevation route. And lower elevations are where famers settled because they could get crops to grow and hence you will cross more private land, requiring you to ride on the roads. Higher elevation land is more open, But you will spend more miles going up and down vs straight line travel.

The Un-Branded boys ran into trouble in Central Utah because the snow pack had not melted and they had to drop down and ride up the highway thru the Manti area. They were just too early in the season. And because they were riding lower elevation, they encountered more private farms with fences. If they could have stayed on the Skyline Drive across the Manti mountains, they would not have been encountering as many fences or gates or worrying about getting permission to cross land.


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## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

Here is a suggestive map of the route

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://greatwesterntrail.org/maps/oldgwt.org/utah.pdf


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## 6gun Kid (Feb 26, 2013)

Painted Horse said:


> They didn't injure or kill the horses in Utah. The two injured horses got hurt in Arizona and the one that died was near Jackson hole. But that is not the point of this thread. They did have their horses get loose in Utah and wasted a day or two trying to catch them
> 
> Look into the Great Western Trail. It is the trail that traverses Utah South to North. In some areas of the state the Great Western is made up of numerous trails that run some what the same direction.........
> . If they could have stayed on the Skyline Drive across the Manti mountains, they would not have been encountering as many fences or gates or worrying about getting permission to cross land.


 Somehow I knew you would have the answer!


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## 6gun Kid (Feb 26, 2013)

horse1sense said:


> Anyone out there ever charted or rode a route from the south boarder to north board of Utah. We wish to avoid roads, which make the task rather complicated. Any input would be most welcome.


 I don't, but I would love to ride it myself.


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## embibb (Jan 11, 2016)

UNBRANDED by far the best documentary just on cinematography alone!


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