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Desert Trail Thru-Hike Map

CLICK HERE for the stories and photos at my Desert Trail thru-hike journal.

Below is the approximate route of my Desert Trail thru-hike. The trail was originally laid out as far as Highway 78 in Oregon. From there I created my own route all the way to Canada. The Desert Trail Association has designated my route as the official completion of the Desert Trail from Mexico to Canada. (You will find more accurate route information for Highway 78 to Canada by clicking on the links below.) Although this shows the general route I highly recommend ordering the guidebooks for a much more accurate and complete route and description.

Thanks to Dave Oline, Gerry Goss, Steve Tabor and the Desert Survivors for this data.Click on the blue placemark buttons for notes I made from the trail, these points should be as accurate as my GPS! Note that this map can be viewed by Terrain, Satellite, or in Google Earth. See the links below for my journal and more information.

Desert Trail Intro
Desert Trail Guidebooks
Desert Trail Overview Map
My Desert Trail Journal

I have information on each of the new Desert Trail segments from Highway 78 in Oregon to Canada as seen below. For a rough digital map of that stretch of trail, click here.
Warm Springs: Highway 78 to Drinkwater Pass
Malheur: Drinkwater Pass to Austin Junction
NF John Day Wilderness: Austin Junction to FR 52
Wallowa: FR 52 to I-84
Umatilla I-84 (Exit 243) to Timothy Springs
Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness: Timothy Springs to Dayton
Wheat Land: Dayton to Hooper
Columbia Plateau: Hooper to Spokane
Mt. Spokane: Spokane to Newport
Selkirk Mountains: Newport to Canada


View My Desert Trail Route in a larger map

2 Comments

  1. Joseph Riley

    I’m thinking of hiking this trail the whole way through. But cannot find much info on it at all. I plan to take a desert survival course just to be safe, but I’d like to ask some questions on things like how much water you carried, if theres places to resupply for food, or if trapping is the only option.

    • Bruce "Buck" Nelson

      Hi Joseph,
      You are right, there’s not much info out there. The trail requires caching in the southern stretches. I’d recommend reading through all my Desert Trail pages and my linked journal and seeing what questions you have remaining. Good luck!

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