An Open Alternate Around the Babylon Fire Burn on the Utah ADT

Last updated July 31, 2026. The BLM reopened Beef Basin on July 29, so this route is now walkable end-to-end. It has not been field verified and has no documented water yet. Closures here have changed weekly. Verify against the land managers before you go.

The Babylon Fire has burned 107,189 acres of the Manti-La Sal National Forest and Bears Ears National Monument southwest of Monticello, Utah, and the American Discovery Trail runs through the middle of it.

Coming south from Moab, the route drops through the Needles District of Canyonlands, continues south through Beef Basin, and climbs into the Manti-La Sal. The fire started with a lightning strike on Elk Ridge in the Dark Canyon Wilderness. At UT5-33 the ADT sits at The Notch, the trailhead for Dark Canyon East Trail #006, which puts the route on the wilderness boundary where the fire began.

On July 29, the BLM rescinded its Babylon Fire closure across the Monticello Field Office, reopening Beef Basin and the Indian Creek country the ADT and this alternate both cross. Coming south from Moab on the Lockhart Basin Trail, through the Needles along State Route 211, and down into Beef Basin, that ground is open again.

What is still closed is the burn itself. Forest Service Closure Order #04-10-26-05-05, signed July 30 and drawn to the Babylon Fire footprint on the Monticello Ranger District, runs through August 31 unless rescinded earlier. Every closed road and trail in it sits inside the Manti-La Sal boundary. The official ADT climbs Elk Ridge Road and FR-088 straight through that ground, so the official line stays closed while the alternate around it, entirely on BLM land outside the forest, is open. That is the situation this route was built for.

If you walk in from the north, you pass through the Needles District to reach the tie-in. The district is open, and the Monticello Field Office confirmed on July 31 that Beef Basin and the surrounding BLM ground are open under Stage 2 fire restrictions. Needles backcountry permits were disrupted during the fire, so if you plan a night inside the park, confirm current permit availability with the park first.

The alternate goes around that closed burn. As of July 29 every mile of it is on open ground. The route leaves the official ADT in Ruin Park at 38.01092, -109.90970, four tenths of a mile past the Homewater Spring waypoint UT5-43 (EABO 86.3 / WEBO 88.2). It rejoins at UT5-13, the Sundance Trail trailhead junction on Woodenshoe Road (EABO 12.1 / WEBO 162.4). Between those two points, it runs 39.1 miles instead of 74.7 miles of official trail, with about 5,900 feet of climbing compared to 7,060 on the official line.

The GPX is free to download from this post, and the line is already in the Hiking America data in Gaia GPS. Load it, check it against the current closures yourself before you go, and treat the water situation as the real constraint.

Carry all your water. Plan the whole stretch as a dry carry and treat any water you find as a bonus.

The file is still moving. Hiker contributors are expected to hike the trail and verify conditions along it this season. Better information updates the file, and the version on this page is replaced as that information comes in. If you walk it, tell us what you find, water above everything else. That is the open question that matters most on this stretch.

Here is how it was built, so you can judge it. We took existing trail and overland traces used by drivers through the country west and south of the closure, joined them into a continuous line, and measured that line against our Segment 5 master track to confirm both ends tie in. Nobody has walked it end to end; it has not been field-verified, and surface and passability along the road-walk stretches are unconfirmed. It is open, but it is not proven. Carry the judgment you would on any unverified line.

Even after that order lifts, the burn does not. A hundred thousand acres of standing dead timber that falls without warning, no shade through a Utah summer, ash in what water is left, drainages that move debris after every storm. That ground stays hard for years, which is why this alternate is worth having on file well past the date the official corridor reopens.

No part of this line crosses burned ground, and as of July 29 no part of it is closed. The country it runs through, Beef Basin and the mesas west of the official trail, never burned, and the BLM has now reopened it. The ground that burned is Forest Service land on Elk Ridge and in the Dark Canyon Wilderness, where the official ADT runs and where the closure remains in effect through August 31.

Stage 2 fire restrictions are in effect across the reopened ground, as confirmed by the Monticello Field Office and Canyonlands' own alerts on July 31: no open fires of any kind; only petroleum or propane stoves. Closures moved fast on this fire, so confirm current status the week you go. Travel at your own risk.

Hike Your Hike - John.

Update log

• July 24, 2026: First publication, as advance notice. Fire at 107,189 acres, 95% contained. Needles District and SR 211 reopened. Draft alternate posted at 39.1 miles: unverified, no documented water, no burned ground crossed, northern miles inside the active BLM closure.
• July 29, 2026: BLM rescinded Fire Prevention Order UT-CYD-2026-02, reopening all Monticello Field Office lands including Beef Basin. Reframed from advance notice to an open, walkable route. Still unverified, still no documented water. Forest Service order over the burned official corridor remains in force through August 31.
• July 31, 2026: Confirmed the alternate stays entirely on BLM land, clear of the Forest Service closure. Monticello Ranger District issued replacement Closure Order #04-10-26-05-05 (effective July 31 through August 31), drawn to the fire footprint; per Exhibit A, all closed roads and trails fall inside the Manti-La Sal boundary, which the alternate does not enter.