Our Commitment
Leave No Trace. Every trip. No exceptions.
The American Southwest is one of the most fragile landscapes on the continent. A single boot print in a cryptobiotic soil crust can take 50 years to recover. A discarded apple core in the desert doesn't compost. It mummifies for decades and teaches ravens to beg from hikers. We hike here because we love it. That's why we hike like we love it.
Our pledge to you and to the land
Epic Trail Adventures operates by the seven principles of Leave No Trace, published by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. On every expedition we run, your guides will model these practices, teach them in the field, and hold the group, and ourselves, to them. We pack out what we pack in, plus a little extra. We follow the agency regulations where we travel, including National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service rules for the specific area.
If you join us, you'll be asked to do the same. It's the price of admission, and it's not negotiable. In return, you'll learn the field skills that let you travel quietly and confidently in any wild place for the rest of your life.
The 7 Leave No Trace Principles
- 1
Plan Ahead and Prepare
Know the regulations and special concerns for the area you'll visit. Check the weather, water availability, and permit requirements. Schedule trips to avoid high-use times. Visit in small groups when possible and split larger parties into groups of four to six. Repackage food to minimize waste. Carry a map and compass, and know how to use them, so you don't have to mark trails with cairns, flagging, or paint.
- 2
Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
Durable surfaces include established trails and campsites, rock, gravel, dry grasses, and snow. Walk single file in the middle of the trail, even when it's wet or muddy. That's what your boots are for, and shortcutting around mud widens the scar. In pristine areas, disperse use to prevent the creation of new campsites and trails. Camp at least 200 feet (70 adult paces) from lakes, streams, and springs.
- 3
Dispose of Waste Properly
Pack it in, pack it out. Inspect your campsite and rest areas for trash and spilled food. Pack out all trash, leftover food, and litter, including micro-trash like wrapper corners and fruit stickers. Deposit solid human waste in catholes dug 6 to 8 inches deep, at least 200 feet from water, camp, and trails; cover and disguise the cathole when finished. In the Grand Canyon corridor and many slot canyons, you must pack out solid human waste in WAG bags. Pack out toilet paper and hygiene products. Strain dishwater and scatter it 200 feet from water sources.
- 4
Leave What You Find
Preserve the past: examine, but do not touch, cultural or historic structures and artifacts. Leave rocks, plants, fossils, and other natural objects exactly as you found them. Do not build structures, dig trenches, or move rocks. The desert remembers. A fire ring or a stacked cairn can last a century. We pack out what we find that doesn't belong, and we leave what does.
- 5
Minimize Campfire Impacts
Campfires can cause lasting impacts to the backcountry. We use a lightweight stove for cooking and rely on a candle lantern or headlamp for light. Where fires are permitted, use established fire rings, keep fires small, and burn all wood and coals to ash. Put out fires completely with water (not dirt) and scatter the cold ashes. Fire restrictions across Arizona are common and can change overnight; we follow the current rule, not last week's.
- 6
Respect Wildlife
Observe wildlife from a distance. Never feed animals, ever. Feeding wildlife damages their health, alters natural behaviors, and exposes them to predators and other dangers. Store food and trash securely. Control pets at all times, or better, leave them at home. Avoid wildlife during sensitive times: mating, nesting, raising young, or winter. Give bighorn sheep, condors, mule deer, and elk the room they deserve. A condor that learns to associate humans with food is a dead condor.
- 7
Be Considerate of Other Visitors
Respect other people on the trail and protect the quality of their experience. Be courteous at trailheads, on switchbacks, and in camp. Yield to other users on the trail; uphill hikers and pack stock generally have the right of way. Step to the downhill side of the trail when encountering pack stock. Take breaks and camp away from the trail and other visitors. Let nature's sounds prevail, so keep voices and bluetooth speakers down. The canyon doesn't need a soundtrack.
The desert is different.
Most Leave No Trace guidance was written with forests and alpine ecosystems in mind. The Colorado Plateau plays by its own rules. The soil is alive: black, lumpy cryptobiotic crusts of cyanobacteria, lichen, and moss hold the desert together. Step on it and you've killed a community older than most cities.
Water is rare and shared. Every spring, tinaja, and seep is a lifeline for desert bighorn, ringtails, frogs, and the next hiker who comes through. We never bathe, wash dishes, or urinate within 200 feet of a water source. We never camp on top of one.
Slot canyons hold their secrets only as long as we let them. We do not chalk, chip, or carve. We do not stack rocks or build cairns where none are needed. We walk in the wash, on the bedrock, or single-file on the established route, never abreast across the cryptobiotic crust just to walk side by side.
Take only photographs. Leave only the lightest possible footprints. Tell stories afterward, and tell them carefully. Geotagging fragile places online is its own kind of impact.
Walk lightly with us.
Every Epic Trail Adventures expedition includes field instruction on these principles. You don't need to be an expert. You just need to show up willing to learn and to leave the desert in better shape than you found it.
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