{"id":1862,"date":"2017-11-28T06:41:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T11:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/?p=1862"},"modified":"2025-08-10T19:35:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T23:35:31","slug":"buckskin-gulch-and-a-slot-canyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/buckskin-gulch-and-a-slot-canyon\/","title":{"rendered":"Buckskin Gulch and a Slot Canyon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This day was something of a ‘transitional’ day in our Zion\/Sedona itinerary<\/a>.\u00a0 We were traveling southward from Zion, but a single drive through to Sedona would have been nearly a full day driving – nearly 300 miles. Sitting in a car all day didn’t sound appealing – plus, there were trails along the way – so we’d decided on a day-hike and a stop-over in Page, AZ – roughly the halfway point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between Zion and Page are a series of slot canyons<\/a> –  so called because, while they’re a canyon, they’re typically very narrow, on the order of 3-5 feet, though depths could range 50-100 feet!    Many of the slots in Southern UT\/Northern AZ are on native american lands, requiring special permits or are guide-only.  One we found – Buckskin Gulch<\/a> – wasn’t controlled in that way, and was on the way to Page, AZ – perfect!<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Some<\/a>
Some dire warnings about the trail ahead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Leaving Zion, we enjoyed our last look at the beauty, and settled in for the roughly 90 mile trip to the trailhead turnoff – House Rock Valley Road.   And with the monotony of the highway, we blew right by the turnoff – hardly more than a dirt road.  Fortunately, we had an Explorer – for the 5 mile dirt road to the Buckskin trailhead, which was little more than a parking area amongst the tumble weeds (yes, tumble weeds).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We opted for the Buckskin gulch trailhead, rather than the more popular, Wire Pass trailhead, due both to the rough going on the dirt road, and being low on gas (not a good situation out there).  Though after gearing up, and reading the signage (see the photo to the right), this didn’t sound like any sort of picnic – very reminiscent of the signage on<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mt. Washington warning of death by exposure in bad weather<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"buckskin<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The going was relatively easy, mostly a dry river bed, but not very interesting.  Some interesting rock formations along the way, but otherwise, not interesting.     We didn’t spot another soul for over an hour+, which made it slightly creepy – a very real reminder that we were out in the middle of nowhere, 5 miles off the highway, another 3+ miles of hiking, and nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon though, we reached the first slots of the Paria river (the river bed we were on) – definitely a unique experience.  While the walls weren’t particularly high, the narrowness caused a nearly claustrophobic sense.  And it was hard to not imagine the chaos that could occur during a flash flood – the water has nowhere to go, especially with all of the debris that would be out in front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definitely an interesting experience – vastly different from the mountains of New Hampshire which we’re far more accustomed. We were “in the slot” for perhaps 10-15 minutes, before breaking out into the junction with Wire Pass trail, an open area at the intersection of two slots; punctuated by nearly shear walls on all sides, though easily 100+ yards across.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"slot1\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Some views of the Buckskin Gulch Slot:
<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"slot2\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"slot3\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The slot was really narrow – visible in the next photo. One can only imagine what effect a flash flood might have – a 2′ stream of water, a 5′, or maybe higher which might happen from the funneling of water through a successively more narrow slot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, a bit frightening. Fortunately for us, the day was dry.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"IMG_4129\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It was at the junction that we saw a few other hikers, some coming from Wire Pass, and a few exiting the main canyon heading westward from the middle trail toward Wire Pass. Chatting for a few moments to talk about what we saw, the trails, and the petroglyphs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"IMG_4133\"<\/a>
Native American Petroglyphs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

But soon enough, it was time to press on – it was nearly 5 miles back to the car, and we still had a bit of driving to do before arriving at Page, AZ for the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a hiking perspective, the hike was easy – total elevation change not much more than 250 feet over 5 miles, and the footing was good, though sometimes sandy.   The big concern would be flash floods, though we didn’t have to worry about that – there hadn’t been rain in many days, and none was predicted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This day was something of a ‘transitional’ day in our Zion\/Sedona itinerary.\u00a0 We were traveling southward from Zion, but a single drive through to Sedona would have been nearly a full day driving – nearly 300 miles. Sitting in a car all day didn’t sound appealing – plus, there were trails along the way – so we’d decided on a day-hike and a stop-over in Page, AZ – roughly the halfway point. Between Zion and Page are a series ofRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"category-hiking.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zionsedona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1862"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4936,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions\/4936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}