Back to Utah again, to keep the ball rolling on the slot canyon thing. This time the destination is Buckckin Gulch, supposedly the longest slot canyon in the world. I don't know about that, but it was a long canyon. It is also supposed to be one of the "holy grails" of the slot canyon hikers resume (along with the Zion Narrows), so I suppose it is good to be ticking these off.
We drove up to Utah Thursday afternoon, and headed to white house campground. There we set up camp and wandered about (while Julie napped - recovering from her first block of night work). We went to bed fairly early because we wanted an early start. 5 am Utah time, which is 4 am Arizona time. oof.
The next morning we got up before the sun, and eventually packed and drove to the wire pass trailhead along some 15 miles of mostly washboarded dirt roads. Yuck. It was around 7 am and still chilly when we finally started hiking. The first bit of the trail was along a sandy wash, but after a few K, the wash dropped down into the wire pass slot. This was a pretty slotty canyon, brushing both shoulders in a few places. It continued with a few easy downscrambles over boulders to Buckskin Gulch. There were some petroglyphs at the intersection, and then we continued down buckskin, which was narrowed down to 3 or so feet wide in places, but could also be 20 or 30 feet wide. It generally was pretty tight and twisty for a ways, then opened up into a long straight section following joints in the rocks. It would look like a dead end at the far end of this corridor, but there would be another twisty slot heading in one direction or the other.
It was still a bit chilly when we got to the first pool that was unavoidable. Off came the shoes, and we waded across at around knee deep. brrr. The pools kept coming every hundred feet or so, so I put on my neoprene socks and sandals, and Julie her neoprene socks. The deepest pool was about the critical depth (crotch deep). There was a long gap before the last pool, which was knee deep. When we got to the middle entrance (or exit) point, we changed back into dry shoes.
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Many of the slot canyons I have been in had dead things in them and we joked that they were where caterpillars came to die. Buckskin Gulch was in a different league. At first we were just seeing bits of things, a tuft of fur here, a bone there... Then it was legs, wings, and even whole creatures. We saw parts of many rabbits, mice, rats, snakes, birds, a fox, and a number of unidentified things. Other than random bits of fur, rabbit feet with leg bones attached seemed to be especially common (but not so lucky for the rabbits). Below some logs wedged across the chasm that were popular perches for ravens, there were even more bits of creatures. It was a bit odd and creepy. Luckily most of them were picked clean or mummified and didn't stink up the canyon much. I don't know what percentage of the creatures were brought by birds, and which ones were just cruising across the desert minding their own business (but not where they were going) when suddenly they plummeted a hundred feet or so into a long cold slot with nothing to eat in it.
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There were lots of spectacular views, and I tried to take photos of some. I usually didn't even try with the ones with full sunlight in them, but where the light was reflecting down a twisty slot... As usual I had limited success. I brought my little tripod, but it took so long to set it up I didn't use it much. We had a ways to hike and didn't want to dawdle too much. We passed a few hikers going the other way, and some tents in the lower gulch. Despite a fair number of cars in the lot, we really didn't see many others.
There is a 15 foot or so downclimb near the end of the gulch. With a short fixed rope, it wasn't any problem. There were also carved steps on the side of the canyon which wouldn't be much of a problem, although you might not want to do them with a full backpacking pack on. Shortly after that, the canyon floor got damp and there was a small trickle of water meandering back and forth across the canyon bottom. I went barefoot, and Julie wore one shoe. It was nice to walk on hard packed damp sand for a change, as the loose sand and gravel took a lot more energy to walk on. The canyon opened up into a wider sunlit slot with green trees and the trickle disappeared into the sand. This was where we saw the tents.
The confluence with the Paria "river" was pretty cool, it was a deep Y carved into the rocks with a bit of flowing water from the Buckskin and the Paria. Unfortunately the light wasn't so good for photographs. We turned up the Paria and headed on. There were some cool mudcracks as we got above the flowing water. Unfortunately that also meant that soon we were back to hiking on soft sand and gravel. The canyon walls gradually got lower and farther apart and we looked for the pictographs that were supposed to be there. We saw one set that was extensive, but with very little color contrast, so hard to see clearly. As the canyon walls got lower, we were in the hot sun more and more. We had to rest in the shade when we found some. Our legs were definitely feeling the effects of a long day of walking on soft sand. There were lots of jackrabbits out in the wider canyon as we got near the end of the hike. Finally we made it back to white house camp around 7 pm. According to various sources, this hike is somewhere around 20 to 21 miles, although it seemed much longer because of the soft footing for much of it.
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We celebrated our return with a lot of cool beverages (grape drink), and a meal of hawaiian style rolls (nori rolls with rice, veggies, egg, and spam - not bad). Then in to bed for some much needed rest. I did get up once in the middle of the night, and the sky was most impressive. Jupiter was bright, and clearly a redder shade than most of the stars and the milky way was starting to rise.
The next morning we had to go back to get the truck. This was accomplished with the bicycles we had left locked up in the campground. Unfortunately those same washboarded dirt roads that took so long with the truck weren't a whole lot better with the bicycles. My butt was pretty sore before we got there. It was cool when we started, but things heated up pretty soon. Luckily there were two longish downhill sections at the end of the ride. They were even mostly on hard packed dirt instead of washboards - much more fun. When we got to the trailhead, the parking area was nearly full, and they were busy installing more signs and a fee collection area (your fee dollars at work).
Packing up back at the camp was a slow affair, as we kept sitting in the shade instead of packing. Evidently we were running on "Tom time". We also took a bunch of pictures of a nest with little birds in it (so young their eyes were still closed). If you whistled, they would stick their heads up and gape their mouths open at you. Too bad I didn't have any worms for them. Finally we were packed up and driving across the hot desert in the sun.
On the way back we stopped to hike out to the horseshoe bend overlook. I wetted my t-shirt for the hike, so it was nice and cool on the way out. On the way back it was awfully toasty though. The water of the Colorado looked clear and inviting. I wonder if there is an easy way to get my packraft down there. We took a bunch of photos to stitch together. The rest of the drive was long and hot. It was a lot cooler when we finally got back to Flagstaff.
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