This report is a continuation of my report on Buckskin Gulch. Part 1 covered Buckskin Gulch from Wire Pass to Middle Route, while Part 2 covers Buckskin Gulch from Middle Route to the confluence with the Paria River and then up Paria Canyon to White House trailhead. In Part 1, we left off having just arrived at Middle Route, which is the emergency exit to escape Buckskin Gulch during flash flood conditions. After enjoying lunch at the bottom of Middle Route, we continued hiking down Buckskin Gulch. And it was more of the same... more outstanding narrows and incredible scenery. We eventually reached the Rock Fall area, where massive boulders have tumbled into the wash and created the one and only challenging section of Buckskin Gulch. In some years, you either need ropes to descend this portion or you need to use the Moki steps. But in the summer of 2012, an area known as The Rabbit Hole had been opened up by flood waters. The Rabbit Hole is a place where you can easily climb down into holes and caves created by the boulders. It's basically a simple way to bypass any climbing that might be necessary at other times. Upon exiting The Rabbit Hole, we continued down canyon, passed by a mossy stream, and soon reached the campsite area. There were a couple of backpackers from Poland staying at the campground. The confluence with the dry Paria River was just beyond. At the confluence, we turned left and headed up Paria Canyon. This was the long and tiring part of the journey. By this point, we were pretty much worn out and were wishing that we had backpacked in. But since we hadn't, we had to endure hiking up the dry hot sand of Paria Canyon. The scenery was quite pretty, though, and it was different from Buckskin Gulch. Just as it got dark, we finally arrived at White House trailhead and campground, thus completing our 20+ mile incredible journey through Buckskin Gulch and Paria Canyon. We did the entire route in 13 hours, which is about the generally accepted length of time for this hike. We were an hour behind our target, but only because we stopped to take so many pictures and enjoyed a few breaks along the way.
Wire Pass (Buckskin Gulch) to White House (Paria Canyon)-- 20 1/4 miles / 13 hours
Wire Pass (Buckskin Gulch) to White House (Paria Canyon)-- 20 1/4 miles / 13 hours
When we left off in the last report, Mel was taking a picture of something at Middle Route. He was taking a picture of these petroglyphs:
A little farther away (like 30 yards or so), Mel looks back to take some pictures of more petroglyph panels high up on the canyon wall:
Buckskin Gulch past Middle Route stayed open for a short time and then closed back down into narrows:
The afternoon sun reflecting off the canyon wall:
Other reports online show that during trips, hikers have found Kit foxes, rattlesnakes, and even a dead mountain lion in Buckskin Gulch. But for us, it was just straight canyon. We did find one live baby bird near here who had fallen out of its nest. And we also found two dead hawks in the canyon:
So for us, we just got to enjoy the scenery, although we did keep a close eye out for any rattlesnakes:
Beautiful narrows continue in Buckskin Gulch after leaving Middle Route far behind:
I would say that the scenery was probably equally beautiful divided between the first and second halves of the hike:
Dark shades of purple down this narrow corridor:
Notice the chockstone wedged high above the narrows in the canyon:
Sandstone sand piling up at the bottom of the canyon wall:
A pretty spot in the canyon where sunlight is reflecting off the purple walls:
Often times the canyon walls on opposite sides would be vastly different from one another:
Navigating around more small rocks which have fallen into the wash:
A long section of very straight walls on each side:
Mel getting his picture by another small pile of sand. You can see how the sand color matches the walls above it:
A neat picture taken by my iPhone showing the sunshine creating unique lighting in Buckskin Gulch:
A small undercut on the left side of the canyon:
The next three photos were all taken in succession near one another. These are three of my favorites in Buckskin Gulch and I will probably frame one of them on my wall:
Tricky spot where we had to work our way around this boulder:
Just beyond many other smaller boulders have fallen into the wash:
Huge slabs have broken off from the walls and dropped into the wash here:
The yellow glow of reflected sunshine on the wall just beyond:
A corner block with straight lines or grooves marked into it:
Entering another one of the dark passages just ahead. We never needed flashlights, but there were a few times where it was quite dark:
Looking up at a very pretty spot in the canyon high above us:
Steve in Buckskin Gulch on June 27, 2012:
More contrasts between dark and light in Buckskin Gulch:
Check this picture out and notice how the middle part of the narrows almost merges together, while the bottom and top parts open up slightly:
At the spot behind me, the wall did actually touch the other side, forming a natural bridge of sorts to walk under:
The next three pictures show one of the darkest passages we would walk through on the hike. I'm surprised that the pictures even turned out:
Beyond dark sections of narrows, the sunshine would always find its way into the canyon, creating glowing walls:
And here we are. We have arrived at the section of canyon known as the Rock Fall. This is where the one and only challenging part of Buckskin Gulch is:
To avoid a slightly risky down climb, we descended The Rabbit Hole, shown here:
By using The Rabbit Hole, this is the hard spot of the canyon that we avoided. To the left of me, that is the rock which sometimes must be downclimbed. To the right of me, those are the Moki steps which are an alternative to the down climb. So really, there are three possible ways to conquer this section:
Beyond the Rock Fall area, the canyon narrows continue for a while:
Working our way through tricky rocks in Buckskin Gulch:
This boulder must be crawled under to continue down canyon:
Two pictures of towering narrows taken past the Rock Fall section:
Neat looking grooves in the canyon wall with mud drips towards the bottom:
Looking at the lower part of the picture, you can see more small holes lining the walls:
Some of the holes were of the larger variety, as seen here:
One of the cool things about the canyon is that sometimes you don't know where the canyon will turn next or how it could possibly continue, but it does:
The sandstone holes get even more distinctive in the next two pictures:
It was awesome to only see one other group all day after the first hour of hiking. We basically had Buckskin Gulch all to ourselves:
Unlike the vast crowds of people we had seen a few days earlier in the Zion Narrows making it hard to get nice pictures, things were quite different here:
We could take never ending shots of Buckskin Gulch without anybody ruining the pictures:
Keeping us company throughout the area shown here were lots of birds in the canyon. We actually walked by a section near here that literally had feathers everywhere on the ground:
Looking up and out of the canyon as the weather has cleared up and the brief light rain has stopped:
Mel and I mostly hiked together all day. Sometimes we would be separated by about 5 minutes or so, which allowed both of us to take canyon only pictures:
Here is another one of my favorite pictures of the day. Nobody is seen here for scale, but once in a while we would get a perfectly clear picture like this:
Notice here the slanted lines going all the way down the wall to the wash:
In this picture, the canyon wall on the right side is overhanging quite a bit:
Lines in the sandstone which are once again reminiscent of Antelope Canyon:
At this point in the hike, a mossy small stream appeared and the soil got damp and slightly muddy:
Above the small stream, the narrows continued to tower overhead:
I did have my water filter pump with me, but didn't need it. I would only get water out of here in an absolute emergency, especially knowing there was a spring about 1 mile down Paria Canyon in the Lees Ferry direction with better water. For this hike, I carried 1 1/2 gallons and it was barely enough:
1/4 mile above the confluence with the dry Paria River, we found the campground for backpackers up on this hillside:
A short time later, we arrived at the confluence. This picture was taken looking down Paria Canyon in the direction of Lees Ferry:
A panoramic showing Buckskin Gulch (left) and upper Paria Canyon (right) at the confluence. Click to enlarge:
Steve starting to head up Paria Canyon:
The walls of Paria Canyon were much different than those in Buckskin Gulch. They were not as high but more decorative:
Paria Canyon had some spectacular rock outcroppings and formations high above the canyon:
The highlight of the canyon for me was the beautiful pink patterns and thick lines which regularly covered the walls:
Mel hiking ahead up Paria Canyon through a narrow spot:
About 7/10 of a mile up Paria Canyon, we encountered Slide Arch:
Slide Arch has such a unique shape to it, along with the pretty patterns found elsewhere. It looks like it belongs in a museum in Italy or something:
The next three pictures all show more of the patterns found on the walls near Slide Arch:
The patterns could even be seen high up on the canyon walls, as shown in the next two pictures:
Very unique section of canyon with large holes in the wall. Sometimes hikers fill these holes with rock cairns. Fortunately, they were gone when we got here, probably washed away by a flash flood:
A large indentation in the canyon wall:
Yet another arch found farther up Paria Canyon. I couldn't find a name for this one:
Paria Canyon is not nearly as narrow as Buckskin Gulch, but here it narrows down quite a bit just ahead:
As you can see here, the Paria River was completely dry. From what I've seen online, the scenery while the river is flowing is much more spectacular and makes it an even more amazing hike. Some sources say that it rivals the Zion Narrows:
This was the hottest part of the hike as well, since Buckskin kept us shaded most of the day and the dry sand of this wash was hot from being baked all day in the sun:
The next two pictures show the fairytale like scenery of Paria Canyon:
Passing under a massive overhang in the canyon:
More unique circular shapes and grooves in the walls:
Looking ahead as we neared the end of the Paria Canyon narrows:
Spotting the power lines above us as the sun began going down which marked the 2/3 point in hiking up to White House:
A teepee shaped rock we passed by during the final couple of miles. From here to the end it was a wide open sandy wash:
Just as it got dark at 9:30PM, we arrived at the exit to White House trailhead. 13 hours and 20+ miles later after starting out at Wire Pass:
