Seth at the start of the slot canyon
Greenery in the canyon
A rocky floor
Danny, Glenn, Seth and I set out at 10pm on Friday for Utah. We planned to stop and camp overnight at The Spooky Place, an abandoned construction site we knew of in the Mojave. When we got there, we were disapponted to find that all of the rusting construction vehicles and mining equipment had been removed and there was nothing spooky about it any more.
In the morning, we got up with the sun and headed on to Paria. The drive turned out to be quite a bit longer than Yahoo Maps had led us to believe. Instead of 7.5 hours, it was more like 9 or 10. We got to Kanab, Utah, in the early afternoon and decided to set up camp before doing any exploration with our free time. We emptied the cars, assembled our tents and kitchen, and staged my car at the hike exit.
By now, we were already tired of the miserable washboard dirt roads, and weren't very excited to drive anyplace, so we spent a while climbing up some interesting looking hills near where we were camp. When we got back, Danny and I took our Allegra to fight the evil, weedy pollen everywhere in the hills and spent several minnutes picking burrs out of our clothes. Then we prepared a supper of Chicken Tikka Masala, Saag Paneer, and Kheer. Though we intended to go to bed extra early, we stayed up and played a game of Carcassone instead.
The next morning, we got up bright and early and had hearty breakfast burritos (yum, Havarti *and* Jarlsburg cheeses melted into scrambled eggs with green peppers, green and yellow onions, sundried tomatoes and a dash of pine nuts!) before setting out for Wire Pass. After a half mile walk down a wash, the streambed quickly narrowed into a slot canyon. This section of the canyon was relatively short, but had the narrowest part of the entire trip. At one point, my shoulders were brushing against both canyon walls. In some places the floor was sandy, in others rocky, and in others it was made of packed mud. After a short walk and two small drops, the pass intersected with the main Buckskin Gulch canyon. I'd been this far before with my family during Christmas 1999. During that trip, we'd travelled a bit to the left before turning around. This time we went right, all the way to the end. Since we were unable to get an overnight permit for the canyon (only 20 issued per day), our goal was to hike the entire 20 mile through trip in one day. This was somewhat risky because once we were past the halfway point, we were committed until the end, there was no way to cut the trip short, except possibly through the Middle Passage exit. I pointed out the (authentic) petroglyphs that I'd seen then and saw that new ones had been recently added in the soft clay walls by modern humans. The real glyphs are in a very tough rock wall, so you can tell that they must be old.
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Seth at the start of the slot canyon |
Greenery in the canyon |
A rocky floor |
The next section of the canyon was almost 12 miles long. The terrain is so beautiful in its interplay of shapes and shadows, and complex in its twisting and turning, that this distance in this time was too much to absorb. I think it would be like stacking all the churches of Rome one right after the other and walking through the center. There were too many things to look at and not enough time to look. We always had to keep moving because otherwise we'd be ending the hike in the dark, hiking in cold water that might be waist deep. I did bring a tripod this time, so I was able to get much better pictures in the narrow sections, when I took the time to set it up.
 Us in the canyon |
 Closeup of the Canyoneers |
 Wide spot |
 Danny's yummy GORP+ |
Surprisingly, the mud was one of the fascinating things too look at. It varied wildly in its consistency, ranging from thin pea soup, to thick, velvety fudge, to cracked and baked like pottery. When it dried and cracked, sometimes it would form large thick sheets, sometimes delicate curls that looked like chocolate shavings, sometimes it would separate into thin sections, looking like a stack of parchment. There was an unusual wet state too, you could throw a rock in, and the rock would splash the mud out, but the splash would re-solidify in mid air, hanging like a frozen photograph, leaving the rock clean of mud. We also saw tree-sized logs wedged 60 feet or more above us. Occasionally, there were thick logjams we had to walk under. There were lots of neat rock formations to look at, too. A particularly unusual one was a large set of concentric or spiral marks on the side of a large flat rock where the stone had fractured away.
 Frozen mud splash |
 Light and Shadow |
 Circular marks |
 Logjam |
This section also contained the most troublesome parts of the journey - the water pools and the climbdown. When I say water, I'm being generous. It was more like liquified mud. We were able to avoid the first one by climbing over it on one side, but the others could not be gotten around. I knew these pools came in groups, and I'd intended for us to change in and out of some kind of water-wear for them. However, I didn't anticipate that the pools were more mud than water, and that switching back to clean footwear would render them not clean very quickly. Additionally, it took time to do all that changing since we never knew when the current series of pools was really ending, and we would be fooled sometimes. I think the proper method is just to leave the clean shoes in the car, and use a single pair of light boots the entire way. The path is easy enough, and the pools come late enough, that blistering shouldn't really be an issue. The water was pretty cold, but all of the pools were short, so it was no problem. The other obstacle, toward the end of this section, was the climbdown, which we'd heard was 15 feet and needed rope. There were already three ropes there, and it was much easier than I thought it was going to be. We saw the Middle Passage when we passed it, and it looked doable, but difficult.
 Glenn tries to make a bridge |
 Middle Passage exit |
 Glenn climbs down |
 Dark Tunnel |
We didn't encounter many people on the trip until we got to the junction with the Paria River. We did see quite a bit of wildlife - an owl, a hawk, a mouse, and several different kinds of rabbits. The canyon floor had quite a few animal remains as well, ranging from a simple feathery mess or a scrap of neglected hide, to entire carcasses. Some were obviously hunted and eaten, while others appeared to have fallen from above. The hawk didn't mind our presence, but we made the owl nervous. We unintentionally flanked it while trying to walk by quietly, and apparently it didn't like that. It fluffed up and started clacking its fearsome beak at us, until we were all in a single group on the other side of it. From the picture, behavior, and habitat, this was definitely a "Burrowing Owl", probably Athene cunicularia hypugaea.
 Bug with curly antennae |
 Owl |
 Hawk |
The confluence with the Paria was a popular camping spot, because there were streams of relatively clear water. As the ranger had said, the water levels were low, about shin height, and warm compared to the cold water in the canyon. For about 4 miles, the water flowed in a windy, wide canyon. We would walk on a sandy or muddy bank a couple feet wide, and then the river would turn, obliterating the bank, and we'd cross to the other side. Back and forth, back and forth. Trudging in the water was slow, and we were starting to get tired. At least the water was much less muddy, so we could clean off somewhat. Gradually, the canyon lowered and spread out until the water was flowing through more of a wide wash with tall sides. There were only a few more miles to go, but sunset was approaching. The last mile or so went very slowly, but we made it back to the car with about 15 minutes of dusk light left.
 Paria River at the Confluence |
 Seth drinking spring water |
 Sunset approaches |
Half the group retrieved the other car, while the others prepared dinner, which was chili and s'mores. After dinner and cleanup, we went immediately to bed. The next morning we packed up and headed for Vegas. After a good lunch buffet at Mandalay Bay, we hit the casino. Even though we were dishevelled from our trip, plenty of people were in shorts and t-shirts, so we didn't really stick out. Glenn had good luck at a roulette table in the Luxor and Seth won $2.50 at the slots. After a few hours to let the traffic die down, we got back on the road and drove home.
Here are some panoramic views:
 A big rock |
 Deep in the darkness |
 A green spot |
 Danny climbing down |
 The canyon opens up |
Total distance: 20.1 miles hiking (one way)
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