Paria Canyon AZ, April 2000


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Wednesday, April 19th
Arrived in Phoenix at 9:30pm, with no flight delays from Houston.  We rented a car at the airport and drove north on I-17 to Flagstaff, then north on Hywy 89 to Page, AZ.  We crossed the Glen Canyon Dam at approximately midnight, and stopped for a quick bathroom break and to admire the view.  We continued west on Highway 89 to the Paria Information Station, approximately 30 miles west of Page, 44 miles east of Kanab, inside the Paria Canyon - Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness area.  We arrived at the information station (closed) at about 1:30am, and setup camp at the White House Trailhead, approximately 0.5 miles south of the information station.  No one else was camped at the trailhead.  We planned to do a two-day one-way hike through the Paria slot canyon, starting at the Buckskin Gulch trailhead (an hour south of the information station), and ending at the White House Trailhead.  Overnight camping in the canyon is very limited, and we had made reservations on the Paria Canyon website over a month before our arrival. 

Thursday, April 20th
We woke up early, had a quick breakfast, and proceeded to the Paria information station.  We picked up our registeration, chatted with the ranger, purchased a map, and filled up our water bottles - the usual pre-hike rituals. I recommend buying the booklet "Hiker's Guide ro Paria Canyon", published by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  It contains highly detailed maps, and all required logistical information for the hike.  We needed a ride to the Buckskin Gulch trailhead, so that we could leave our car at the end of the one-way hike.  There were no other hikers around, so we called a local taxi service that specized in shuttling backpackers through the Paria Canyon - Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness area.  The first 30 minutes of the ride followed Hywy 89 west, and the final 30 minutes proceeded south on a rough dirt road to the Buckskin Gulch trailhead.  Many hikers choose to take the Wire Pass entry to Buckskin Gulch (starting before the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead), saving about two miles of hiking in the Gulch.  But, we were not limited by time, so we decided to hike the entire Gulch from the trailhead.

We began hiking at 10am, and immediately entered the narrow slot canyon of Buckskin Gulch.  For the next 8 miles and 6 hours the canyon was never wider than 20 feet, and for much of the day it was significantly less.  We encountered approximately 50 pools of standing water, varying in depth from ankle to waist deep, and in length from 10 to 20 feet.  The water was thick with mud, and could not be filtered or treated.  There is normally no water available in the Gulch - the first water is available from a spring near the designated campsites at the junction with the Paria River (our planned campsite for the first night).

The canyon was cool because the sunlight could not penetrate the deep slot, and the standing water was very cold.  My legs were numb after each wade through the a  pool - it felt as if I were walking on pogo sticks.  Despite the cold water, the canyon was gorgeous, and the walls towered on either side.  I was most surpirised by the complete silence in the canyon - an occasional bird would fly overhead, and the whooshing sound of its wings would resonate throughout the canyone.

We stopped for lunch at a spot where the sun actually reached the canyon floor.  There were no more than 3-4 spots that I would have considered safe for camping - rising at least two feet above the sandy bottom.  There were also several locations of boulder falls that blocked the canyon completely, but only required minimal rock climbing skills to navigate.  By 5pm we had reached our designated campsite, about 10 minutes before the junction of Buckskin and Paria canyons - also called the "Buckskin Gulch Confluence".  There were several campsites available - we chose the highest site (but also the hardest to get to), approximately 50 feet above the canyone floor.  The height of the walls had increased significantly, and the canyon had widened to over 50 feet.  There was a small flowing stream originating from a natural spring - the stream was about 4 inches deep and 1 foot wide, which I happily filtered to refill our water supply.

We cooked dinner, enjoyed the view from our perch, and went to sleep by 10pm.  The canyon became quite noisy after dark, with sounds from various birds and insects.  But, when I awoke at 3am, it was again silent.


Friday, April 21st
After a good night's sleep and a relaxing breakfast, we started hiking once again.  We reached the Paria River junction within 10 minutes, and proceeded north through the Paria canyon.  Within 20 minutes we reached the Slide Rock Arch, created by two large rocks that had fallen into an inverted "V" position (you walked through the inverted V).  The canyon walls remained high, and the width grew to over 500 feet as we proceeded north.  After 5 hours of hiking along the sandy river bottom, we reached the trailhead and our car.

We drove north through Utah to Bryce National Park, and camped within the Bryce National Park boundaries. 

Saturday, April 22nd
We awoke to a cool morning on the edge of the Bryce Canyon overlook.  We donned our winter gear, and headed out for a day-hike along the Bryce Canyon "Fairyland" loop. The loop was eight miles in length, and dropped down to the bottom of the canyon floor.  After the ~4 hour hike, we left Bryce and headed an hour east to Zion National Park.  After doing a "windshield tour" of Zion, we left the park and headed back to Page, AZ, where we spent the night  in the Page Hotel.

Sunday, April 23rd
We drove south through Flagstaff, back towards Phoenix.  We stopped at Montezuma's Castle, for the walking tour of several cliff dwellings from the Anasazi era.  After an hour of the "paved tour" through the dwellings, we headed down to Phoenix.  We left for Houston late in the afternoon.