Buckshin Gulch Hike

We hiked into Buckskin Gulch near the Paria on Saturday, Oct. 16-17. We had reserved these dates on line about 4 months ago. Dan turned 50 on Friday so we wanted to see if he was still young enough to make it throught he gulch, the longest slot canyon in the world.

We invited family on both sides but the only ones tough enough to make it were our neices, Heather and Jennifer Berger and their friends Chelsea, Shane and Tek from Provo. We had a permit for 10 people but only 9 came.

They drove down from Provo on Thursday night getting here about 11:00 pm. We were up the next morning by 6:00 am and got away at 7:30. We had to drive to Kanab and then 30 minutes beyond. The time we parked one car at the bottom at White house exit and then drove around to wire pass and went to the bathroom and got all of our packs loaded and on the trail it was 11:00 am.

The packs felt very heavy at first but then we got used to them as we kept hiking. The canyon is beautiful. We took lots of pictures and had fun along the way. It was very muddy in some areas but that kept it interesting.

We had a hard time walking in our shoes when they got so muddy so that slowed us down. It became 5:00 pm and we weren't even half way through to where we were supposed to camp and we were wet and it would be a cold night in the canyon. So Dan sent Dawson up one side of the canyon and Andrew up the other to see if there was a way to get out of the steep canyon. They both found a way out but Dan decided that Andrew's way out the right side would be easier for hiking out in the morning. So we very carefully made our way one by one up the side of the canyon wall. We had to be helped by the boys and then they had to use a rope to lift our 9 packs up the canyon behind us. It was very scary but I was glad that I had two Eagle Scout son's and an experienced scout master, Dan whom I trusted. Poor Shane had never even gone camping before and we took him on this major adventure. He was a trooper. We set up our tents, built a fire, and Dan cooked us yummy Chicken Alredo.

It got down to 35 degrees over night and it was pretty cold. We slept ok but were pretty tired from our long day of hiking. In the morning we made oatmeal and packed up and were on the trail by 10:00 am. The problem was that there was no trail. We had a GPS and could see our destination a long ways off. We had to hike across a huge desert of sand and cactus. We found a cow head skeleton that was very cool. Andrew packed it out. We had a nice lunch stop and even a short nap. We could see the gulch down to the right, but we had to hike clear to the end and then get around it.

It was in 90's as we hiked and were sunburnt as we neared what Dan knew was the trail to the Wave (Coyote Buttes). It ended up at the same trailhead as where we started, Wire Pass. Great day, great fun, Big Adventure!!

Follow this link for more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=danflake&target=ALBUM&id=5393954248793167921&authkey=Gv1sRgCNOvhI-g3-uARw&feat=email