vacation pictures #4: Buckskin Gulch

[ilanarama]

As it was when we were there a few days ago, the Paria Ranger Station was a total zoo with people wanting permits for the North Coyote Buttes ("the Wave") when we showed up at 9. One guy, Lynn, was there for the 8th consecutive day - a record! (You get extra chances if you come consecutive days. Lynn had been on his third day when we came the first time, but wasn't drawn.) Most people are in groups of at least two, but during the drawing, a single woman was chosen, so at the end of the drawing, there was a single space available. The volunteer doing the drawing told us that if any of us were drawn who were with companions, we'd have to choose who got to go. Spontaneously, Britt offered to donate our chance to Lynn, and several people followed suit. The last slot was drawn - and it was ours! So Lynn got to go, finally, and he thanked us profusely. We will have to put off North Coyote Buttes for another day, but I inquired about South Coyote Buttes, and was told that there were 10 slots available - and if fewer than 10 people wanted to go, we'd automatically get a permit for the next day. So we signed up, and got a permit; but that meant we had to find something to do for this day.

Several years ago, Britt and I had done the famous backpack (which also requires permits in advance, now) from the Wire Pass trailhead through Buckskin Gulch, which is an absolutely amazing backpackable slot canyon, to its confluence with Paria Canyon, and then up Paria Canyon back to its trailhead. It's an absolutely magnificent three-day hike. The thing is, most people (including us) do it from the Wire Pass trailhead, which goes through a side canyon (which is also a wonderful slot canyon) rather than from the Buckskin Gulch trailhead. Dayhiking these canyons doesn't require a permit in advance. I figured, since we had our bicycles, we could park at the Buckskin Gulch trailhead, bicycle the four miles to the Wire Pass trailhead, lock our bikes to the rack there, then hike in to the confluence (about a mile and a half), explore Buckskin Gulch downstream a little, then go back upstream and hike out (about five miles) to the Buckskin Gulch trailhead. So that's what we did.




One of the cooler (and possibly scarier) aspects of hiking in this slot canyon was seeing the amazing logjams and driftwood that had accumulated high in the canyon during flash floods.



We also played the "Rorschach game" a lot with pieces of driftwood that looked like creatures, and swirls of sandstone that looked like...I don't know what. You decide.



As we reached the upper end of Buckskin Gulch, the walls became lower and lower, which was actually kind of cool, also. When we emerged into the light, we could see tortured sandstone buttes, swirls of colored rock, that looked a lot like the famous Coyote Buttes that we had to get a permit for - but these were unknown (or lesser-known, anyway), so we didn't have to share them with anyone.

Comments

[cahotage.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, I've been down Pariah and into Buckskin. So beautiful! I remember the colors of the mud as it squelched around my shoes - like a spilled paint set that mirrored the cliffs.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Yay! I always thought the way the mud dries into pottery plates was really cool. Did you do the whole loop, or just partway? Did you have to wade or swim much?

When I did the backpack, we had thigh-deep water in a couple of spots. Britt has done the loop several times, and once they had to swim! This trip, we didn't go as far as the usually-permanent pools, but we chatted with three guys who were doing the loop from the Paria and they said it was totally dry this year.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

That second picture... the lit part first looked like a flame. Then the left part of the wall looked like a face. Very nice.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hee, I can see that now when I look at it. We did a lot of "that's a face! That's a monkey! That's a duck!" with all the shapes.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Until the last two, I was thinking that could be mistaken for a fine Martian landscape (a bit too much greenery in the final shots; I was re-designating the driftwood as "fossils from the era of warmth and moisture" or somesuch). Thanks, as always, for posting this.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Utah has the best landscapes from other planets. There's so much weird geology and strange colors and shapes that I am surprised it's not used more for SF movies. (Instead we get distant galaxies where every planet looks just like Vancouver, c.f. the Stargate franchise.)

[jeddy83.livejournal.com]

I'm only getting vague floral patterns out of the sandstone swirls, but the log is clearly some ancient seal ancestor with shortened forelimbs that haven't yet evolved into flippers.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Isn't that log-creature fabulous?

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Amazing stuff! Such one-of-a-kind scenery. And how cool that you gave your spot to Lynn.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Well, it was either give it up or only one of us could go, and in the interests of marital harmony...

When you come out to visit Zion you'll just have to go a little farther east as well to see this stuff. See, I'm already planning your next trip for you. Rest that ankle up!

[(Anonymous)]

Still though, that's very cool. Definitely will be some good karmic payback from that one! Kudos to you guys for doing that. I'm sure Lynn's enjoyment was all the more sweet due to the kindness of strangers.

Oh, and the face-in-the-rock made me think of the Argonath from "Two Towers"...

Eric W.