Southwestern Burnup Tour - Buckskin Gulch Backpack Day 1, The Nautilus, Ed Maiers Secret - September 2011

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Buckskin Gulch Backpack, Day 1

Monday, September 26

House Rock Valley Road

With our ranger consultations and the majority of our backpack preparations complete, we headed off west along US89, bound for the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead. We followed the highway only a short distance, crossing through the colorful Cockscomb formation, before turning off south on House Rock Valley Road - a gravel backcountry road that leads to several trailheads in the Paria-Vermillion Cliffs wilderness, including the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead (and the trailhead to The Wave being another).

courtesy AHyndman

Buckskin Gulch TH

Arn and Kyle at Buckskin Gulch TH

The Buckskin Gulch trailhead was nearly empty, promising an uncrowded day on the trail. We did our final preparations -- which were minimal, since we had readied most everything back at the ranger station. We paid particular attention to the matter of potable water, and since Buckskin doesn't have any reliable, easily-filterable water along almost its entire length, we decided to be conservative. As a result, our packs were quite heavy; we had decided to take enough water reserves to keep us going for three days in a pinch - almost seventy litres of water between all of us.

courtesy AHyndman

At the Buckskin Gulch TH

As mentioned at the start of this trip report, Buckskin Gulch is often referred to as 'The longest slot canyon in the world'. For about a twenty kilometre stretch, the narrows of Buckskin are unrelenting, with multi-hundred foot high walls that are often only metres apart. There are only a very few specific spots to escape from the canyon during that entire stretch.

Upper Buckskin Gulch

This first stretch of our hike in Buckskin Gulch, leading off from the Buckskin Gulch trailhead, is not at all like that description. Here, Buckskin Gulch is a wide, flat-bottomed desert draw. Pretty -- but somewhat typical -- Colorado Plateau scenery.

With the vertically-tilted strata of the Cockscomb forming the walls of the valley, we trod southward on a well-defined path, staying mostly on flat benches dotted with scrub, and only going into the streamcourse to cut across to the bench on the other side.

Rocks of the Cockscomb

Good use path

A bit of constriction

Bench-walking

Upper Buckskin Gulch

Use Trail in Buckskin Gulch

A high overcast drifted away as we hiked south, and the clear skies and direct sunlight soon made the day warm... nay, quite hot. Now in a valley that was bounded on either side by cross-bedded Navajo sandstone, we looked for a shady spot to stop for lunch. There were not many trees about in this section of the Gulch.

courtesy AHyndman

Hiking underneath Desert Cliffs

Lunch break

Upper Buckskin Gulch

After a rest and snack under the shade of a Utah Juniper, we continued south. The walls of Navajo Sandstone rose higher as we walked south, but still the valley floor of Buckskin Gulch was wide and sunny, and we still walked on flat benches above the watercourse.

Hiking in Upper Buckskin

Sagebrush Hiking

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