Buckskin Gulch

In a burst of prolific writing, we’re treating you to two posts in one day. We have the luxury of being trapped in Milford, UT, waiting out a dust storm that has closed down the roads. Based on our experience here, Milford consists mainly of greasy burgers, free wi-fi, and zero visibility. This is the perfect combination of factors to help us chronicle our expedition through Buckskin Gulch on the Utah/Arizona border.

The trip is a 22-mile jaunt through a narrow slot canyon. Based on our research, we knew to anticipate sheer and soaring cliffs closing in from both sides for the bulk of the trip. The canyon delivered this in spades. The biggest risk in the slot comes from flash floods, which send torrents of water from which there is no escape. Thankfully, despite some sprinkles and few thunderous sounds that had our knees knocking, we didn’t run into any flooding. See the pic below – the log jammed in the canyon above Carolyn gives you a sense of how high the water gets during flood stage.






















The first day was a fairly grueling 13-mile hike to a spot high enough off the river bed to camp without fear of washout. On top of typical backpacking challenges like rocky ground and heavy packs, there were numerous places where we had to remove our packs to climb over boulders or because the canyon was too tight to fit through unless you turned sideways. One of our favorite challenges was a ~15 foot slick rock face that we had to essentially rappel down, after lowering our packs. Our least favorite challenge were the numerous cesspools filled with stanky, opaque water left from the last flash flood (and the occasional floating dead mouse to amp up the gag factor). Turn your laptop or monitor 90 degrees to the right to enjoy the cesspool video footage below.







We didn’t see anyone in the canyon all day and the solitude was overwhelming.
This is a wilderness area and completely devoid of any human “improvement.” It is a humbling experience to be faced by nature without all the standard conveniences of modern life – the canyon made us feel very small, which is a great reminder every now and again.



After a restless night, owing to the echoing cacophony of bird banter, we hiked 9 miles out of the canyon. The real adventure of the day came in trying to find a ride back to our car, which was ~15 miles away by horrific dirt road. This is where Ben’s unwillingness to pay $75 for a shuttle, and complete willingness to try to talk anyone into anything, were put to the test. After a couple hours of melting in the sun, Carolyn used her beguiling charms to talk the guy driving the tanker truck that was pumping out the porta-pots into driving Ben to the car. Talk about travelling in style…



After our Buckskin adventure, we went to Zion National Park, which we’ve both historically considered a favorite. Sadly, the park was completely overrun by the showered masses. We pounded out a hike up Angel’s Landing, which is one of Ben’s top hikes of all time. The route takes you along a fin of rock with vertical cliffs on either side to a flat promontory. Much of the trail is edged by chains, where there are no handholds. Despite the hordes of fellow trekkers, the beauty of the trail was undiminished. We also took a quick hike upstream into the Narrows (and yes, Gina, we thought we were SO cool). With those hikes under our belt, we made a mad dash from Zion in search of solitude….and found just that trapped in a diner in Milford, UT.