After departing the Grand Canyon, our sights were set on Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. Specifically, we were headed to Kanab, Utah, a small town situated a little north and west of the Grand Canyon, on the border with Arizona. Previously unknown to us, it jumped onto our radar as the place you needed to go to get a permit to hike to The Wave ... which we had seen in our calendar. Apparently, lots of other people across the world have seen pictures of The Wave, too (it was a Windows screen saver), since it seems the town has built a business model around housing, feeding, and providing alternate recreational opportunities for people trying day after day to get a permit. Typically, there are 100-200 people trying to get the permits, and only 10 given out per day (another 10 are given out online in advance). Since we were in that general neck of the woods, we thought we'd add it to our itinerary and try our luck.
Our first morning in town, we headed on over to the BLM headquarters to participate in the permit lottery (complete with rotating cage and numbered balls) which is held every morning at 9 o'clock for the following day's permits. A major scene. There were only 90 people there hoping for permits, so our odds were better than normal. Unfortunately, our luck didn't pan out, but we instead got a permit for an adjacent area - Coyote Buttes South - after another hour or two waiting around for second lottery. Since this permit area is pretty remote and requires skilled 4WD driving, we arranged a day-long tour with a local operator, who "conveniently" happened to be hanging around at the lottery.
With our organizational tasks complete, we headed out for the day's excursion to Buckskin Gulch - a 15 mile long slot canyon ... perhaps the biggest in the world. Often done as a one-way backpack combined with Pariah Canyon, we opted to see what we could during an out-and-back itinerary in a long afternoon. The notoriously bad 7 miles of road had been recently graded, so a major obstacle disappeared. Reaching Buckskin Gulch proper involves hiking a mile or so down the Wire Pass trail, which heads down a sandy wash (i.e., broad creek bed) before entering a slot canyon for another half mile or so, where it connects with Buckskin Gulch. In our case, getting to the junction also involved withstanding some blustery wind and minor dust storms. Faced with an 8 foot drop early in the slot, we opted to bypass that short section of canyon, rather than climb down the ladder some photographers brought ... and hope it was still there when we returned.
We've seen a few slot canyons in our adventures, but Buckskin was by far the tallest, longest, and most beautiful. Pretty easy going, with only a couple of thigh-deep wades. Massive walls with wonderful colors, and incredible light. Sometimes narrow, sometimes opening up to broad cathedral-like areas. Mesmerizing, and it continually tugged us a little further to see what was around the next corner. We probably went down about 4 or 5 miles. WOW!
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| Wire Pass Trail |
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| Wire Pass approaching Buckskin Gulch (note hiker rounding the corner) |
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| Buckskin Gulch |
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| Buckskin Gulch |
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| Buckskin Gulch |
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| Buckskin Gulch |
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| Buckskin Gulch |
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| Big Stuff!! |
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| Mountains Beyond Mountains (natural mud-cracking art) |
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| Buckskin Gulch |
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| Confluence of Wire Pass with Buckskin Gulch |
The following morning we were picked up bright and early in a Chevy Suburban for our 10 hour trip to South Coyote Buttes. The initial hour-long portion was on paved roads, and took us up and over a pass (by the road to the north rim of the Grand Canyon) ... where we encountered some pretty serious snowfall. Wondering what we had gotten ourselves into, we were relieved when we dropped down the other side and the precipitation stopped. Still windy and pretty cold, but that was fine. Another hour plus on dirt/sand/rock roads (way in the middle of nowhere) brought us to our first destination ... the White Pocket, which actually doesn't require a permit. This square-mile area consists of red sandstone with a thin covering layer of white rock ... with twists, folds, shapes and textures. Totally other-worldly!
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| White Pocket |
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| Hoodoo |
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| White Pocket |
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| Sand and Sandstone |
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| Petroglyphs |
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| Lichen Design |
Another hour or more of driving on similar, but a bit more challenging back roads, brought us to our second destination ... Cottonwood Cove, which is inside the Coyote Buttes South permit area. Just as other-wordly as the White Pocket, except with a bit more swirling, layering, and a golden color. We even checked out a bunch of dinosaur prints (sorry, no photos for some reason)!!
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| Cottonwood Cove |
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| HooDoo |
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| Cottonwood Cove |
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| The Wanderers |
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| Rock Detail |
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| Rock Detail |
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| Teepees |
Activities
- Hiking
- Wire Pass Trail and Buckskin Gulch
- The White Pocket, via Dreamland Tours
- Cottonwood Cove (Coyote Buttes South), via Dreamland Tours
"Oh Wow!" Moments
Random Scenes
- At Cottonwood Cove, my trusty camera finally bit the dust ... kinda literally. The zoom lens had ingested sand from a combination of the blown sand in Buckskin Gulch and a drop or two during macro photography in sandy conditions. So sad. Fortunately, our phone cameras did a decent job in its absence!
Random Questions
- Why didn't the time change by an hour when we went into Arizona? Oh, they're always on Mountain Standard Time! Who knew?
Tom's Daily Stress Points
- Is the notoriously bad road down to the Wire Pass trailhead (House Rock Valley Road) passable in our mere Outback? We've got some clearance, but the horror stories ... (stress level = medium).
Sleeps
- Canyons Lodge - Nice, roomy, very good breakfasts (including bread pudding french toast!!)
Noteable Eats
- Kanab Drug Soda Fountain ... not great, but food!
- Wild Thyme Cafe ... good, interesting bowls!
- Houston's Trail's End ... very mediocre burger.
- Kanab Creek Bakery ... good pastries.
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