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Me: May 24, 2014. Buckskin Gulch (last Saturday's 23 mile hike recap with lots of pics)
Bob, April and I picked up Abbie and Mike at 5:45am. They had camped at Whitehouse Trailhead - our ending location for today's hike. We then drove several miles to reach the starting trailhead: Wire Pass. In this photo we are getting our gear together for the trek. It was a little chilly at 7:00am.
Bob, April and I picked up Abbie and Mike at 5:45am. They had camped at Whitehouse Trailhead - our ending location for today's hike. We then drove several miles to reach the starting trailhead: Wire Pass. In this photo we are getting our gear together for the trek. It was a little chilly at 7:00am.
We followed the path from the parking lot and soon entered into a world of textured red rock...
and really narrow passageways!
This is what you call a slot canyon!
Our map told us where to look for petroglyphs. We saw these drawings of big horned sheep, hunters & more. Really neat!
At this juncture (1.7 miles into our hike) we took a right and entered into the official Buckskin Gulch: a 13.5 mile slot canyon that is the longest slot canyon in the world. It is also rated one of the top 10 most dangerous hikes due to flash flooding.
It was easy to see why this would be a dangerous hike if there was rain (or potential of rain within 20 miles of the slot canyon). We definitely checked the weather thoroughly the evening before and the morning of our hike. We had clear skies and a great forecast for our day.
Feet in motion! The trail was mostly fine powder sand with some rocks.
For hours we were giddy. Feeling good and loving the terrain!
No other hikers in sight. This was a bit surprising since it was a holiday weekend.
We kept one foot in front of the other and enjoyed each other's company.
The canyon walls were high!
Apparently hiking with just a backpack isn't challenging enough.
We predicted our hike to take around 8 hours (based on our friend's time who did it last month). Snack breaks along the way were nice.
Back on the road again.
A long and winding road.
Follow me...
into the light!
The sunlight above was spectacular!
and made for some cool photos.
I need an inspirational quote for this picture. How about…
"Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105
By this time we realized my GPS was gliching. It was giving us false mileage which was giving us false hope that we were further than we actually were. Bummer.
Every turn looked the same and yet we hoped that the next bend would lead us out of the narrows (the 13.5 mile slot section) and into the next part of our hike: Paria Canyon.
We were getting tired and our feet becoming sore. Bob is doing a little blister prevention on his toes.
I even stopped to ask a bear if we were on the right track. :-)
Tune in tomorrow to see what the bear said and how the 2nd half of our hike goes…
All I can say is "Unbelievable". This should be one of the 7 wonders of the world...can't wait to see more. When you said you were going we looked it up on the net, and found out how dangerous this hike can be....we were both relieved when you were back safe and sound!
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