6/14/08 Wire Pass/Buckskin Gulch and Zion National Park

For the second day in a row, I woke to a pair of eyes peering into our tent. This time it was not an old man but a small Cocapoo (Not sure on the spelling, but I know that it's a cross between a Cocker Spaniel and a Poodle). What a weird sight in the middle of the Utah desert. I simply had to get up and see what was going on. Turns out the Cockapoo belongs to a guy named Kyle from Salt Lake, Utah. Kyle was on vacation from his four kids and had the same notion as us, to hike Buckskin Gulch.

Our campsite near Buckskin Gulch (click on photos for larger view)


Kyle and Sparky (the Cockapoo) from Salt Lake



Buckskin Gulch is a slot canyon in southern Utah, superintended by the Bureau of Land Management. We camped at the north end of the canyon (White House Trailhead) but drove around to the west entrance (Wire Pass Trailhead) to begin our hike. For the first 20-30 minutes, we weren't sure if we were even on the correct trail. We ended up walking in a dry wash for most of the time. This eventually led us to the hole in the wall that is Wire Pass.

On the trail to Wire Pass


In the slot canyon








Wire Pass is a short narrow slot canyon that meets Buckskin Gulch after only about 1 mile of hiking. The narrow passage, as the name implies, intrigued me encouraging me to start the hike there. That was definitely the way to go, because Wire Pass was extremely skinny and presented us with excellent photographic opportunities.

After a while of hiking through beautiful red sandstone cliffs, carved by water, wind, and time to look like ripples and waves of stone, you come upon the confluence, or junction, of Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch. There we took a right turn and headed farther into the canyon. The walls grew taller and the temperature cooled by 30+ degrees in the smallest, darkest narrows. On the way back we saw two small snakes of which I have not yet identified.

Angela enjoying the cool wall of the canyon


Our hike in the canyons didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would (3 hours as opposed to 6-8). We drove up the highway a bit to Kanab, UT and took advantage of a Subway Restaurant with free Wi-Fi. It was kind of interesting that the Kanab Subway had internet but even more interesting that there were at least five Russian female college students working behind the counter. I inquired about there situation and was told by the young Russian girl at the checkout that they were on an exchange program from Russia at the local university. Nevertheless, we used the internet and figured out that we had time to visit Zion National Park, only an hour up the road.

Zion is amazing, but don't think that you're going to see much of it in one afternoon. We immediately went to the visitor center and surmised that our best option was to get on the tour bus. The Zion tour bus runs from the visitor center all the way up to the top of southern Zion. There are many stops along the way, and passengers way exit at any time, take photos, hike, and get on the next bus that passes. The busses run every seven minutes and are free.

In Zion NP


On this route we took a short hike to Weeping Rock (a large rock face that almost constantly drips - sometimes it drips on my camera). We also saw various peaks and hiked down to the river (where deer were grazing). What really made the Zion experience special for me was the bus driver that drove us from the last stop all the way back to the visitor center. His name was Jim, and he was as ornery as he was entertaining. He'd lived in the Zion area for forty years, and he'll tell ya what's what. Listening to him ramble about park coverups, hidden spots, and how he'd do things if he were in charge. If you ever get up to Zion in southwestern Utah, ask for Jim the tour bus driver.

Our great tour bus driver Jim