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Hello, All,
I'll be setting out soon for our backpacking adventure in Buckskin Gulch and the Paria River.
Do y'all have updates on conditions as to the passability of the gulch? Lots of water to wade through? Not much? Anything unusual or crazy?
Is there much water in the side springs through the river area to Lee's Ferry?
I'm looking forward to a fantastic trip!
Thanks so much.
Cheers,
Lucinda
I hiked it May 18-19 from Wirepass to the Paria confluence, but didn't go up or down the Paria. The buckskin was in great condition. There's a water crossing about .5 miles down from the Wirepass confluence. Less than knee deep. Cold but mostly clean, about 20 feet long. The Cesspools before the middle trail exit were about 4 inches below the knee deep. It's more of a mud slurry. It stunk but not as bad as everyone made it sound. There's two of them, they are close together. We changed into watershoes. I put on my neoprene socks, more to keep my feet clean than cold. It helped a lot and I didn't have nasty muddy feet to clean off before putting my socks and shoes back on.
The Paria is bone dry. Talked to a couple who had hiked down from White House TH and they said there was a small stream for a mile or two and then dried up. They didn't get their feet wet. I had called the Kanab BLM Office a few days prior to our trip and the person I spoke with told me it was near knee deep. Freakin jackass!:angryfire:
There's a seep in the Buckskin below the Rock Jam, but most recommend the water from the spring a mile or so down the Paria. The seep is flowing down to the Paria and down the Paria, but there is very little mud and can be avoided.
The rabbit hole at the Rock jam is open and there are 3 good ropes at the Jam (2 down the rabbit hole, 1 down the rock jam).
We saw two tiny rattlers just above the Rock Jam. They are really small and they didn't have their rattlers yet so we couldn't hear them. 3 of us stepped right next to one and didn't even see him. 4th guy saw him.
The canyon is absolutely amazing!!!! My favorite section was below the middle trail to the Paria! It gets very deep and narrows back down!
Hope this helps!
My brother and his kids went through 2 weeks back. It was quite dry, only 3 or so pools and not deep.
Thanks for the update. I have hiked Buckskin a couple dozen times and we always spot at least one rattlesnake. Last year I almost step on a big one curled up in some dry leaves. The year before my wife sat on a rock and ate lunch, when she stood up to go I noticed she had been sitting next to a little button tail for the past 20 minutes, I'm taking 6" away the entire time. luckily the rattlesnakes in Buckskin are pretty docile.
Tap'n on my Galaxy G3