Buckskin Gulch 5-19-2012

[Iceaxe]

Did Buckskin Gulch as a two day backpack. In at Wire Pass and out at White House. The canyon is in the easiest conditions I've seen in 20 years. There is no water to wade or swim. The canyon bottom contains a lot of hard pack to hike and not the endless miles of deep sand or slimy mud I've encounter in past years.

The rock fall obstacle is almost non-existent. The small rabbit hole before the rock fall has caved in and the hole that used to require crawling through (or climbing over the rock fall) is now large enough to drive a truck through.

The seeps in the lower end of Buckskin are flowing nice and pumpable water was easy to obtain.

The hike up the Paria, which is usually a miserable sand slog, was also easy as at least half the hike is on hard pack. We came out in 2.5 hours.

[ststephen]

I'm going to avoid mentioning such easy conditions to my wife who endured a very different hike, albeit in early April. Probably the Paria river down below would have been lower as well? Anyway, looks like you guys had a great time!

[Iceaxe]

And if you have never been through Buckskin Gulch, here is a short HD video I put together from our last trip.

[peakbaggers]

Did the same trip I think about 3 years ago now with a group of 8 and encountered very similar conditions. The previous winter had been dry in the south and we went around May 1. No mud to speak of, easy travelling. Couldn't even identify where the "cesspool" was supposed to be. Encountered no significant obstacles & was almost disappointed. There was small water flow starting avout a mile before the confluence. Hiking up the Paria, it started out wet, changed to dry and then a couple miles from the exit, we encountered a new flow of water working its way down, presumably from some increased snowmelt from warming temps up by Bryce. A fantastic canyon hike that we would do again. Nice video to show some of the amazing canyon scenery.
Airmatresses though??! Someone must be getting old.

[Slot Machine]

I'm envious in a way, envoius that it was so dry.

A couple of years ago, we hiked through Buckskin 2 days after it flashed. We hired a local lady to shuttle us to the top. During the ride up she emphatically tried to talk us out of our hike. We should have taken her advice and done it another day.

It was truly miserable hiking all day through the mud. By the end of the day we were so exhausted that we literally stumbled through the large obvious camping area without noticing that we had arrived.

We ended up camping in an awesome alcove about 1-2 miles from the designated camping area (towards White House). We covered at least 16 miles the first day. Lesson learned.

Thanks for the update on the conditions, we might have to do it again this year. It looks like a good time!

[Iceaxe]

Couldn't even identify where the "cesspool" was supposed to be.

The cesspool disappeared about 10 years ago when a giant flash flood rearranged the canyon, and hasn't been seen since. The cesspool was created by a sand dam about 200-yards before middle trail.

It was truly miserable hiking all day through the mud.

The part that amazed me the most about my recent trip was the amount of hard pack in the canyon bottom. Every time I have done the route before when it was this dry resulted in a wicked sand slog. Don't get me wrong, there was still a lot of sand slogging, but nothing like I was expecting.

[shootsright]

Just hiked Buckskin for the first time, we started at Buckskin Gulch on the 23rd of June and excited White House on the 24th. I highly recommend entering at Wire Pass and skipping the Buckskin Trail Head. We covered about 16-17 miles the first day and it was brutal. There were no pools to wade through.

That evening, after the sun had gone down, we spotted a lone hiker, we asked where he was going and said he was headed to White House to exit. He's lucky we chatted him up because he was actually on his way to Lee's Ferry. He missed the confluence in the dark. That I imagine would have been a costly mistake.