Grand Canyon might be the best-known canyon in the USA but that doesn’t mean it is the only one, nor the most spectacular.
In our case, we decided to visit several others in the South of Utah (and North of Arizona) in early October.
- Beauty/fun: 9/10. Impressive canyons, some huge, some extremely narrow. Pristine nature. Few years ago most of the locations must have been even more impressive without the crowds. The best visiting periods (early October is one, as driest, mild temperatures, and less crowded than in summer) might be a bit cold for Hong Kong residents.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 5/10. The technical difficulty of all the routes done was lower than that, but the distance, weight of the equipment required, heights and crowds in some make it a more challenging holidays.
- The map (blue what we visited, orange additional posibilities for which we did not have time)
The first thing you should consider if you think doing a similar trip: Permits! Quite some of the routes mentioned here require you applying permits (or in some cases, participating in a lottery) 3, 4 or more months in advance. Some of the permits were full just hours, or minutes, after the online applications were open. So plan well beforehand.
Shortcut to Zion routes – Bryce – PeekABoo Gulch and Spooky Gulch – Buckskin Gulch & Paria Canyon.
The usual starting point is las Vegas. We considered landing in Salt Lake city. But the drive to the main highlights from there was longer and the flight less convenient from Hong Kong.
Get into the plane a Friday afternoon and after long hours land the same day afternoon. The “magic” of the time zones, 15h difference with Hong Kong. Another “interesting” thing was that we changed time zones several times. Arizona and Utah have different ones and some businesses in the “border” towns even use the “wrong” one depending which is more convenient for them. So take that also into consideration.
Kanarra falls. We wanted to start our hiking holidays with something fun but not difficult. In the area, but out of the Zion National Park, you find this little canyon. Pristine water, picturesque walls and some small waterfalls. We didn’t go too long, considering our jetlag and that the water was a bit cold for our subtropical temperature accustomed bodies.
Next day we hiked up to Angels landing. Go really early morning (6am was the first shuttle bus when we were there) if you want to avoid part of the crowds. Spectacular views from atop and a fun hike but for the crowds you can find in the “tricky sections”. Nothing compared with the regular things posted in this web, but you will be sharing the path with people not used to heights, nor technical terrain. So be patient. Jet-lagged Iurgi was not and was rightfully scolded…
The Narrows. The most iconic route in Zion can be hiked in two ways. Bottom up (halfway and down again) in one day. Or what we did: top down in two days. You have the option to do the top down in one day, but you better get well prepared and spend little time taking pics. It’s a long way. The conditions can change a lot from day to day, so try to understand what you are attempting and get the latest information. In our case, just the day before starting the hike the temperatures drop sharply. Both air and water temperature… We doubted: change our original plan and rent neoprene socks, canyoning shoes and even water pants or nope. I didn’t want to get in trouble with shoes that we had never tried before and no way to fit neoprene socks in our Five Ten Access. We would try just with our own gear.
Here checking all the food that we would bring with us + stove (within the yellow box), gas canister & pot. Dehydrated food for dinner. Oatmeal and others for breakfast. Tortillas & salami or tuna for lunches. Extra bars, nuts and mash potato just in case. We did not want to be hungry what so ever 😀 We ended eating only part of the nuts and bars. Not the mash potatoes. Approx 6,500 calories, 40% eaten by Summer.
Extra early wake up, have some breakfast, leave the car in the parking and at 6:15am take the shuttle from the Zion Adventure company to Chamberlain’s Ranch. 40 minutes later, the start was really cold. Approximately 0°C and slightly windy. Dry hike initially. Once we started walking in the water, feeling even colder. 15°C water temperature + coming out to even colder air was initially painful for our feet. Until they get numb. I was afraid of cramping or getting them injured without realizing. But using our own shoes had the advantage of us being able to trust the grip and not having finally any chafing or else. Camp, hot dinner (beware of mice around and how you store your food and trash) and wonderful night sleep, jet-lag overcome. Therefore we started pretty late the second day, around 10am. As soon as we arrived at “Wall Street”, the 2,000 feet high 20 feet wide areas (600×6 meters), we started seeing people who were in their bottom up. So we were not alone any more. Scrambling a bit we were able to avoid most of the deep water areas. Going max waist deep for Summer. If the water flow is higher you might need to swim. Therefore all our gear was within waterproof bags within the backpack.
On the lowest part it was quite crowded but we didn’t need to wait much to get into a shuttle bus, pick our car and drive back to our motorhome.
The closest town to Zion is Springdale. The hotels there though were quite full and expensive. Checking towns around we found in Hurricane a very peculiar accommodation: the Red Hen. We booked it initially just for the fun factor of trying for the first time being in a motorhome and being quite cheap. But it was so cosy that we decided to stay several extra days finally. It was our base ground for all adventures around.
The Subway in Zion was a highly recommended route too. We also got the permit, this time to do it bottom up. The top-down route requires some rapelling. Summer hadn’t done it before + required bringing a lot more equipment with us. Therefore we decided to do it simple. Nevertheless the route requires you hiking down and up sandy slippery terrain in the initial/final part
and wet within the stream (no problem with our Five Tens). Once atop we decided to cope with the cold and get fully wet (a bit of shouting included) to see the last pools and small waterfall.
And run back out of the subway to dry and warm up in the sunshine.
Our last day in Zion was a short easy one. Summer had slightly hurt her ankle the previous days. Therefore we only hiked the really short Canyon Overlook path (which we did not specially like). Then drive to Bryce through the very scenic Utah State Route 12.
After the overnight, we woke up early for some horse riding in the Red Canyon area, exactly in Loose Canyon. Afternoon easy hikes in Bryce itself. Here you have a guide to visit all the main points in a day. We only had half, so we visited approx 3/4. Hoodoos and tons of surprising orange coloured geological formations.
Next adventure in the plan was in Escalante. So continue driving on the beautiful road East direction. Tiny stop on Mossy Cave trail and its adjacent waterfall.
Check the road and overall hiking conditions at the official information center and head for an easier hike to Calf Creek waterfall. Sandy easy path to a nice fall.
Approx 10 km return trip (my old Garmin overstating). Views from above.
Night in Escalante “city” itself. The next day we head to very photogenic slot canyons. Peek-A-Boo Gulch and Spooky Gulch. The entrance to the first one can be challenging for those not used to scrambling.
I needed to help some ladies up setting myself as a human ladder in the upper part (they used my ankles and legs to ascent). Once in, there are very narrow sections (you need to remove the backpack to pass some, recommended having long sleeves/pants to avoid abrasions) and some more little scrambling.
Be careful when connecting through the dessert. Marked on the map below the shortest route. Look for cairns and footsteps on the sandy surface to know that you are still on path. There are several options anyhow, so beware where you are heading.
See full screen & here the explanation of how to download this kind of maps to your phone.
A video that gives you a bit of perspective of the hike (although for us it was not as difficult as he says, as dry + we are way smaller than him and really used to scrambling all around).
On our way back to town we stopped at Devil’s Garden. Cute area for a short hiking where to enjoy the views of very particular rock formations.
Very
photogenic.
Buckskin Gulch – Paria Canyon was the next destination. The most adventurous route we had planned. In one of the deepest and longest slot canyons in the world. As per the information we had read the logistics were a bit more complicated than the Narrows’. Mainly cause in the 34 kilometers that we would be hiking there seemed not to be a reliable water source. That, in a desert environment, meant carrying almost 4 liters of water per head per day = 16 extra kilos… Here the official video with all the warnings and some nice views of what we were going to see.
First we went to the Paria Information Station to pick up our permit and check the path conditions. It seemed that everything was correct. No chances of rain nor extreme cold. The obstacles to pass seemed doable. The route is subject to regular flash floods that drag tons of debris that can change those obstacles. Previous hikers might have left ropes, even ladders to pass those. Read thoroughly beforehand (here a blog post with detailed information, GPS coordinates included; another one with tons of pictures of Buckskin part) and check in the information center so that you know what you might encounter. Climbling down a 5 meter wall with a 20kg backpack on you is not fun…
I would bring a 10-15m thin climbing type rope, like the one we found set up, so that you can safely move down your backpack and even climb down easier if the rabbit hole is not open. You might want to consider harder, even waterproof, socks for this route. Don’t get me wrong, your feet will get wet anyhow. But one of the little problems that we found is that sand builts in your socks with so many chocolate like water crossing. Summer did not have almost any problem with my old waterproof socks. I needed to stop every couple of hours to remove the sand and avoid creating hot spots with my Drymax. A video of someone suffering a bit there for your reference… Our way would be rosier. Map of the route.
See full screen and the Garmin track (completely lost within the deep canyon itself).
We left the car at the White House trailhead and we were shuttled to the Wire Pass trail head. Our driver provided us more information about the latest conditions, as per customers that he had carried in the last days, and also he showed us some photos of the things we will encounter.
The canyon is huge. You basically enter after a couple of kilometers in a dessert like environment and since then you will be walking with walls on your sides. Narrower in some sections a lot more open in others, mainly after the confluence with Paria river. The last section is the less interesting on sandy terrain.
The first obstacle, a 2 meter drop off, is passable through an alternative path marked on the map. In our case, we found a ladder that made it really simple.
But there might be none. You could scramble/slide down also if without.
We passed the main obstacle, the boulder jam, in two different ways. She, on the left of the pic, using the moki steps and the rope we found and me sliding towards the rabbit hole.
More visual clues in the video in the Instagram post above. In Buckskin we found less than ten really cold, but not deep, water pools. Deepest thigh high. Once we connected with Paria we were crossing the river continuously water ankle-high. It had not rained in several weeks before our arrival. You can find way more water, above all in other seasons.
We missed the petroglyphs. The driver had provided us a little map and some indications of how to find them. But it was too much information in too short a time. I should have recorded everything he said. In any case, I have marked on the map above the areas where you should be able to find some. You are looking for ancient drawings like this.
Initially, we had thought to visit even further places, but decided to take it really easy the last two days. Driving back to las Vegas, shopping and little others.
If you have longer holidays you could visit more places in the area. On the map above you have some that we considered (orange ones). For example, Instagram hit “The Wave“. A recondite location just a few years ago, highly in demand since people started posting pictures of it.
It requires participating in an online lucky draw, as most of the times there are way more people willing to go than spots available.
If you are confident with your canyoning skills Zion offers more advanced routes. Like the aforementioned top-bottom Subway option, Orderville and others.
For those in a rush or/and fast hikers and trail runners. As mentioned, you could do the Narrows Top Down in one day. I think Buckskin is even more doable with a bit of running in a day with good weather conditions. I would suggest you to do it in the opposite direction. This would require a bit longer logistics, as you would need to drive into the Wire Pass trailhead, bad road, and be shuttled to White House. The benefit is that you would be doing the most runnable (sandy and crossing river tons of times) and exposed section in the morning, avoiding part of the heat. You would also be climbing up the obstacles, which is easier. And you would be in the most spectacular but slower areas (within Buckskin itself there are sections with loose rocks and the aforementioned chocolate water pools where I would be hiking carefully) later, which would allow you to assess better how much time you can spend taking pics. Just in case, get yourself a good emergency shelter (bivvy or else) and warm clothes in case you need to spend the night there. Or get even more crazy 😛
Just kidding. Before doing that check the introduction video of these guys so that you can compare your level vs their “usual fun”.
If you are not ready for the long route I would suggest you do an in and out from Wire Pass. It deserves it and you can decide when it is safe for you to go back the same way you came. The Mid Way exit looked quite perilous (sandy slippery high cliff) for most.
By the way, do not forget that in the canyons solid human waste (poop) is not allowed. You need to pack it out. Video explaining it.
Yes. We used the bags 😀 You can see them in the food photo above.
More Parks for you to consider: Goblins, Canyonlands (where the 127 hours film story occurred), the initially mentioned Grand Canyon, Arches, etc. Antelope canyon for more slot canyon pictures, although in this case a guide is mandatory and you are not allowed to go on your own slow pace (tripods for example are forbidden).
You could easily spend a month in the area and continue enjoying new interesting routes every day.
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