OutinDeWoods: Paria River Area, Utah

The Arizona Strip is that area of Arizona that lies north of the Grand Canyon and south of the Utah border. Most of the area, including parts of southern Utah are under the aegis of the BLM (Bureau of Land Managment). This area is a wonderland of geological oddities and a joy to explore. We know of a small dispersed campsite in Utah, a mile or so north of the strip. That is our destination. From Honeycomb Rocks, after a stop in Cedar City, UT for supplies we roamed south through northern Arizona then up the Cane Bed road to the BLM section of Coral Pink Sand Dunes. There is also a Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, but it is an offroad haven and we were looking for a bit of quiet.

We found a neat BLM campground with access to the dunes. Coral Pink just doesn't do it for me, I think they are just coral colored, a sort of orange, but it is quite a sight to see sand dunes in the middle of a ponderosa forest.

It appears that the near constant wind is eroding the red rock that is prevalent in the area into coral colored sand dunes which are gradually taking over the forest.

We stayed one night, hiked into the sand dunes the next morning (tough hiking). We drove into Kanab for the day to get some information from the BLM office about Paria Canyon (didn't get much), dump our tanks and fill up with water. North of Kanab we found a nice dispersed camping area in the Ponderosa forest, had a pizza, and went to bed.

Next morning we were up bright and early and drove east into the Paria River area just west of Lake Powell. I'm using the term Paria River area loosely here. The Paria River drains a vast area of the Escalante - Grand Staircase National Monument and flows southerly, midway between Lake Powell and Kanab, into the Colorado River at Lee's Crossing. It does indeed have a canyon, but we are essentially referring to this vast area between Lake Powell and Kanab as the Paria River area. As you shall see, this is an area of astounding beauty with many unique features. Paria is pronounced par ee' ah. We were planning on meeting our friends Whazoo and Lynn at the Lone Rock Campground on Lake Powell in 2 days. We stopped at the BLM contact office for Paria Canyon and met Emily, a lovely volunteer who gave us two great campsites in the dispersed camping area.

So we drove down House Rocks Road ( 4 miles of washboard gravel) to a site at the foot of Kaibab Gulch. Kaibab Gulch is a primarily white sandstone canyon that feeds into the red sandstone Buckskin Gulch. The gulch is referred to by Emily's husband Bill as “Naked Canyon”, because you will never see anyone else there (we can attest to this). I'll leave the “Naked” part to your imagination...Bill is in his 70s. We hiked the gulch for about 3 miles and found it to be interesting, not really a slot canyon, but pretty and full of fossils.

Looking up Kaibab Canyon from the back door of the camper.

The campsite was as quiet and dark as you could ever want and the nighttime sky was awesome.

The next day we drove back up to the BLM office to get information on local hikes and moved the camper to the other recommended spot, a little closer to highway 89 for easier access.
We called our friends and re-arranged the meeting spot to the dispersed camping area.
Emily recommended we apply the next morning for a permit to “The Wave” and gave us a list of hikes we might like.

We selected Hackberry Canyon in the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument...our first slot canyon.

Hackberry Canyon.

Hackberry Canyon is 14 miles up Cottonwood Road. When in NH we live on a dirt road. Utah gravel roads are different. 14 miles of twisty, rocky, rough, washboard, road that took over 50 minutes to drive.

Cottonwood Canyon Road.

According to the status sheet it had recently been graded. I gave it a C-. The canyon, however, was worth it.

Hackberry Canyon, carved over many many years by Hackberry Creek, is what you might call a wet hike.

Water flows in the creek bed, which is also the trail, for most of the year, but it is shallow and warm at this time of year so it wasn't a problem.

The hike is about 2 miles long in the canyon and is one of the prettiest hikes we had ever done.

The southwest is a geological wonderland. Millions of years of sedimentation, compression, and uplift, have created colors and textures of rock, that defy the imagination. I know I have said before, but I must repeat myself, that Cheryl's pictures, marvelous though they are, cannot begin to capture the true beauty of this area. You should find a way to visit the Colorado Plateau and find some of these places. Take your own pictures and see for yourself what we so inadequately describe.

Canyon Walls at Sunset.

The color of the sandstone in the afternoon sun is incredible. Finally, the sun was getting low and it was time to leave the canyon. 50 minutes and 14 miles later, we hit route 89 and headed for home. Whazoo and Lynn arrived the next day and we had a joyous reunion, then made plans to apply for a permit for "The Wave" and to hike into Buckskin Gulch the following day.