On August 1st, 2020, I found myself in front of my computer, with my phone in front of me, the appropriate page pulled up on both devices. My heart rate was slightly elevated. I was excited, stoked, nervous, and cautiously optimistic. My years of texting and updating my MySpace account had developed toned, dexterous hands and fingers. My hopes were that that was about to pay off.
I had sadly learned, just minutes before, that we had not been drawn for a permit to go see "The Wave", of Coyote Buttes. Well, crud! This information was not a shock to me as the permits are highly sought after, and your chances of getting drawn in any one lottery are purported to be about 4%. I now had my permit hopes pinned on my soon to be Paria Canyon permit application.
I'm generally not a huge fan of applying for permits. I try to seek out as many permit free trips as I can. It's not that I don't want to pay the fees. On the contrary, I believe in financially supporting the areas that you recreate in. It's just that I don't want to be told no. Who does, right? I understand the reasons for it, of course, but I want to go when I want to go. Many of the areas I frequent, though, require a permit drawn through a lottery, so there you have it.
This trip was a trip I'd had my eyes on for years. The trip would start at the White House Trailhead of the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument area and would follow the Paria River Canyon all the way to Lee's Ferry, thirty eight miles distant. According to the Bureau of Land Management, it's the longest slot canyon system in the world. We'd plan on a 4 day, 3 night trip.
Originally, we had reservations at Phantom Ranch in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, another highly competitive lottery that we'd somehow been successful in for a third time, but they'd had the effrontery to cancel our trip due to an unforeseen wastewater improvement project that became necessary. This trip would be a more than adequate replacement. Provided, of course, that we were able to secure a permit.
There would be no lottery. When the clock strikes twelve, literally, on the 1st of the month, the permits are sold for the month, four months out. So, on Aug 1st, I'd be attempting to reserve a permit for November 2020. When they're gone, they're gone. I'd heard that they were super competitive, and sell out very quickly, so I wanted to be ready right when they went on sale.
The clock struck twelve and my fingers started flying. It turned out that my phone was quicker than my laptop and I was able to get my first choice of dates! Score!! I hurried through the application process even though you have fifteen minutes once you start the process to complete it. I didn't want to risk them changing their mind. Once I paid the fee, I received my confirmation email and it was official.
I gave Bianca the good news and she was ecstatic. It was time to start doing some research. It was time to start putting together a plan, which is one of my favorite parts of a trip.
I quickly had a plan put together. Bianca would need to acquire a good amount of gear, as she was a fledgling backpacker. I would also need to make a few new gear additions. We slowly acquired our gear and did a lot of hiking and some backpacking in order to be as prepared as possible.
The route we'd be taking was only 38 miles long, but as we understood it they'd be tough miles, at least for the 1st couple of days. We'd read that we'd be spending a significant amount of time in the river, wading through large rocks and deep mud. We'd also have to contend with quicksand. We'd read that we could expect to complete a whopping 300+ river crossings. In short, in order to be able to complete all of those miles while carrying heavy backpacks, we needed to be prepared to hike every minute of daylight and even possibly some darkness. I wanted to be prepared to hike 8-10 hours per day, if necessary.
The average temps for Mid November in Paria Canyon, per the NWS, are highs in the mid 50s and lows in the 30s. Perfect hiking and sleeping weather as far as I'm concerned, but adding in a constant state of dampness and being in a deep slot canyon that doesn't get a lot of sun coverage, could potentially lead to some concerns about cold. We'd come to learn that a Vermonter, who's also spent significant time living in Montana and Ohio, has a much different definition of cold than does someone who has spent her entire life living in either Southern California or Arizona! It really is cute when you are hiking in a tee shirt and shorts and your partner is bundled up wearing pants, a puffy, a beanie and gloves!! I digress.
One last detail that we needed to tie off, was our travel logistics. The 38 mile trip, was one way. It wasn't a loop, so we either needed to take two cars, which would have been really inconvenient and added a ton of driving, or arrange for a shuttle. We arranged for a shuttle. We'd drive our car to Marble Canyon and spend Monday night at the Marble Canyon Lodge. The next morning, we'd wake up early and make the 5 minute drive to Lee's Ferry, which was where our trip would end. Our shuttle driver would meet us at our car and drive us from Lee's Ferry to the White House trailhead, near Kanab, Utah. This would be about a 90 minute drive. He'd drop us off and we'd simply hike back to our car.
The big day finally arrived and we piled our gear and ourselves into the rig. We'd be hiking from Tuesday morning until whenever we finished on Friday. From there, we'd drive to Sedona where we had reservations at a sweet lodge. We anticipated drinking some cold beer and sitting in a hot jacuzzi.
We made it to Marble Canyon Lodge and discovered that breakfast and coffee wouldn't be available until after we were gone. Well, crud. We'd have to beg our shuttle driver to stop along the way!
The next morning we met our shuttle driver, Tim, and he couldn't have been a nicer guy. Both he and his wife were recently retired Grand Canyon Colorado River guides. He regaled us with some neat stories of life as a river guide. Thankfully he was glad to stop in Page and we cadged some mud and breakfast sandwiches.
A short time later we were dropped off at the trailhead. It was a tad chilly. We spent time getting our gear squared away, which can seem to be a tedious process, and finishing our coffee.
A last little slice of taxpayer funded heaven. The next 4 days would have us using wag-bags for our solid waste. I wouldn't classify the wag-bag as being an unpleasant experience, but it can certainly take some getting used to, and if you're not careful, it can develop into a sticky situation. Thankfully, Bianca being the BEST, had the foresight to bring a giant ziploc bag of sanitary wipes. I also carried several small bottles of hand sanitizer. The sanitary wipes were a god-send, and despite the relative heft of them, I wouldn't ever attempt a trip like this again without them. Endeth the lesson.
We eventually took our first steps at around 9:30 AM, a generally frighteningly late hour to be starting a long day. We knew this ahead of time, but it put me in the mode of feeling like we had to play catch up. I don't like the feeling and I'm sure that it irritates Bianca at times when I play the taskmaster. Well, someone has to keep us on track!!
We were wearing our trail runners and wool socks made by VT's own, Darn Tough. We didn't know how quickly we'd be hitting the water and we decided that once we hit our first river crossing, we'd consider switching to our neoprene socks. The river water temperature was purported to be in the 40s, a rather brisk temperature. I'd saved my hammered old Hoka One One Speed Goat 3's that had officially tapped out a few miles and trips ago, but I didn't want to destroy a brand new set of shoes. This would prove to be a wise decision.
Our first glimpse of the river. There was a good amount of ice along the edges and it looked cold. We'd have to cross immediately. There was no avoiding it. The scenery appeared rather pedestrian.
After some contemplation, we plunged onward. What else could we do? Not even thinking about the wool sock versus neoprene sock debate, we kept the wool socks on. That first crossing was chilly! Not ideal!
It wasn't too long into the trip and we stopped to strip off layers, make adjustments etc. In the words of Pink Floyd, our feet had become "comfortably numb". We didn't want to take the time to change socks. On long trips like this, we rarely stop. The only stops are usually to change layers and quickly take care of any evacuation needs.
We quickly developed a routine where I would go first at each river crossing and let Bianca know where any holes or boulders were, etc. We were trying to prevent any issues with her surgically repaired knee. Let me just say that the trekking poles we used were absolutely essential. I saw a couple of unfortunate souls on that first day that didn't have any, and they looked miserable. We used the poles as feelers for getting across every crossing, for balancing ourselves on the incredibly slippery mud surfaces that we walked on for the bulk of the 1st two days, as well as taking some of the stress off of our legs.
It wasn't too long before we were finally beginning to make the approach to what is reputed to be the most picturesque area of the Paria River Canyon, the "Narrows". The Narrows are basically just that, a long area where the canyon narrows, often times drastically.
It was slow going in the narrows. Most of the area was extremely muddy and I ran into quick sand on a couple of occasions. Luckily I was prepared for it and was able to quickly get out of the situation. In the Narrows, you get cliffed out rather easily, so you spend a ton of time in the water, which is as I said before rocky and muddy. The day began to drag on, but lots of miles were not adding up! Additionally, the scenery was so spectacular that we found ourselves stopping to shoot videos and photos, which we wanted to do, but definitely contributed to our slow pace.
It boggles the mind to contemplate the formation of all of these incredible rocks. Eons and Eons of sand, water, wind, and who knows what else, have all contributed to this splendor. I felt like a spoiled kid at Christmas, rushing to the next toy before properly appreciating the previous one. It proved impossible. If I had a quarter for each time I said, "This is the coolest thing I've seen this trip", I'd probably have $20 in quarters. I shot over 500 photos and videos.
The sun eventually left us. There were still a couple of hours of daylight left, but due to the narrow nature of the canyon, we'd see no more direct sunshine. Bummer. The tough part, and at the same time, incredible part, was that we really only had an extremely general idea of where we were. There was no phone signal, only an intermittent and very unreliable GPS signal. Our maps weren't much help either. I knew how long we'd been walking, and had a solid idea of how fast we'd been walking and I wasn't impressed. I had a feeling that our remaining days would have to be longer in order to make up for my perception of us being behind schedule. I did also know that apparently the last two days have much more dirt walking, away from the river, and thus the going is reputed to be much quicker. As I had never done this route I couldn't attest to that and didn't want to rely on it.
Somewhat reluctantly, as I felt like we hadn't covered enough miles, we decided to set up camp, just before dark. It was around 5:15 or so. I didn't really relish trying to find a campsite in the dark, in a slot canyon, in terrain that was new to me. We grabbed what we saw. It turned out to be an awesome spot, right in an open area of the canyon.
The first thing I did was fill up our Sea to Summit collapsible fabric bucket with river water. This water is very silty, so it would need some time for the colloids to settle out. I stirred in a bit of alum to act as a flocculant. We'd need the water for dinner, etc. The beautiful thing about this trip is that you can get away with carrying very little water, as you are never more than a few feet from the river. There are also some springs along the way, but I have no problem with filtering silty water, so we carried 1.5L apiece. What a nice break that was!
Immediately after that, we started setting up camp. We were on a ledge, about 10 feet above the river. We loved the spot.
Bianca's feet got pretty frosty in the wool socks, so she got changed into dry gear as soon as we had camp set up. We wore the same clothes every day as we hiked. We'd "clean up" as much as we could each night and then change into our warm, dry, clean camp clothes and shoes. That was always a nice treat. We decided that the next morning we'd go with the neoprene socks and see if that helped keep her feet warmer.
Black/Red beans and rice, smoked sausage, cheddar cheese, and fritos mixed in was on the menu for dinner. WOW!! Did that hit the spot. For desert I had brought in some soft apple and cinnamon cookies. We savaged them.
Eventually the yawn monsters went on full attack and we retired to the warmth of our sleeping bags and pads. We were sound asleep by 7:30 or so after a couple of ibuprofen and benadryl. I awoke to the feeling of a bladder needing to be evacuated. It was 3:30 and I'd been asleep for eight hours, so I couldn't complain. I unzipped my sleeping bag just enough to be able to do business and then unzipped my tent door. I wriggled the upper half of my body out of the tent in order to gain the needed relief. What I saw made me smile in awe-filled wonderment. No, I wasn't looking down, though that may have done it. I was looking up!! The area could not have been any darker. There was simply zero light in the canyon. What I saw was some of the brightest stars and constellations that I'd ever seen, save for a few, rare occasions in the Grand Canyon. I wished I'd had a camera that could have captured that. Suffice it to say it was one of the darkest, most impressive, quiet night skies I've seen. The only sounds were of the gurgling river flowing nearby, and Bianca's snoring. That was it!!
Bianca was assembling our breakfast burritos. One thing I love is that I plan the meals and collect the supplies and dehydrate some of the food. I love that part of the planning. One thing I don't enjoy is actually putting the meals together to eat. Bianca doesn't mind doing this, which I really appreciate. On these trips it just seems to work out that she has certain tasks that she does, I have certain tasks that I do, and then there a few that we do together to save time. Often times we can set up or break down camp in just a few minutes if we're in a hurry, without needing to speak a word!
The forecast for Day 2 was calling for high temps in the low 70s and lows near 40! Boom! I was worried that it would actually be too hot. I don't know how folks can do this trip in the warmer, more popular months. I guess that they just cool off in the river.
For much of the day, we were in the narrows. The going was slow. My goal for the day, which should have been a slam dunk, was to make it out of the narrows by the end of the day. That would be at approximately mile 16. If that was all we could do, we'd have 22 miles left for the last two days. We hadn't come close to having a ten mile day, much less a twelve, but again, the hiking was reputed to be much faster. The scenery for the day, was nonetheless incredible. Around every corner was more and more spectacular beauty.
Got into some quicksand there. I was heading into that hollowed out space to see how far it went, and I took a step and felt my leg getting sucked in deep. Pulled hard and got out of there, quickly!
One of a few incredible hanging gardens we were fortunate enough to be able to see. There are seeps right there, coming out of the cliff walls and they supply the water for the gardens.
Typical walking surface for a lot of this route. This is where the trekking poles really shined. Your shoes would get cleaned off at the next river crossing.
What an incredible hanging garden and just a tremendous slab of missing rock!
As the day began to ebb, progress had been slow. We were in good spirits and feeling great. The neoprene socks had been a revelation. Our feet, whilst remaining quite soggy, generally stayed quite toasty. Every corner turned, revealed a new, incredible landscape.
We were fortunate to have a couple of encounters with some Desert Bighorn Sheep. We saw several ewes and some immature rams. Sadly, we didn't see any mature rams. What an incredible sight they are!
An old rancher dragged this upriver quite some time ago to attempt to use it as a pump for water, according to the NPS.
Getting ready to filter some water at Campsite #2.
We finally set up camp, just before last light. After our late start, I figured we'd covered about 9 miles and thus had to be around mile 17. Just 21 to go and we were half way through our trip.We appeared to be out of the Narrows. Bianca and I discussed it and decided we'd get up earlier, skip breakfast and coffee and just get on the trail in order to try to make up some time. While not enjoyable, we'd done it before. We both have "feedbag" style bags that we attach to our pack waist-belts. These enable us to hold food and drink in an accessible position so that we don't have to stop to take breaks. We simply eat and drink as we hike.
We had dehydrated turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing and gravy. It was a solid dinner of my creation, but unfortunately we didn't use enough water to rehydrate. We had mixed in some electrolytes into our remaining water and thus couldn't use that to heat up and add to our meals. We'd planned to filter in the morning as we were both pretty tired. So, while serviceable, the meal wasn't as delicious as it could have been.
We were sacked out by 7:30 or so. Bianca was asleep immediately, but I was listening to what sounded like a herd of small animals work their way through our campsite. I'm sure that they weren't pleased by our presence. They made odd, almost guttural sounds. No idea as to what they were. Maybe raccoons or porcupines. The footprints were maybe the size of a 50 cent piece. Eventually I drifted off.
We awoke a bit after 6:00 and got right to breaking down camp. It wasn't our fastest breakdown of camp, but we were nonetheless on the trail by 8:00, which was a massive improvement over the previous days.
Locked, loaded, and ready to grind! Let's knock out some miles and get back on track.
Not sure how thrilled Bianca was for that first crossing, immediately after leaving camp. The morning started off with more of the same. Lot's of mud and river time. At one point we were wading in the river for 15 minutes!! That grew a tad tedious!
We pulled off for a quick bio break. We'd been grinding since 8:00, but were still moving along at a relatively plodding pace.
It was cool to see another small group of sheep. The way that they move at ease up and down the cliff faces is impressive!
The day was soon nearing it's end. We began to search for a campsite. We'd had a long, hard day, with no breaks. We'd eaten, but hadn't had any satisfying meals, just snack food. It was our last night on the trail and I wanted to really do it up.
It was just before 5:00 and we'd been on the trail for about 9 hours. I was satisfied with our progress. I had no firm information, but I suspected we'd covered between 12-14 miles. The 2nd half of the day had included fewer river crossings and a high water route that was a solid, packed dirt trail. We were able to do 2.5 to 3 MPH when on this quality of trail. We'd flown and actually gotten into a rhythm for the first time on the trip! I was super stoked!!
The campsite turned out to be our best yet! The views were incredible! We had great river access. The area where we put the tent was deep sand, so it was super comfortable. We had some great appetizers, trying to finish off as much of our food as we could. Dinner was a very disappointing, commercial Sweet potato chili mac. It was largely flavorless, but was filling.
We discussed our upcoming fourth and final day. We didn't know exactly how many miles we needed to hike, but we figured best case was 7 and worst case was 10. No problem, especially with the faster terrain. We'd plan on an early departure, but we would have breakfast and coffee. We needed the nutrition and most importantly the caffeine.
I awoke at 5:30 and got breakfast and the coffee prepped. We had oatmeal with golden raisins, cinnamon cream, pecans and some seasonings. It was incredible. We hustled through our breakdown of camp and somehow got on the trail at 7:30! We were stoked to grind out the miles! While we didn't want to finish, we knew it was inevitable. We wanted to get to Sedona at an early hour, so we'd be able to enjoy some jacuzzi time and some grub and brewskis!
The sun making it's first appearance.
Right off the bat, we got into some gnarly, loose terrain on the high route. In a couple of instances we came to some pretty exposed areas. At one point we took our packs off and lowered them down to where I was in order to avoid a part where the trail was washed out a bit and there was a large rock sticking into the trail. A fall there would have been the end, so we definitely wanted to be as safe as we could. Other than those few times where we slowed due to the trail being really rough, we were able to make 2-3 MPH.
We began to encounter ruins and other signs of civilization, no matter how old they were. The Canyon was widening significantly at this point.......
Until, we reached the end of the Paria Canyon route. It would still be another mile or so until it dumped into the Colorado.
We finally made it back to the rig! It was about 1:00 PM. We'd walked 11 miles that day, which included the end of the 38 mile route and then the walk to the car! Wow!! What an adventure! We felt so lucky that we got to experience such a beautiful place. We can't wait to go back and explore some of the other slot canyons! On to Sedona!
The view from our resort's outdoor patio!
We did a hike on Saturday to the Birthing Cave. It was a nice "recovery" hike.
Loved reading about our adventure mí amor!! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks for going!! I'm really grateful that you love these adventures as much as I do!!
DeleteDon't forget tacos!! I'm sure we can figure all of that out!!
ReplyDeleteDevoured your entire trip report. Thanks so ,much for taking the time to do that. Enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback. Much appreciated.
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