Buckskin Gulch

Friday afternoon I loaded up in a 15 passenger van with my dad, siblings (Logan met us in Paige) and some friends and we headed to Paige, Arizona. We sat in some nasty traffic on the way up but we eventually made it.

Selfie while sitting in traffic.

Pit stop in Flagstaff.

Dinner in Paige. We ate at a local burger place that was actually pretty good. 

Logan, Whit, Chris and I shared a hotel room. I love these siblings of mine a lot!! 

Tim couldn't come because he hurt his ankle in January and is still on the mend poor guy.

We woke up at 4:30am on Saturday morning to get ready for a 21 mile hike. 

We met up with some family friends, drove an hour (between Paige and Kanab) dropped cars off at the end of the trail and we all piled in the van and drove down an extremely bumpy road to the trail head for Buckskin Gulch.

This was at the trailhead. It's important to note that due to the fact that the entire hike was through slot canyons, if there was a flash flood we would all be goners. No one has ever died doing this hike though, because "know the latest weather forecast and canyon conditions" duh :) But there was something a little nerve racking about the freak possibility of a flash flood killing us all. We are all live though, so that's good.

The whole group at the trail head.

All the girls.

We walked for about a mile down a wash and then we got the the entrance to the slot canyon and the gawking began and it didn't really stop until we were out of Bucksin Gulch.

Every couple of minutes we would say, "wait take a picture", "Did you take a picture of that?" "Here take a picture of that." And the bummer is that pictures don't do it justice.

It was amazing how narrow that walls were at some points. And how high they got.

This is a picture of my bum....I was obviously struggling getting over this boulder hahaha!! My very sweet older brother saved my tail. I told him it was a trust exercise. 

My dad made it down much more gracefully :)

There were places like this where the sun was shining right through the slot onto the trail and then places where it was very shadowed and dark.

The walls must have been 100 feet high in some places.

And there was lots and lots and lots of mud. And please note that walking through mud is a work out in and of itself. And is also cause for lots of slipping which means lots of laughter.

Megan and I have been hiking together for 2 1/2 years. This was our first big hike together outside of our weekly hike.

I love adventuring with these guys!

There were a few points where the canyon opened up a little and there was grass or trees. The rocks were beautiful!

Huddled under a big cutout where we found some pretty cool petroglyphs. 

Can you see the cool little guy?

And the buck?

Heading into a narrow part of the canyon again.

Throughout the hike there was lots of different debris wedged between the walls of the Gulch. Boulders and large tree trunks were the most impressive things.

Holding our selves up between the walls. This is harder than it looks.

The walls of the gulch were very cool and had awesome cut outs and "holes".

Chillin' in one of the cutouts. 

Before we knew it, we ran into large puddles that we had to walk through. Some were ankle deep and some were up to our waists. The water was FREEZING! I am not exaggerating either. It was so cold!

Pants rolled up and ready to walk through the water.

Walking through the water was always very entertaining. There was lots of slipping and "stay to the right" or "watch out for the rocks". The first person to go through would also prepare the rest of us for the depth that we were about to tread through. It was an adventure.

Single file through the water.

The color of the water was very interesting. And it left our legs an interesting pinkish color.

At one point there was about a 20 foot drop that we had to use a rope to climb down. This was very uncomfortable and made me super glad we had tall strong men to help me out.

The hike consists of 14 miles through Buckskin Gulch which dumps into Paria Canyon. And then you hike another 7 miles to get to the end (where our cars were). There was a point where we thought we had gone further than 14 miles and maybe missed the turn for Paria Canyon. This was one of the moments where we were all pretty tired and discussing how far we had actually gone. In another mile we got to Paria Canyon and started walking through the shallow water and mud for another 7 miles. 

The canyon was beautiful but not as mind blowing as the Gulch. And I would have been fine with maybe 3 miles of it, but 7 was a little too much :) By the time we got to the end I was POOPED!! It was such an amazing hike though. So beautiful and mind blowing. My dad said something that I kind of loved, he said, "do you think when Heavenly Father and Jesus and Adam were creating the earth they created places like this and when they finished they high fived each other and talked about what a cool place they had created?" If not they should have because this place was amazing! I definitely underestimated the intensity of it. Having hike the Grand Canyon multiple times I figured walking 21 miles with no incline or decline would be no big. But let me tell you, water and mud and rocks....it is big. But, I would totally do it again....not tomorrow, but maybe in a couple of years :)

We did a massage train while we waited for Cody, Logan and my Dad to get the van from the trail head.

Bam!! We did it!!!

The Lythgoe's (the other family we were with) were planning on taking longer than us so we split from them a couple of miles into the hike. They all finished safe and sound too!

After a hike like this not only am I grateful for this beautiful earth and all of Gods creations, but I am so grateful for a healthy body that allows me to go on such amazing adventures. I hope I never take it for granted.