Buckskin Gulch
Largest Slot Canyon in the World
While in Utah recently on our Full Time RV adventures, centered around Kanab, I just had to make a return trip to the Buckskin Gulch hike via the Wire Pass route.
The Buckskin Gulch hike is in the Coyote Buttes North controlled area. The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It sports AMAZING photographic opportunity. If you are a landscape photographer, you are doing yourself a disservice by not making this one of the choice locations to which you venture to do photography.
The area is full of slot style hikes and canyons. Included are the epic Antelope Slot canyons. Both upper and Lower.
“The Chief” in the Lower Antelope Slot
I have done the Antelope Slots myself. They are near this area, (just outside of Page AZ) but are not part of this canyon. The Antelope Slots sit on Navajo Land and are controlled by the tribe. They are very expensive to visit as they require a tour. They have also stopped the photographer tours and no longer offer them. As such, you are crammed into the Antelopes with as many humans as possible at one time making any successful landscape photography nearly impossible.
The Buckskin Gulch Canyon is a different kind of slot, but the outcome photographically speaking are no less stunning and spectacular than the Antelopes.
The trailhead to the gulch happens to be on the same route, at the beginning anyway, as the world famous Wave hike.
Should you ever get an opportunity to make this hike, you will not regret doing so. Plan accordingly however.
Here are a few tips from me to make your hike and photography more enjoyable, fun, and productive.
Access your permit via recreation.gov using this link.
Once you have obtained your permit you will have a full day to use it. It’s a day use only permit for the day it’s reserved. They also offer overnight permits. There is a back country campsite about midway into the canyon. You would obviously be obtaining the overnight permit for that portion.
Further, if you do like I did a few years back, you can, if you are lucky enough, secure a permit to hike the Wave via The Wave Lottery. Then, the day before, drive to and park at the Wire Pass trailhead. Spend the day before your Wave hike exploring and hiking into the Buckskin Gulch Slot canyon. You are allowed, the last I checked (be sure to verify) to stay overnight at the trailhead. This puts you in a wonderful position to begin your hike to the Wave the next day. Trailhead is manicured well, is very flat gravel for parking a rig, and sports…I think…4 very clean vault toilets. It might be more.
When and if you hike to this gulch, you will drive south down a dirt road off 89 midway between Page, AZ, and Kanab, UT. It’s about 8 miles in and the trailhead (which you can’t miss) will be on your right. Ignore the trailhead marker on your left shortly before this noting the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead.
After you park, putting your pass for day use on the dash, you will take a walk down the wash (Across the street from the trailhead), headed back north for about a mile or so. At the end of this wash, you will enter the slot canyon for the first time.
It’s a short, little preview of what you will ultimately end up seeing in the vast canyon ahead.
This short preview opens back up. Do not be misled, you are not finished. Only getting started. Keep walking, enter again, and you are now on your way.
Once you are into that second portion, you will be in the main canyon and it just keeps getting better.
Shortly upon your entrance to this second version, the canyon will again open up into a vast expanse. The trail then heads left and right. I’ve never gone left, but only right.
If you go right, my advice to you is to keep on walking until the rocks end and you travel on mostly sand trails. Once you reach this point, go as far as you like. Take note, however, that the views and photography opportunities from this juncture stay pretty much the same unless you hike all the way into the back country site. I’ve not done so, but it’s what I’ve heard.
I’ve always gone about 1/2 to 3/4 miles further in once the sandy portion starts and have achieved epic photographs.
If you make this hike, depending on the season, take note of the following.
Summers in the area are hot. Very hot. Dress accordingly if you choose to do so and take a lot of water.
Photographically speaking, you are going to want to be in the canyon between the hours of 11am and 2pm or maybe 3. The most productive lighting will take place during these hours.
If you are doing photography, plan on taking a tripod. It’s surprising how dark the environment can and will be photographically speaking. Because you want to shoot at the highest aperture (f16 or higher), you are going to have to use slow shutter speeds. Hence needing a tripod.
If you are going in a shoulder season, fall or spring, the canyon is going to be 10-20 degrees cooler than outside it. Again, dress accordingly.
If you are photographing, use “Cloudy” for your white balance. It warms up the walls and the colors.
If you can set your camera to saturate the colors some, do so. And in your final edits, don’t overdo the saturation. It ruins the photograph if over edited.
Should you visit this area, do not miss this hike. It’s not too taxing and I would classify it as an “easy” hike. If you only do it once, that’s enough. You will never forget the experience.
Reach out should you have any questions.
rob out
