Slot Canyon Wonder: Buckskin Gulch in Southern Utah

Great hike. You have to be very careful about rain forecast, even if the chance of rain is only 20%, that's too dangerous (it's the same odds as playing Russian Roulette!) The canyon is deep and narrow right from the junction with Wire Pass.

I entered Buckskin Gulch from the Wire Pass trailhead and spent the better part of a day moving through the longest slot canyon in the American Southwest. The walls closed in within the first mile and stayed tight for hours, with light dropping in thin strips from hundreds of feet above. Some sections required squeezing through sideways, and a few boulder jams demanded careful route-finding. I checked the weather forecast for the entire upstream drainage, not just the local area, because flash floods move through this canyon with almost no warning. The permit system through the BLM office is straightforward and absolutely worth doing correctly.

Buckskin Gulch is the longest slot canyon in the world, and hiking through it feels like moving through the interior of the earth. The walls squeeze together overhead, blocking almost all direct light. I check flash flood forecasts obsessively before going—there is no escape route once inside. The floor alternates between dry sand and muddy pools that I wade through without hesitation. I camp at the confluence with Paria Canyon and spend the night listening to absolute silence. It's dark, narrow, and completely magnificent.

Beautiful, incredible pictures!

Absolute must see if down in kanab or southern Utah.