Buckskin Gulch, Kanab, UT
February 25th, 2006 Summit
I have heard some interesting things about Buckskin Gulch. I know that it starts from Kanab, Utah and is a “13-mile corridor of stone so deep you can barely see the sky and so narrow it sometimes forces you to remove your pack to get through….in the entire region, there’s no start to a hike as dramatic as Buckskin Gulch’s two-mile squeeze through the two-foot-wide passage of Wire Pass. (Adventure Magazine)” It sounds pretty cool. Peter Potterfield even rates is as one of the top ten classic hikes of the world for 2005 in Adventure Magazine. However, my dad told me about a part of it that is referred to as the “cesspool.” From what I understand, it is a section of the Gulch that is only washed out during the high water of a flash flood. During the rest of the time, the water is stagnating and bodies of animals caught in the flash floods rot in the water. That seems pretty gross to me. My wife said that if we were to go that I would have to give her a piggy-back ride across it. Does anyone reading this know if it is really that bad? Was my dad lying? Worse maybe? Is it bad but worth it for the cool hike? Let me know.
Also, in the same Adventure Magazine article, the John Muir Trail in California is rated in the top ten. That and Buckskin are the only two on the list in the lower forty-eight states. Go Utah! (and California)
Entry Filed under: Whatever!, Backpacking
2 Comments Add your own
1. Little Pepper | February 26th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
A friend of mine did this hike and didn’t mention that the Cesspool was all that bad. If you are serious about this hike you should really look at the discription in “Utah’s Favorite Hiking Trails” 2nd edition by David Day. It is a very reliable guide book and has a great section on Buckskin Gultch. This book says this about the Cesspool… “Many of these pools contain rotting vegetation and are foul smelling. The largest of these pools has been named, appropriately enough, the Cesspool. Wading through the pools can be a revolting experience, but fortunately they are rarely more than thigh deep.” The cesspool is about 6.5 mile in so if you only do a day hike you probably won’t get to it before turning around. The book does recomend bringing a small air mattress to float your pack on the deeper pools later in the hike, and bringing a 30-foot length of rope to get down a rockfall near the end of Buckskin Gultch. I hope this helps and good luck!
2. Summit | February 26th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Sweet, thanks for the info! What you described is a little more comforting. I was picturing me having to dip by whole body in some sort of bile-like substance. Thigh-deep is manageable. That definitely means that I will be giving my wife a piggyback ride, though.
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