[4XX AV, Leica R8, 28-700 mm Vario Elmarit; 1/10, f/16, Velvia, 6-9-00]

Buckskin Gulch straddles the Utah-Arizona border in the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness Area. The Wire Pass trailhead is located 8.3 miles south of Highway 89 westward of Page, Arizona at MileMaker 24 on Rock House Valley Road and leads to Buckskin Gulch, 2.8 miles downstream from the Buckskin trailhead. This area is reputed to be the best-known, narrow slot canyon in the southwest. This area of two linked narrow desert canyons is a relentless stretch of a tributary of the Paria River which contains walls of Navajo sandstone that tower over you with complex sculpted shapes while confining you at times to spaces as tight as three feet wide. From end to end, this unique hiking experience is an incredible journey of some 16 miles where erosion from numerous floods has long been producing a tapestry of lines of the curving walls that change around each corner, beckoning you deeper and deeper into its depths in order to see what more sculpting nature has created just ahead.

This Image: Here is one of the tightest areas of canyon where the drop from the boulder in the foreground to the sandy path beyond is made by climbing ten feet down the log to the area beyond.