Today’s bite-sized Daily Dose is just a small piece of the world’s longest slot canyon.
It’s named Buckskin Gulch, and runs for 16 miles through the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness along the Arizona-Utah border.
To hike the canyon in its entirety, most choose to overnight in the chasm’s depths.
However, the canyon bottom does not have a continuously-flowing creek, and access to fresh water is hit or miss. The canyon’s few seeps and springs run most consistently after wet weather, but may dry up during extended droughts.
I took this photo on a dayhike in May 2015, when a friend and I hiked just a couple miles into the upper section of the gulch in Utah. I’d love to go deeper but it sounds like quite an adventure, and must get quite claustrophobic after a while.
Much respect to anyone that’s braved multiple days in these seemingly never-ending sandstone corridors.
-Jake
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