The Paria River Canyon runs from Bryce Canyon in Southern Utah to the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry in North Arizona. On Sunday, the 12th of May 2002, ten Sierra Club hikers entered the canyon near the BLM station at White House Ruin: Alex Barnum (group leader,) Brian Cook (assistant leader,) Ed Belove, Caroline Cullen, Elyse Millson, Sandy Jelso, Tanya Kovaleski, Tom Schmitz, and John and Kathy Talley-Jones. This is their story...or at least, some of their pictures.
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Although this picture was taken on Day 7 by Group 2, this sign marks the beginning of our trip as well. (John) |
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Day 1 -- Stopping for lunch during a particularly hard day. We started late, and had to carry water in addition to the group gear. As the canyon was wide, there was much exposure. (Sandy) |
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Day 1 -- after 7 1/2 miles of dry sand, we came to the Mighty Confluence. Here you can see the Paria (which seeps out of the rock wall about 20 feet behind the camera) as it joins the Buckskin (which runs from right to left along the far wall.) (John) |
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This is Ed's picture of Slide Rock, an arch formed without the usual wind, sand, and rain sculpture scenario. More of Ed's pictures can be seen at this link. |
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This
is the view from Tom's first campsite at Buckskin - looking towards the mighty confluence. (Caroline) |
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Day 2, Up Buckskin Canyon -- the group has just climbed up through some collapsed boulders which lead to the upper portion of the Canyon. (Kathy) |
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Caroline emerges from the lower portion of Buckskin. (Ed) |
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Day 2, Buckskin
Canyon, John, after climbing through the boulders. (Kathy)
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Day 2, Another
shot of the group at the Buckskin Canyon boulders. (John)
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Day 2, In Buckskin Canyon -- we stopped for a relaxing lunch. Alex displayed his prehistoric whittling technique by rubbing two rocks together to create his Druidic masterpiece "Butt Henge." (John) |
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Day 2, In Buckskin Canyon, an aerial shot of Butt-Henge. (John) |
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In Buckskin
Canyon, the light is softened as it bounces off the canyon faces. (Caroline)
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Day 2-- Camp at Buckskin Canyon, near the confluence. (John) |
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Day 3 -- Leaving camp at Buckskin Canyon. (John) |
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Day 3 -- Wall Spring, whose name describes the way water seeped out of the side of the canyon wall. Beneath several drips were rocks placed in circles, within which one could place one's water bottle for refilling. (John) |
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This picture shows a recurring geological feature that ran throughout the canyon -- it extended in a more-or-less straight line, cutting through the canyon walls and could be seen virtually whenever we rounded a bend. (Ed) |
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Day 4, On Wednesday, Day 4, Sandy injured her leg shortly after we broke camp. A group portrait, just before splitting into two groups, one of which would turn back. Left to Right: Alex, Ed, Elyse, Kathy, Sandy, Tom, Tania, Brian, Caroline, and John. (John) |
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Day 4 -- We've stopped for lunch after Sandy's injury. Alex and Brian left us to confer about contingency plans. (John) |
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Day 4 -- The decision is made to split the group, with John and Kathy accompanying Brian and Sandy back out the way we had come. Here we are dividing food and stores. Although it was traumatic to split the group, Alex had at least prepared us for the difficult journey out by insuring that 2 primary life-saving points were ingrained: "save all plastic bags" and "eat your dried fruit." (John) |
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Day 4, Group 2 -- Our campsite was about 20 feet above the river, not far from an off-canyon spring.. That night, John was intimidated into throwing his 3 remaining Pep-O-Mint Life Savers to a rampaging mouse (which sounded like a freight train.) (John) |
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Day 5, Group 2 -- we found that even though we had been through this part of the canyon before, on the way down, it was unfamiliar enough going the other direction that it seemed new and interesting. (John) |
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Day 3, Group 1 - Ed. at the Paria / Buckskin confluence. |
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The beaver dam.
This is possibly the first spot where Tom had to get his feet wet. The beaver
had built quite a good dam and there was no way around. (Caroline) |
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Day 5, Group 2 -- As water was an issue on the last two days, Kathy and John went ahead up the Narrows to stash water for the next day's slog. We were stopped about 1 1/2 miles from camp by a swarm o' bees. This shot shows some nice geological detail. (John) |
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Day 5, Group 1 --
You can see how the canyon has changed, becoming more open above, with lots
of boulders to get around (Caroline) |
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Group 1 -- We named
this rock formation "the mayan prince." This is is the view of
it from the campsite across from the last reliable spring. In the dark the
outline really looks like a profile. (Caroline) |
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Day 6, Group 2 -- after spending the night at Buckskin, we head up the Narrows. We hadn't really remembered seeing this stretch on the first day, so it seemed new to us. (John) |
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Day 6, Group 2's final night's campsite -- 3 1/2 miles from the put-in point. We had earlier attempted to camp at a legitimate BLM-maintained site, but were overrun with the local fauna, particularly a baby rattlesnake (similar to this fellow) whose turf we had intruded upon. This dry bank turned out to be very congenial and free of nightlife. (John) |
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Day 6, Group 2 -- Tom, in a desperate attempt to sabotage our group, had left us with only 1 pot. This required great inventiveness on our part. Here are Sandy and Brian, who is warming up our last hot meal (of leftover chili and rice.) By this time, we had pretty much abandoned the very specific recipe cards and were improvising. Here's a copy of the menu. And here is one of an inexhaustible (luckily) supply of Ziploc bags. (John) |
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Group 1 -- Whatisit:
cool rock formation - does it look like something? (Caroline) |
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Group 1: Our leader,
Alex. (Caroline) |
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Group 1 -- A picture
of wrather arch. not a good one. It was soo beautiful but none of the pictures
do it justice (kind of like the whole trip!) (Caroline) |
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Day 7, Group 2 -- The final morning's hike out. It would be remiss to exclude any pictures of Brian and his trusty video camera. (John) |
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Day 7, Group 2 --This is typical of the topology of the first 4 miles of the hike -- a wide and dry riverbed, fully exposed to the sun. (Kathy) |
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Day 7, Group 1 -- I assume that this shot is of the Paria just above its confluence with the Colorado? |
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Day 7, Group 2 -- We were perplexed by these tracks and decided they were made by a jackalope (we'd heard one howling the night before), but the BLM ranger identified them as porcupine tracks! (John) |
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Day 7, Group 2 -- Saturday, May 18th. Walking up out of the riverbed, our adventure winding down. We were lucky enough to hitch a ride with a group that was shuttling to another location -- they scoffed at me when I thanked them for saving us the 2 mile hike to the BLM statiion -- little did they know! (John) |