Here's the list of who went on the hike:
Submission from Kathy Sharp:
We've hiked Buckskin Gulch, a long and deep slot canyon in Utah near Page, many times. For this trip, we camped at Middle Trail both nights. For future reference, when we stop at the Paria ranger station ramada to check the conditions in Buckskin before the hike, we should fill out one envelope per vehicle of people while we're there ($5 per person per day, and $5 per dog per day).
My notes from past trips said to take all the left forks in the road to Middle Trail, but that didn't work this trip. We ended up at the bottom of a sandy hill, and I gave up trying get back up the hill; Jef was finally able to get us up the sandy hill. (For this trip, I asked Rich or Jef to drive us to and from Middle Trail, too, so I wouldn't get us stuck in the sand again.) I'm glad I brought my GPS and had had a few minutes to print a map with a UTM grid Friday afternoon before we left! The map told us we were in the wrong place. We backtracked from there and easily found Middle Trail. Middle Trail now has a sign and register! It's called Middle Route, though, which is appropriate because there really isn't a trail there. Also, the Buckskin end of the road to Middle Trail is now marked as 750 in places.
Saturday morning we left my truck at Middle Trail and Rich drove us to Wire Pass. We hiked very leisurely and took naps because we didn't want to go up on top in the heat. It turned out that, because of the wind, it was cooler on top than I thought it would be, but we had already decided we were not doing the hot, dry hike to Cobra Arch that afternoon. The part of Buckskin we did that day was totally dry, and we played leapfrog with a group of four that was backpacking with three dogs. I think our gang enjoyed Buckskin. Everyone did fine going up the "hazardous" Middle Route exit, and Rich found a chimney route. I tried both routes. I didn't have to chimney on Rich's route; I suspect I was able to high-step the part he was calling a chimney move.
A restaurant, the Paria Outpost Restaurant, is now on 89 and the road to Middle Trail! Saturday afternoon, we all hopped in my truck and dropped off Jef and Mike at the restaurant. Jef went to the adjacent campground and took a shower! Can you believe it? Showers on the road to Middle Trail?! I think he said it was about $2. Rich, Lori, and I went to get Rich's truck from Wire Pass, and we ran into a group there that included someone Rich happened to know. From there, we went to the restaurant and had a nice all-you-can eat dinner ($12.50 per person) and took "home" cinnamon rolls to eat in the morning. We really enjoyed our dinner, and I had loads of fresh, cold lemonade.
The Paria River was completely dry. Because of that and since it was so hot, Rich (and later, Mike) came up with the idea of reversing our hike and hiking from the White House Ruins Campground to Middle Trail on Sunday so that we wouldn't be doing the open, dry part of the hike in the hot afternoon. That was a good idea, but it was so dry and incredibly windy that we were continually sand blasted in our faces till we got almost to the confluence with Buckskin. We started hiking at 8:17 a.m., and at some point during the windy part, we ran into the group we had been running into all day the previous day. They were taking a break while heading the opposite direction from us, and we sat down and talked with them awhile. Jef decided that he wanted to hike back to White House and wait for us at the restaurant. The rest of us continued on toward Buckskin. Jef hiked part of the way back with the other hikers and went to the restaurant, but it was closed. (It was still closed when the rest of us got there at 4 p.m., too.)
The only place we saw any water was at the very end of Buckskin near the confluence with the Paria River. The seeps and springs were running there, and in places there was enough water to filter, but we didn't need water. (In the morning, someone at the White House trailhead who had just hiked the Paria from Wrather Canyon said all the springs along the river were flowing, too, although with less water than usual.) There was also a deer carcass in a narrow part of Buckskin Sunday; a hiker the previous day had warned us of the smell. The Sunday hike was quite a bit longer than the Saturday hike (since we didn't do Cobra Arch Saturday), and we hiked at a much faster pace.
All in all, it was a good trip. It's nice that Buckskin varies so much from trip to trip!