White House, Vermilion Cliffs, Buckskin Gulch, and Cottonwood Trail, Utah

This is the second of four blogs, a continuation of my three week trip into Southern Utah in October.

Buckskin Gulch Slot Canyon.

The story continues: After leaving the Kaneplex Rodeo Grounds in Kanab, I was at a gas station when a lady pulled in next to me, also with a truck and trailer, and we ended up chatting.  I told her where I was headed next, and she gave me a good tip of a place to camp. Between Kanab and Big Water there is mostly just a lot of BLM land with several well visited trailheads. The Paria River Ranch is a popular place for horse people to stay, since it is in a good location to access the trails. The turn off for the ranch is at milepost 21 on Hwy 89 but the nice lady told me to drive a little further down N. Long Canyon Rd. passing the ranch, and I would find a cow corral. You can camp in these type of corrals as long as they are not being used by ranchers. I liked it so much, I spent the next four nights there. The ranch looked like a nice facility, although it is right on the highway, whereas I was about a mile away. Update: as of 2023, the cow corral that I camped in has been locked and there are now "no camping" signs.

The cow corral I spent four nights at.

The obvious choice for my first ride was to head over to the white rocks I could see in the distance which is the location of the White House Trailhead. I was able to ride cross country from where I was parked, and there were sometimes unofficial horse trails to follow made by the ranch people. In order to get to the trailhead you have to cross the Paria River multiple times, which is a muddy little waterway. Apparently you can come across quicksand in certain areas, so I was on the lookout, but had no issues. The next day when I picked my horses feet out, the mud that ended up in them from the river was as hard as concrete.

At the Paria River.

At the Paria River.

Once at the trailhead I followed along the rim of the canyon for quite awhile. Then I went back and looked closer at the sandstone formations by the White House Campground. I also rode towards the highway, before eventually making my way back to camp. I realized later I had missed seeing The Nautilus, an interesting formation about half a mile up a wash. There are no signs or markers for a lot of areas in Utah, so you kind of have to know ahead of time where to go. Something to add to my list, next time I am there!

On the trail above the canyon at White House TH.

The canyon at White House TH.

Sandstone cliffs at the White House TH.

Sandstone cliffs at the White House Campground.

The next day I followed N. Long Canyon Rd. past the cow corral. I was in a wash for awhile, but instead of going into the canyon, I stayed above it, and continued on just following my nose until I reached the Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness where I found myself in a whole new world. I was up above looking way down into the Buckskin Gulch area, and I could see the Wire Pass Trailhead far in the distance. I rode along the rim for awhile on a cow trail, dodging cactus, and eventually came across another really interesting area. It's hard to even try to explain some of this scenery, so it's a good thing I took lots of pictures.

Riding in the wash for awhile before getting back onto the road.

Large cactus on the way towards the Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness.

Looking way down towards Buckskin Gulch.

Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness.

Strange rocks!

It's mostly all rock, but I planted my pony on a tiny patch of grass in the middle.

I hiked around on the rocks for awhile.

Since I needed to give my horse a day off, I decided to do a hike the following day, so I hoofed it over to the highway, where there is a gate that led me into the Moon Canyon area. This is directly across from the road that goes to the Paria Contact Station and also the White House TH. You can do this as a ride, although it is not very long. Since I added extra mileage from my camping spot, and it was a hot day, I did not hike in as far as you can ride.

The gate is across the highway from the road that goes to the White House TH.

Hiking into the Moon Canyon area.

The Moon Canyon area.

My last ride in this area, which I trailered over to, was Buckskin Gulch. As I got to House Rock Valley Rd. a young girl flagged me down and asked for a ride, she didn't think she could do the drive in her very low clearance car. I didn't have much room, but she got into the back of my truck with her dog and proceeded to have a very bumpy experience, until I got to the Buckskin Trailhead. Then she had to find another ride the rest of the way to her destination of the Wire Pass Trailhead.

You can camp at the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead and if I had not heard about the cow corral, that would probably have been my plan. If you park right behind the bathroom there is a nice spot where you can be out of everyone's way. Or there are several dispersed camping spots on the road driving in, and you can find one pretty close by. There is a self pay station and it is $6.00 per person and $6.00 per dog to ride/hike there.

Parking at the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead.

This is supposed to be the longest slot canyon in the world, at around 23 miles, 15 of which is continually narrow. Hopefully everyone is aware to never ride or hike in an area like this if there is even a tiny chance of rain, since there is no way to escape if a flash flood were to occur.

I have heard that people have tried to ride this in the spring, and not been able to, because of the river in the gulch, but when I was there, it was dry as a bone. I rode to the confluence with Wire Pass Slot Canyon and back, which is 9 miles round trip, you can keep riding further into the gulch but apparently it gets pretty rocky. The Wire Pass Slot Canyon is not horse friendly, but you can look at some petroglyphs on the wall at the confluence. Although I like loops better than going back the same way, this time I didn't mind, because there is just so much to see, like the rock that looks exactly like an elephant, which I didn't even notice until the return trip.

The scenery is pretty interesting before you even get into the slot canyon.

On the Buckskin Gulch Trail.

On the Buckskin Gulch Trail.

On the Buckskin Gulch Trail, no water in October.

Riding into the slot canyon.

Petroglyphs on the canyon wall at the Wire Pass confluence.

At the confluence with Wire Pass.

The elephant!

On the Buckskin Gulch Trail.

When I got back to the cow corral I noticed a problem I had been keeping an eye on had become much worse. Sometime during my drive from Oregon to Utah part of the a/c unit inside my trailer had knocked loose, it was hanging down from the ceiling more than it should. During the bumpy drive back from the gulch, things got much looser, so much so that the a/c unit on the roof of the trailer was askew, pretty much sideways. With no ladder and no clue what to do, I had to problem solve quickly, so I made the loading chute on the cow corral my ladder, so I could get on top of the trailer. Once up on the roof I had to maneuver the unit back into exactly the right spot, then from the inside I took apart the rest of it, and figured out that two very long screws were unattached, so I reattached them by hand, tightening them as much as possible, and lo and behold it was as good as new!

After my fourth night at the cow corral, it was time for me to leave the area, mostly because I was going to run out of water. This means I skipped riding at the Paria Townsite which is also close enough to trailer out to from Paria River Ranch. The alternate plan was to ride a trail right in Kanab, and then spend another night at the Kaneplex Rodeo Grounds.

The Cottonwood Trail starts just outside of a neighborhood in Kanab, and there is a  separate parking area for horse trailers that the Backcountry Horsemen built in 2009. The trail has a lot of short hills to go up and down at the beginning, and then it eventually levels out. It is signed and marked most of the way, until near the end where it is mostly just following cairns, but it is not hard to see where the trail goes.

The Cottonwood Trail.

On the Cottonwood Trail.

Eventually it comes to an end on private land, but you can still ride either left or right... right goes into Cottonwood Canyon. I went towards the canyon for awhile but didn't go all the way, (it was hot and I was kind of tired, and for once was not wanting to be in the saddle all day) instead I went back and took the left option which makes the ride into a partial loop. The left option is called State Line because you are literally on the border with Arizona.

On the Cottonwood Trail.

The trail ends on private land, but you can still continue riding.

Looking over towards Cottonwood Canyon.

Water is scarce in S. Utah, so it is nice to see a little oasis in the form of a cow trough.

On the State Line Rd. AZ is on the right.

The landowner has a funky little camp spot set up, and then just past that is an old building called the Kanab Movie Fort that was built by Paramount in 1952 and used through 1979 for at least 17 movies, the last one being The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. The building is pretty dilapidated but somebody has set up a fire pit and made a cute little entertaining area outside the fort.

The Kanab Movie Fort. Look familiar?

Cute fire pit and entertaining area.

Back at the rodeo grounds that evening, a guy with a horse and a mule also spent the night there. I spoke to him briefly in the morning, he had been riding some of the same areas as me, but was now heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I was tempted more than once to detour over there myself, since I was very close, but I decided to stick to my original plan.

I did laundry and grocery shopping in Kanab, since I could safely leave my horse alone for a few hours, and then I drove over to Hurricane for the next leg of my journey....to be continued!


GPS COORDINATES TO WHITE HOUSE TH

GPS COORDINATES TO BUCKSKIN GULCH

GPS COORDINATES TO COTTONWOOD TH