Days 7-11: Buckskin Gulch, Arizona – Most Dangerous Hike in the US

We get to the shuttle area at 8pm only to wait a couple hours for our shuttle. Our shuttle gets us to our trailhead at midnight, and we start our hike first thing in the morning. We are headed for our toughest adventure yet. Alex has set up the trip, so that each day has gotten sequentially harder. Starting out with rock climbing to canyoning to rock climbing in 103 degree weather to canyoning and climbing to caynoning, climbing, and quick sand – not to mention the rattle snakes. We will need to move quickly here – this is the best slot canyon in the world but also the most dangerous hike in the country. Even short rainfalls means flash floods. The canyon catches water from 100 miles around.

And although I did not know it at the time (Alex didn’t tell me about the most dangerous hike in the country part until after we finished), it truly is the most dangerous. Unfortunately seven hikers nearby were caught in flash floods and died. We luckily missed a flash flood that happened a few days before we started and then it started pouring at the tail end of this 5 day hike.

But at least in the beginning, things were hunky dory. We met a German who started the first couple hours with us (he was doing the Grand Canyon, the Buckskin, Bryce, Zion, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Red Rock, Vegas, Redwood, Grand Teton, and Oregon’s mountains – in 3 weeks. Poor guy. After hitting the Buckskin’s muddy waters and having to wade through, he bailed quickly, and we were left to ourselves. There had been hikers a week before us and none since then.

Because of the recent flash flood, the trail was especially wet and muddy, so we made slow time getting through and only made it to Middleton where we scampered up about 15 feet and hoped it wouldn’t rain. We did spot some petroglyphs tucked away in the cliffs.

The next day, we continued through the Buckskin, passing a couple rattlesnakes and wading through more cold water – this time chest deep. I was freezing and clutching Alex’s sad little handkerchief. Poor Alex not only had broken the first camera but he had forgotten the new camera we bought at Best Buy (later we found it on top of the hood of the rental car in the parking lot) and now was taking photos on my half-charged iPhone. On top of that, he had been struggling with a cold and was oozing out of his eyes and ears. Apparently, he had a system of wiping his eyes on his right sleeve and nose on his left. The handkerchief I clutched was for particularly bad wipe ups. Yuck. The one upside was Alex being gracious enough to carry our Wag bags (filled with #2s) and with his stuff upped nose, it dampened the terrible smell.

Buckskin part 2 was more bouldering but a particular obstacle was the House of Boulders, huge boulders the size of a … (you guessed it) house. We had to shimmy through using the Mokie steps (steps cut into the rock by the Native Americans) and with me using a harness with lame rope under my arms. I was relieved to get through the Buckskin thinking we were through the muck.

But the Paria River continued to have more rocks, more quick sand, and now more desert terrain. We trudged through no one in sight (in fact, we didn’t see anyone the entire 5 day hike). We made it to each spring point – luckily because our alternative would have been to drink the silty water. Alex three days later said, “Whew – good thing we don’t have dysentery from drinking the spring water straight like that.”

The views were gorgeous but definitely a tough hike. As we were on day 4, there was thunder (which was great because the weather cooled off but bad because we were still in strike zone of a flash flood). We hustled to get through the Paria until to find ourselves needing to boulder through huge rocks for a couple hours. I was relieved to finally get into the desert and now dealing with a new obstacle – lots of red ants and trying to find a place to rest/camp.

We eventually found a spot next to petroglyphs but apparently it was also perfect for wind (and lots of dust!) to get into our mesh tent. There was more rain and I was so relieved to get to day 5.

We hiked the last 7 miles (total of 44) in the desert finally getting to the finale with a log cabin, cemetery, and beat-up pick-up. We ended the hike with Alex getting to drop off his 15 pounds of Wag bags and finding his new camera on the hood of the rental car.

Afterwards, we headed to Jacob Lake for some veggie burgers to celebrate. That night, we had dinner at the Grand Canyon lodge, a 45 minute drive from our lodge.