Monday, November 21, 2011

Buckskin Gulch and The Wave

I can't believe we have been here for 2 years and hadn't made this trip yet!  Just a little north and west of Page, AZ across the UT border is the Coyote Buttes area.  This place holds some amazing sights from alien like sandstone formations to the longest slot canyon in the world.  It's a hikers paradise!

We made the long road trip up from Tucson on 11/19/11.  A quick few hours of sleep in Page and we were off to trail head.  We chose to take the Wirepass trailhead first to "The Wave."  It was a bit tough to stay on any specific trail but once we saw the notch in the rock it was easy to track down.  Based on the GPS the actual wave area was mainly SSE from where the trailhead veers off out of the wash.  The Wave was simply amazing and if you haven't been you need to go NOW!

After the wave we trekked back with hopes to drop into some slot canyons.  We eventually found a way down back into Wirepass and took it over to the intersection with the Buckskin Gulch trail/slot.  This area is amazing with the walls closing in to no more than 2 feet and soaring hundreds into the sky.  There are even some cool petroglyphs on the wall at the intersection of Wirepass and Buckskin on the right wall as you are coming out of the slot canyon from Wirepass.

I will let the pictures tell the story.

Heading towards the Wave

Sandstone formation getting close to the Wave

The Wave

The Wave

Looking back over Coyote Buttes from the Wave 

Katie in the Wave

Heading in the slot canyons

The crew in Buckskin Gulch

Slot canyons on the Wirepass Trail

Petroglyphs