Tuesday, myself and 9 other friends and family went down to the very southern most edge of Utah to hike through the world’s longest slot canyon, Buckskin Gulch. It is rare that when hiking you have perfect weather, workout hard enough to be sore, but never break a sweat, AND the entire way have views that you could just stare at — the entire hike was gorgeous!
Here are my recommendations if you are going to hike Buckskin Gulch.
First, you need to get a permit, and plan for 2 days of hiking, one day for Buckskin, and one day to hike out via Paria Canyon. I would not recommend hiking all the way to Lee’s Ferry (way to far to park your exit vehicle, and most people like me won’t want to hike that far with the same scenery), nor would I recommend hiking out half way through Buckskin (no bragging rights if you didn’t do the whole canyon).
Next, food. Like I mentioned, plan for 2 days with one overnight in the canyon. We camped just outside the canyon at Wire Pass Trail Head the night before. Then hiked Buckskin and camped at the junction of Paria and Buckskin. Finally on day 2 of hiking, hiked up stream in Paria canyon to the White House Trail Head. This means that you want to plan for 2 breakfasts (we did oatmeal and pop tarts), 1 lunch (we had tuna fish and crackers), 1 dinner (we shared ramen, a mountain house, and a mountain dew), and about 5 snack stops.
Hydration. Bade and I packed enough fluids for 2-3 bottles of water each for the main day of hiking. Then we planned for 1-2 water bottles for dinner (for your mountain house meals, ramen noodles, hot chocolate, etc). Last, we each had 1-2 water bottles on the hike out. Check the weather and conditions; we could have filter water once we got to Paria Canyon, but we packed enough (which made our packs very heavy) that we didn’t need to filter water.
Last, gear. Pack as light as you can; the lighter your pack, the more comfortable your hike will be. Bade and I slept in a 3-man tent, so he carried the tent and the poles, and I carried the stakes, fly and tarp. We both packed a light 30 degree sleeping back, and a backpacking sleeping pad. We both packed our own food. You will also need to pack poo bags, as well as toilet paper. Other than those basics, here are the other luxury items we packed. Lauren: wet wipes, a camera, gloves (I was SO glad I had these, they allowed me to easily regulate the perfect temperature), an extra pair of shoes, an extra pair of non-cotton socks, possibly an extra outfit (it feels good to be in clean clothes), and a mountain dew. Bade: his phone, a tripod, garbage bags, and a water filter. Things we brought and DIDN’T need include, head lights (we started when it was light and we finished before dark, we were so exhausted that we went to bed by the time it was dark) and a rappelling rope. One luxury item I would recommend bringing was a deck of cards, or some easy game you can play while sitting down.
Bade, Cam, Bade’s parents and myself spent our VERY rainy Saturday up at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. This was the perfect day to go to lava. The drive was enjoyable, all overcast, with intermittent rain, and all the fields and trees starting to bloom and turn green, with a snow capped mountains as the back drop. The temperature at the hot springs was in the high 40’s low 50’s, it was raining outside, and we were in 100+ degree natural jacuzzi’s.
Dinner was at Maddox in Brigham City, UT; a Brewer family favorite when traveling north, and it was delicious. Also on our way home we stopped at Bade’s brothers house to share some of our banana pie from dinner, and to help him move a cast iron tub into his house, and a whole shower out of the house. The shower coming out of the house was pretty entertaining :).
Livin' Hard 
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