This is a continuation of hiking and photography in Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch slot canyons in Southern Utah in March 2025.
Upon exiting Wire Pass Slot Canyon, we turned right, proceeding into Buckskin Gulch.
The numerous rocks strewn over the canyon floor in Buckskin Gulch give evidence of the violence of currents that periodically rage through this canyon.
The sky and canyon walls are reflected in this muddy puddle, including the upper portion of the wall with the glow of midmorning light. We were able to pass this puddle by using the rocks on the left as stepping stones, then making a big step to the right onto a large boulder at the far end of the puddle.
More pebbles and boulder in the pathway. This seems typical of Buckskin Gulch. Evidently, more water flows through this canyon than through Wire Pass.
The next puddle we came to was deeper and had no convenient stepping stones in it to facilitate passing without wading in the very cold water. This was an obvious turn around point for us, as we were not prepared to wade through the cold water. A small tour group turned around here, too; but one intrepid old fellow stripped down to his underwear and waded through. He moaned and groaned all the way through, then again as he apparently had to repeat the process at another puddle that we could not see around the bend here.
I made a number of images at this turn around puddle to capture the details in the canyon wall, the red, golden glow ahead and the reflections in the puddle.
It was a bit more awkward making that first step back across this first puddle, because of the location of the first boulder on the far side. I had to think about how to approach that first step, since a poor choice of step would put me into the cold water and maybe an unplanned cold bath. Once back on this side, I turned to get a parting shot with more of the canyon walls in this one. The dynamic range of light in these canyons creates a challenge getting a good exposure, so I bracketed several shots with different exposure settings, then combined those images into this one High Dynamic Range processed image.
After our shortened hike into Buckskin Gulch to the south of the Wire Pass exit, we hiked into the northern portion, which tends to be wider than the part to the south.
We soon came to another big, muddy puddle, at which we elected to turn around. Footprints in the mud attest to others wading on through the cold water. There was not as much water in this canyon the first time we visited here years ago and we were able to easily hike further into each of these portions back then.
After turning around here, we went back through Wire Pass, returning to the parking lot and then back to our campsite to plan the rest of the day.
Until next time,
Ken
