Continuing our tour of otherworldly slickrock, we dropped a vehicle at the Wire Pass trailhead (I counted more than 50 cars!) and drove on to the Upper Buckskin trailhead. I had noticed on aerial photos there was a rather vast slickrock area along-strike from the famous (and highly restricted access) Coyote Buttes. Though perhaps not as intricate and delicate, it looked to have some good brain rocks and a few teepees. I envisioned hiking a circuitous 9 mile traverse from one trailhead to another which would take in slickrock, upper Buckskin Gulch, and exit through the impressively narrow Wire Pass slot. The Upper Buckskin trailhead was thankfully less busy but there were still over a half dozen cars. The open wash of Buckskin Gulch was mercifully hardpacked, making surprisingly good travel. The gulch narrowed somewhat as the sandstone was approached. The first two miles went very very fast. We then turned up a side wash with deep sand and slowly slogged the short distance to the slickrock patio. Once on slickrock we did not leave it for almost the entire day! We clambered up and down the different levels and hiked to the summit of the prow looking out over Buckskin Gulch and the vast plateau of Vermillion Cliffs.
With the sun lowering we worked our way down to the very head of Buckskin Gulch slot and hiked the short distance down to Wire Pass. We saw people aplenty on this part of the hike, needing masks in the narrow slot with barely room to pass. Wire Pass was longer than I remembered it.
After the downright frigid previous night (and game to visit a cave the following day), Lukas and Suhei voted for a cheap motel room in Page. At $28 a room it was hard to argue with their reasoning! A warm if antisocial evening was appreciated.
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