White Pocket Nov 21

 

Heather and I had been interested in checking out White Pocket since our trip to Coyote Buttes South ignited our interest in exploring all of the most swirly, unusual patches of Arizona Strip slickrock. Though free from permits like a couple of the other areas, it was guarded by the reputation for deep sandy access roads. We did some more research (Heather in particular) and decided that buddying up with another vehicle and having shovels, sand planks, and an air compressor would be enough to give us (i.e. Heather's Subaru Forester) a good chance at success. The cold off-season temperatures would likely only help firm up the sand too. We drove with kids slowly across California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Arizona, Utah, and then to the Arizona-Utah boundary. Happily we found the first-come, first-served Stateline Campground to be only half full and camped 50ft into Arizona.

After a cold night we awoke to find that Keith, Kari, and Zora had arrived sometime in the night. Things were painfully cold until the first sunlight finally crested the western edge of the Vermilion Plateau and everyone finally start to thaw into action. I led the caravan into White Pocket. The route in was better marked than expected. The sand yes was deep and loose in a few places but thankfully there were hard patches on slickrock to intermittently break up the driving and provide psychological islands in the sea of sand. Thankfully the AWD cars did just fine with our experienced driving and we made it to White Pocket in less than an hour's drive.

We started off into the slickrock together but I almost immediately was mesmerized by trying to get to the top of one of the more prominent formations and branched off. Once on top the drone called me to fly over the bizarrely swirling landscape. The region was in a BLM administered national monument, which meant I could fly to heart's content. I did my best to avoid the couple other groups but I suspect the overhead buzzing was still probably annoying. The overhead vantage really added interest to a lot of the strange and completely unique erosional patterns.

After burning through a couple batteries I hiked over to join the others for a mid-morning snack and some more on the ground exploring. We walked around the main formations for about a mile, my camera at the ready nearly every step. 

We ended our loop hike on the white brain rocks before heading back to the car. The drive out had a lot more oncoming traffic which complicated the soft sand driving (as well as the warming day) and there were much more sections where I "boated" our way through the sand. Once at House Rock Rd we parted with Keith who was headed north, while we headed south. We stopped briefly at the Cliff Dweller hoodoos and again at the Marble Canyon Bridge, then it was on to Page for a warm motel break from the cold camping.