[Yana's Dad]

Down and Up Paria River Canyon Why go to canyons? "Attaining a summit is celebratory. 'Wahoo', you say, 'We made it!' Standing in the recesses of a canyon is meditative. 'Whoa' you whisper, 'This is cool.'" [Kathy and Craig Copeland, "Utah Canyon Country", Wilderness Press, 2008]. "Mountains talk, canyons listen." "The Paria River flows... from Bryce Canyon... through South-Central Utah, into Arizona, where it joins the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry..." Lee’s Ferry is where the Grand Canyon officially begins. It is also the principal starting point for Grand Canyon boat/raft trips. Lee’s Ferry is named after John Lee, a 19th century Mormon settler and leader. “Lee was a Mormon polygamist, and polygamy was a felony.” In September 1857, Lee led the Mountain Meadow Massacre, in which his Mormon militia killed about 120 non-Mormon immigrants who were headed to California. The killing eventually had to eliminate a suspected possibility of polygamy prosecution. Brigham Young ordered Lee to “steal away from society, vanish into the wilderness from Paria Canyon, and establish a ferry across the Colorado River”. Lee obeyed and traveled the whole length of Paria Canyon in winter time, with some of his wives, many children, and livestock. He did establish Lee’s Ferry and also a farm near the confluence of Paria and Colorado. Hiking down Paria Canyon, you are walking “in the footsteps of John Lee – outlaw, butcher, harem master, farmer, ferryman.” This historic perspective really gives a very special feeling to one’s trip. And even without the historic perspective, the 38-miles long journey down Paria Canyon is fascinating. The canyon’s first half is narrow, only a few yards in some places, with towering walls that soar 500-800 feet above the bottom. Its lower half is wider and can be sun-baked. This is why with my wife Roumi, we decided to walk down through for a couple of days, reach mile 18, and spend there a day for exploration; then walk back in two more days. Well, it did not quite work as planned – because of the water. The trip down Paria Canyon means walking in the riverbed, and quite a lot of it is walking in the water. Normally, the river is only ankle-deep and walking in it – at least in warmer weather – can be quite pleasant. Yes – pleasant – but only until you find out that the very special Paria water dissolved your shoes’ glue. Wait until you see your shoe soles disconnected from both shoes and pleasure from walking is replaced with disbelief and anxiety: “How am I going to make it back without shoes?” This is basically what happened with my wife’s Lowa shoes: their glue was dissolved during the first day of the trip. Because of this unexpected difficulty, we camped two night at mile 9.4, made a day hike down to mile 14.7 and back, then walked out of the canyon on the third day. During the second and the third day of the trip, I had to reinvent myself as a shoemaker, experimenting with various sole-attachment techniques, using ropes, duct tape, and bandages. (I knew cursing would not work and did not even try it.) The following pictures present some highlights of our trip, Day 1: Down from mile 0 at White House trailhead in Utah to a beautiful Wall Seep at mile 9.4 in Arizona

.

Day 2 / AM: Down canyon from mile 9.4 to a giant alcove at mile 14.7 (the alcove raises 650 feet above the river)

Day 2 / PM: Up canyon from mile 14.7 back to camp at mile 9.4

Day 3: Up canyon from mile 9.4 back to the White House trailhead at mile 0

Side-trips We used the beautiful town of Kanab in Southern Utah as a base for this trip. We even dined in a restaurant established by a granddaughter of Lee’s and frequented in the past by movie people who shot tens of westerns in the Kanab area. Staying in Kanab created opportunities for fabulous side-trips: The North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Yellow Rock, Grosvenor Arch, and the amazing Cottonwood Road in the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument. Toroweap (North Rim of the Grand Canyon)

Cottonwood Road (Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument)

Yellow Rock (off Cottonwood Road)

Grosvenor Arch (off Cottonwood Road)

Johnson Canyon (off Kanab)

Grand Canyon National Park (North Rim)

[silly_traveler]

[canyonwren]

I was at the North Rim the day before you were! A buddy and I hiked down to Thunder River and Deer Creek, then stopped by the lodge area before heading to Zion. Love the Paria pictures. It's one of my favorite areas.

[David¹]

Very Cool! Utah + water makes so many pleasing compositions. Although I've heard of this trail - these are some of the nicest photos I've seen taken of the area.

[Yana]

I am very jealous. Well, except about the part with the shoe soles, not jealous about that. Beautiful photos. It's hard to choose a favorite, though I do feel that the photos of mom throwing her hiking boots in the dumpster are an appropriate end to the trip.

[silence]

funny .. i was just looking into this trip yesterday .. beautiful slots ... thx for the tr and great pix ..

[Dean]

[kite]

Wow, very nice photos... I was so very much trying to hike the Paria Narrows this spring my self. Just out curiosity, would it have been possible to maybe punch/drill some small holes along the edges of the soles with a pocket knife and then use the white string in the photo to tie the soles on using the lase holes?

[Range Finder]

Amazing place. Is it Paria River Canyon or Buckskin Gulch? I went down buckskin Gulch a couple of years ago from the side of Coyote Buttes for maybe 3 miles, and it was like that. Great pics. My heart aches for S. Utah.

[Scrooge]

Seems like every report that comes out of Southern Utah makes me understand better how Dean could leave the Cascades. What an amazing area.

Thanks, Yana's Dad, for the report, for the pics, and for sharing your experience. And thanks, Yana, for sharing your dad.

[Yana's Dad]

Thank you, all, for your interest and your comments. kite - you are right; punching some small holes along the edges of the soles with a pocket knife and then using strings to tie the soles to the shoes worked very well. Such idea occurred to me relatively late, after other methods did not work well. Duct tape did not hold long in the water, neither sticky bandages did. In either case, I used those strings as well. The situation improved somewhat when I added a third set of strings in the back. Then we continued for a while with triple strings. Depending on how exactly those strings were tightened, they could hold like for a mile or two, then I had to tighten them. At certain point I decided that holes should be punched only as a last resort. I might have been wrong but I was concerned if punching holes and using strings through them may actually tear the soles. Well, with 3 miles to the end and way too many frequent stops, I did the holes and this setup worked magically well - we walked fast and non-stop. The soles still moved forward (in a way that made my wife look like Charlie Chaplin in Gold Rush :-) yet the soles were steady and held well. I should have probably thought of doing this earlier. Range Finder - this is indeed Paria River. At mile 7.2 on Paria is the confluence of Buckskin Gulch (at places, Paria looks like what I saw at the end of Buckskin). This simple map shows Buckskin (left when you look at the map/west) and Paria (right/east). It is possible for one to camp around the confluence and explore both Paria (downstream) and Buckskin (upstream). The wall seep at mile 9.4 is the first drinking water that we found. The campsite there is wonderful and a good base to explore either way. Some folks camped closer to Buckskin but they would have needed to tome down for water. The mile 9.4 wall seep may probably disappear in summer. canyonwren - it is funny we have visited the North Rim at approximately the same time. I agree that Paria is fascinating. I also like Coyote Gulch near Escalante. It is not as narrow and not as long but offers more greenery, a natural bridge and an arch within easy reach. Scrooge - I agree. Southern Utah is a very special area. Not that the Cascades or Sierra Nevada for example are not beautiful but Southern Utah is unique and offers sights that are very rare. While marveling at the Cottonwood Road scenery, it occurred to me that it was like a slightly drunk Van Gogh was helping the Creator in that particular place - if not fully replacing Him for the day. Van Gogh - looking colors and shape, just amazing. On Paria water - It turned out it is not unheard of for the Paria water to dissolve shoe glue. Some folks had been advised to carry spare shoes, which they did. A ranger who walks the Paria's 38 miles twice a year gets skin rash during each trip. We did get some white spots and a light rash, too. It is probably the water contents, some minerals I would assume that cause such troubles. Well, it depends on the shoes as well - whether they are old or new, and also on the specific shoe brand. My old vasque boots behaved and showed no change at the end of the trip. Yana - Your mom throwing her hiking boots in the dumpster was a glorious moment. This was preceded by her throwing the soles in the dumpster. I had to actually cut the strings that held the soles so that she could take those shoes off.

[Magellan]

Great TR! Thanks YD for all the pictures too.

[touron]

Great pictures! I had a similar shoe mishap a few months ago walking on the rocky beach at Seahurst Park. Half of the sole seperated on an older pair of little used Nike running shoes. I was thinking maybe the saltwater did it. The flapping sole is pretty annoying, and my hike was only a few blocks long. I decided to take it into the shoe repairman to see if I could get a few more miles out of the pair. The guy at the counter took the shoe, pulled the sole back another couple inches (as I winced) ***riiippp*** saying "yes we should be able to fix this". It looked good when I got the shoe back, but unfortunately the repair only lasted for a week or so, at which point they delaminated worse than ever and I tossed the shoes in the trash. Maybe I should have kept them in case I make it to the Paria River.