Wet-Boot Adventure in Paria Canyon AZ

The Paria River begins up by Bryce Canyon and flows south through Grand Staircase Escalante and the Vermilion Cliffs Arizona. Just before it empties into the Colorado River it flows thru a deep slot canyon and this is where we hiked.

Day 1

Starting Out
Starting Out

We delayed our departure by a day to avoid some rain & snow, but that same precip made the river rise—and our travel more difficult. We actually started in the early afternoon as the rain clouds were moving out. We planned a short first day to let us get used to our packs and the unusual trail conditions. The water temperature was in the 40s by my guess. Our footwear and neoprene socks worked well for this, but occasionally we had water above the knee.

Day 1 Hiking
Day 1 Hiking

We found one groups of petroglyphs along the way. (There were supposed to be two more, but we did not have time to search them out.) These were big horn sheep and geometric shapes on a huge overhanging wall, faint, mostly eroded by time.

Petroglyphs
Petroglyphs

The first night we camped by a huge cottonwood tree (The only tree of any size in the entire valley.) It was a great site! We made a trail dinner, got in our tents, and slept well. It was frosty the next morning!

First Campsite
First Campsite

Day 2

The next day the canyon closed in. We crossed the river many times and were making less than a mile per hour. It wasn't particularly hard hiking, just very time consuming.

Paria Canyon Begins to Close In
Paria Canyon Begins to Close In
Perfect View!
Perfect View!

It was a gorgeous hike, but we had to stop short of the next campsite due to waist high water (remember that earlier rain!).

Where We Turned Around
Where We Turned Around

We backtracked to a wide shelf and bivouaced there because it had a crack we could climb up 30 feet if the river rose unexpectedly. (River had actually gone down a foot by then, and we knew no new rain was expected.) We had a nice hot Thanksgiving dinner and a peaceful night.

On our return hike it actually got colder, so my feet felt warmer in the river, not out! By the afternoon there was ice forming on the river edges that were in the shade.

Got to the car before dark and had a very nice walk-in campsite at the trailhead. Then it got cold! Fellow camper said he measured 17 degrees overnight. Frost everywhere. This was at the limit of our equipment so we took a great day hike and are resting comfortably in a motel tonight.

On the second day we encountered water up to our waists and decided to turn back. It was cold (30s) and getting colder (17° F the next night). We were not prepared to be that wet!

This left us deep in the canyon with no obvious way to hike out before dark. We found this bend with flat silt shelves and decided it was good enough. Overall we had a comfortable night. We did place several sticks at the waterline to help determine if the water was rising (we knew it was actually going down).

Day 3

I took this panorama 360 the next morning.

Paria Canyon
Paria Canyon

The river runs from top-center to top-right. Peter and I are standing on the lower shelf, our tents are off to the right under an alcove. Al is standing on the upper shelf (about 4 feet higher) with his tent. Our flood escape route was the large opening to the left, where we could get 20-30ft above the river in an emergency.

Sliver of Warmth!
Sliver of Warmth!

Day 4 (Trailhead)

The BLM campsite at the trailhead has several walk-in sites that are quite nice. I slept out under the stars and just barely kept warm enough. In the morning we found out that temps in the general area were down in the teens!

Whitehouse Campground
Whitehouse Campground
Whitehouse Campground Panorama
Whitehouse Campground Panorama

This is a slide!