Today was an amazing day, maybe my favorite of all the days. Because it was supposed to be super cold in Bryce, we called an audible and decided to explore Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We made two stops.
Stop 1 was at mile post 31 on US 89 for the Paria ghost town exit. We didn’t find much of the ghost town, but we did see the cemetery. The scenery was amazing though and we also hung out by the river. Pictures below.
Stop 2 was my favorite stop of our whole trip so far. It was the trail for wire pass to Buckskin Gulch. Buckskin Gulch is the largest slot canyon in the United States. It was off of mile post 25 on US 89 and after a 8 mile dirt road, we found the trailhead. We followed a dry wash for about a mile and then found Buksin Gulch. We only hiked a few hundred yards into it because you encounter a 7 foot cliff drop that is very hard to get down and was not wise for us to try as a family. There is a way around that takes longer, but our kids were tired by that point anyway so we turned back while Clark and Swathi ventured in farther. I would LOVE to go back and explore deeper, but I was so satisfied with what I saw, and given that the kids had already hiked a mile and were getting tired, I was happy to have seen what I saw. We were all pooped after arriving home and put the kids down and got some rest. Bucksking Gulch pictures below!
