Backpacking Paria Canyon and Buckskin Gulch: The Ultimate Guide

Backpacking Paria Canyon and Buckskin Gulch is a remote experience and completely unforgettable. Paria Canyon is on the Utah/Arizona border. Buckskin Gulch is the longest canyon in the world. There are many different hiking options and trailheads you can take. We decided to start at Wire Pass Trailhead and ended at White House Trailhead. We hiked to a spring on our second day so our total mileage was 30 miles that we did in three days.

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Getting a Permit

You need a permit for both day hiking and overnight backpacking in Paria Canyon and Buckskin Gulch. It costs $6 per person per day for day hiking and $5 per person per day for overnight trips. This is the same price for dogs, but dogs do not count towards the number of people allowed in your group. There can be no more than 10 people per permit. A total of 20 people are allowed in the canyon per day. You need to purchase your permit 3 months in advance. Here is a chart showing what that looks like:

After purchasing your permit online, you have to pick it in person no sooner than 10 days before you start your trip. We picked our permit up the day our trip started. You can pick it up at one of three locations:

• Arizona Strip District Office and Public Lands Information Center in St. George
• Kanab Visitor Center (temporarily closed to the public)
• Paria Contact Station (open seasonally)

If you want to find more information about permits, visit the Bureau of Land Management Website.

Dogs on the Trail

Dogs are allowed off leash when backpacking Buckskin Gulch and Paria Canyon. We had one dog in our group and it was fun to have him! Dogs do require a permit and cost $6 per day for a day hike and $5 per day for an overnighter. You get their permits the same time as you get your own.

There are water crossings, and depending on the time of year, they can be deep enough that they will need to swim. There are also a couple points that they will need to be lowered. It is very helpful to have a pack or harness on them that has a handle. I love the Ruffwear Approach backpack. If your dog won’t be carrying any of their gear, the Ruffwear Webmaster Harness is a great option. If you are unable to lift your dog, a rope to lower them might be needed.

Water

We each carried 2 liters of water in to start off. The first drinkable water we hit was the Paria River at the Confluence, 13 miles from the Wire Pass Trailhead. Even the the water is running, it is very silty. The best way we found to filter it was to collect it in a bucket, let it settle, and then pour the water through our water filter. You can also add alum help speed up the process and help it settle even more. Alum can be bought in the biking and spice section as it’s normally used for pickling.

We used the Platypus Gravity filter which is perfect for larger groups. We also brought the Sawyer Squeeze as a back up and did use that as well. Be sure to bring whatever you need to backflush your filters as they can easily get clogged up from all the silt.

Just a note, if you only have a purifier, you will need to get a filter for this trip. While a purifier will kill the bacteria and some viruses, you don’t want to be drinking all that dirt in the water. Make sure to filter it first.

There is a spring, 5 miles down the river from the Confluence. We hiked to it and there was water flowing. While it looked cleaner than the river water, we still thought it needed to be filtered.

What to Wear

What you wear will really depend on the time of year you are going to be backpacking Paria Canyon and Buckskin Gulch and the weather you are expecting. We went at the end of March and the high was in the 50’s and the lows were 29°-30°F. Pretty much anytime of the year you will be trekking through water so it’s important to wear breathable, quick drying clothes.

Layering is also a helpful part of dressing. As you are in a very deep canyon, it is shaded for most of the day. Wear some kind of baselayer, a long sleeve on top and a jacket. The temperatures in the desert can fluctuate drastically, so even if you are hiking in the summer, it can still get extremely cold at night so be prepared.

Neoprene socks were a life saver because the water is cold pretty much year round. Neoprene socks are basically wetsuits for you feet and will help keep them warm. I also got bad blisters the very first day and switching to the neoprene socks for the next two days really helped them not hurt.

As for shoes, Logan and I wore lightweight trail runners that were not waterproof. That’s because we knew the water would get into our shoes, so we wanted our shoes to be able to dry quicker. My mom wore water shoes and we found that they worked about the same as our trail runners. One negative was though, since they have small holes throughout, more sand got in them on the first day which was a little annoying.

Campsites

There are plenty of campsites available in Paria Canyon. They are marked on your map so you know where they’ll be. Campfires are prohibited. We camped at the confluence two nights in a row. On day one, we passed the first campsite before you get to the Paria River, and camped at the next site on the left. It was plenty big for our three tents plus another groups tent. There was another campsite across and down the river.

Gear List

I’m going to list everything that we packed excluding food and link to it if I’m able to. I have more blog posts all about backpacking gear if you want to read more about that.

Big Three

• Big Agnus Copper Spur HV UL3 tent: This is what Logan, Kirk, and I slept in
• Tent footprint
• Klymit KSB 20° sleeping bag
• Montbell Burrow 30° sleeping bag
• Morrison Outdoors 20° kids’ sleeping bag
• Klymit Insulated Static V sleeping pad (2)
• Thermarest Z Lite sleeping pad
• Sea to Summit Thermolite Reactor sleeping bag liner
• Osprey Poco Plus kid carrier
• Osprey Atmos 65 AG backpack
• Klymit Luxe Pillow
• Trekology backpacking pillow

Essentials

• Collapsible bucket (to let water settle before filtering)
• Platypus GravityWorks 2 liter water filter
• Sawyer Squeeze water filter
• Alum
• Petzl Actik Core Headlamp (2)
• Alite Designs Monarch two legged chair (discontinued)
• Jetboil Flash
• Jetboil Pan

Clothes (To read more about what I wore, click here)

• Arc’teryx Cerium jacket
• Kojo Activewear merino wool nursing top
• Rei Co-Op pants
• Under Armour sports bra
• Midies 6″ bamboo brief
• Icebreaker socks
• Injinjii toe socks
• Neoprene socks
• Beanie
• Kari Traa merino wool leggings (sleeping)
• Smartwool socks (sleeping)
• Salomon Speedcross 5 Trailrunners

Baby Essentials

• Morrison Outdoors Little Mo 20° kids’ sleeping bag
• Columbia Baby Boys’ Tiny Bear fleece bunting
• Patagonia Capilene infant top
• Polyester track pants
• Iksplor merino wool base layers
• Iksplor merino wool beanie
• Oma and Jo Trapper Hat
• Fleece jammies
• Wool socks (1 pair for sleeping, 1 for sleeping)
• Early Walker shoes
• 16 diapers (only used 10)
• Wipes
• Pinxav diaper rash cream

Emergency

• Garmin InReach Mini
• Garmin Tether
• Goal Zero Sherpa 40 Power Bank
• First Aid Kit
• Poncho (2)

Hygiene

• Bandana as a pee rag
• Bloddy Buddy menstrual cup
• Wag bag (provided when you get your permit)
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste

Our Hike

There was four adults, one toddler, and dog on this backpacking trip. It was my 15 month old’s first backpacking trip, but he had been on dozens of hikes and a few car camping trips prior to it. I will do a whole separate post on backpacking with a toddler. If you want to read about my tips for hiking with a baby, check out these posts.

Day One

We started our hike on a Wednesday. Logan, Kirk, and I drove down from Salt Lake and met my mom and our friend Sharyn who drove up from Las Vegas in Kanab. We met a little after 7:00am and had breakfast at McDonalds. We then drove to the Paria Contact Station to pick up our permits and wag bags.

Like I mentioned, we started at Wire Pass Trailhead and ended at White House Trailhead. So we had to leave a car at White House and then all pile into one car to drive to Wire Pass. Both trailheads have bathrooms.

We started hiking at 10:15am. The first day was long, really long. We had 13.2 miles to do. It had rained the day before so the sand was a little more packed down which was nice. Near the beginning is a ladder you need to climb down. We all helped lower Freddie, the dog that was with us.

This section of the trail was through winding slot canyons and just incredible natural features. Definitely something you don’t get to see everyday.

At around mile 11, there are some huge boulders you need to traverse down. We found two different ways to get passed. There are steps carved into a large rock you can step down. We didn’t feel comfortable doing that with a toddler in a pack, so we opted to lower our packs down a steep section, holding onto a rope. It took some teamwork but we managed it safely.

When we finally got to the Paria River, it was dark. We had been walking through some puddles, but nothing that got our socks wet. We opted to put on our neoprene socks and leave our shoes off to walk through the river to our campsite. That way our shoes would be dry the next morning. It was actually a great way to do it because we only had a few hundred feet to go and the river bed was soft and muddy.

Day Two

We left around 10:00am and hiked to the spring on this day. It was 5 miles from our campsite, hiking through the river for most of the time. We wore our neoprene socks and shoes this time. Sharyn opted to wear just her neoprene socks and said it worked great.

We were camping at the same spot that night so we didn’t have to pack up our tents or bring all our gear. Logan had packed our Cotopaxi Luzon 18L pack and we put our water and lunch in that. We also had to still carry Kirk in the Osprey Poco, but we didn’t put anything in that so no had to carry another really heavy pack.

When we arrived at the spring, we checked it out and then had lunch. The spring water was clearer than the river water, but still needed to be filtered to drink.

We headed back, arrived at our tent around 4:00pm, and spent the rest of the day hanging around camp.

Day Three

We woke up around 5:00am to rain. When we picked up our permits, we talked to the rangers and there was only a 10% chance of rain. We received a message from my dad on our Garmin InReach Mini the day before that the chance of rain/snow had increased so we were prepared for it. We had our gear under the vestibules which was a life saver.

Because of the rain, we decided to just pack up and head out. The rain changed to snow a couple times. I hung out in the tent with Kirk, packing up our sleeping pads and sleeping bags while Logan got our gear organized and into our packs. Once that was all done, I took Kirk into our friend Sharyn’s tent so Logan could pack up ours. Then we all got out, I put Kirk in his pack under his makeshift rain cover we cut out of a garbage bag, and packed up Sharyn’s tent.

It was chaotic but we made it out of there and we all mostly stayed dry under our ponchos. The rain let up after a little while and we had a beautiful hike out. It was mostly hiking through the river again. There is a point where you turn off and go right away from the river so be sure to check your map so you don’t miss that trail.

It was just over 7 miles from the Confluence to White House Trailhead and we were exhausted by the time we got to the car. But we got to see some incredible scenery and experience hiking in one of the longest/deepest canyons in the world!

Backpacking Buckskin Gulch and Paria Canyon was an incredible experience. Definitely one I would recommend to anyone who wants to see some unique, desert views.