Alex, Scott and I spent a week backpacking and canyoneering in Utah and Arizona on a trip that Alex organized. The adventure took us on a 4-day, 47-mile hike through Wire Pass, Buckskin Gulch, and the Paria River, some of the longest and most beautiful slot canyons in the world. Buckskin Gulch, in particular, features 16 miles of winding passage, at times 350' deep and completely devoid of light except the occasional stray ray from above. It's much like hiking through huge, dry stream passage in a cave.

After hiking out of the Paria and back to our rental car, we headed to Zion National Park, where we went on two technical day trips. The first, to Pine Creek Canyon, featured a series of pull-down rappels in a mostly dry slot, ending with a stunning, 102' free-hanging drop into a little grotto before the arduous hike out.

Keyhole Canyon, which we did on our final day, was a mostly wet, multi-drop pulldown through trip. On the advice of the friendly (and comely, which probably induced a little more machismo than necessary) park ranger, we opted not to wear wetsuits, which proved to be a mistake, as Keyhole is essentially a northeast cave: deep, stagnant, icy pools that can only be navigated by swimming, and no sunlight. Try doing it in shorts. The final leg is a 100' swim in a sheer-walled passage in water that could be any depth; all I know is that it was too deep to stand and I wished I were wearing my neoprene.

All photos were taken only with natural light; the bursts that look like slave strobes are actually just sunlight. A full trip report will appear in an upcoming issue of Met Grotto News.

Click on thumbnails for larger versions of images.

Alex in Buckskin Gulch	Alex in Buckskin Gulch	Scott and Alex in Buckskin Gulch	Scott and Alex in Buckskin Gulch
Scott experiences the solitude of the Paria River	The three intrepid explorers at camp the morning of Day 2	A visitor in our camp	Scott and Alex watch the terrain change on Day 2
Scott and Alex are dwarfed by the cliffs rising from the Paria	Alex rappels the Great Cathedral in Pine Creek, in Zion Natl Park	Scott rappelling in Pine Creek	Scott nearing the final rappel in Pine Creek
Scott and Alex in the cavelike Pine Creek	Scott and Alex in Pine Creek	Alex wishes he wore a wetsuit in Keyhole Canyon