Our 4 Day Hike from Wire Pass to Lee’s Ferry: Advice We Wished We’d Recieved

Five of us backpacked from Wire Pass, down the Buckskin, then down the Paria to Lee’s Ferry. We did it over four days, entering Wire Pass about 7:00 on May 10th, 2005. Perhaps my son, Ryan, said it the best: awesomely brutal and awesomely beautiful. If we had known just a few things the hike would have certainly been less brutal, allowing us to even take in more of the beauty. It seems the BLM didn’t want to give specific advice in case it didn’t work out. We’ll just be bold. I suppose someone could sue the BLM for bad advice. Don’t sue us. We don’t have deep pockets. We have no pockets. So here is our frank, bold advice. Do with it what you want.We are five reasonably fit people. We have varied backpack experience, including five Grand Canyon Hikes, the Guadalupe’s and many alpine trips. But the Paria hit us with some things we had never experienced before.

1. WATER: Walking in it. This spring was a very wet one for southern Utah. We were concerned about the depth of water in the Buckskin. It was, at deepest, between crotch and waist deep, depending on our height. And cold. But we should have been more concerned about the amount of water. Where some guidebooks describe no water for five miles, then some pools after that, we were in watery mud or muddy water throughout the Buckskin. What the guidebooks say is a 6 ½ to 7 ½ hour hike took us a long 12 hours. Down the Paria you will cross through the river time after time, less the further you go. But your feet will never be dry.
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