Paria Canyon Run

"A famous and popular 3-6 day backpack through one of the most stunning slot canyons in Utah."

-utahwild.com

"The Paria River forms one of the best long narrow canyons in the Southwest."

-americansouthwest.net

"Paria Canyon and the Virgin Narrows (in Zion) are considered the two best slot canyon hikes in the USA. Perhaps the world."

-besthike.com

When Matt and I decided to try to run the Paria in a day it was a no brainer as to why. It promised to be an excellent adventure in one of the most scenic places in the world and it is in our own back yard! A must do.

The only catch would be to find someone to shuttle us (it is 70 some miles by road from the trailhead to the finish at Lee's Ferry). It is kind of a logistics nightmare figuring out all the transportation. When most people hike the canyon they bring two vehicles (dropping one off at Lee's Ferry and then driving the 70 some miles to the trailhead and leaving the second car there, then hiking the 37 miles of the Paria Canyon, jumping into their car at Lee's Ferry and driving the 70 some miles back to the trailhead again to pick up the second car at the trailhead, then they can go home. Whew! That's a lot of driving around!) or they pay a shuttle service (more popular, where they just leave a car at Lee's Ferry and the shuttle drives them up to the trailhead and drops them off. Then all they have to do is hike back to their car and drive home).

Both of these options are fine if you are planning a multi day hike of the Paria (most people hike the 37 miles in 3-5 days) but Matt and I were planning on doing it in one day. All that driving around would be crazy in a day with a run of the Paria squeezed in the middle. Imagine driving two separate cars the 2 hours to Lee's Ferry, from Flagstaff, and dropping one car off. Then, jumping in the second car and driving the 2 hours from Lee's Ferry to the traihead. Parking that car there and running the 37 miles of the Paria. Once finished at Lee's Ferry, you would have to get your mangled body into the car and get psyched to drive the 2 hours back up to the trailhead again to the other car, split up and drive the two cars the 2 1/2 hours from the traihead back to Flagstaff. Ridiculous to do in one day!

Maybe this could work if we had a day off before and a day off after the run to do all the driving but we were squeezing this into one day. No luxury of extra days with our tight schedules (well, at least with mine).

Luckily, with a bit of snooping around we found a friend, Philip, to shuttle us. He was cool with it because it gave him an opportunity to wander around and explore the wild canyons of this surreal area along the border of Arizona and Utah, near Lake Powell and the Vermillion Cliffs. Perfect, and with only a couple days left to go. Thank you, Phil!!!

This helped a ton. Now, Phil would drop us off at the trailhead and pick us up at Lee's Ferry. None of that crazy driving to do. Whew.

The morning of the run we all met at 4 am and left Flagstaff. The idea was to get to the trailhead by sunrise and take advantage of all the light we could, with the plan of finishing before dark (we had headlamps with us but didn't want to get caught in the dark this time of the year, night time temps had already gotten down into the 20's this fall and finishing tired in cold temps isn't exactly fun).

We reached the trailhead just before 7 am and by 7:20 am we had stripped down to shorts and long sleeves, taken our trailhead photos and were off.

(Matt and I shivering at the trailhead)

Man it was cold that morning! The high that day was supposed to be about 50 degrees and, oh boy, it was well below freezing to start. I realized quickly that 50 degrees isn't going to reach into the canyon this day, or at least not until the second half of the day when the canyon widens and the sun can get in. We were going to be cold. Oh well, man up, I guess.

We shuffled along the trail enjoying the morning light and warming up a little. The start of the Paria is somewhat wide and the river (more like a creek) winds along with little to no cliffs near. Very enjoyable, with easy moving, not to sandy and no river crossings so far.

(Beginning of trail with first morning light.)

This didn't last long. we couldn't have gone more than a mile before we had our first wet crossing. It started out with Matt trying to hop rocks to keep his dry feet for a bit longer and a rock, right in the middle of the creek, rolling over and dumping both of his feet in the drink. It was on! Frozen wet feet were the norm from this point on. NOTE: the Paria Canyon is said to have around 300 river crossings before you reach Lee's Ferry. Funny how we knew this but still fought to keep our feet dry for as long as possible (maybe it was because there was ice on the edges of the river and slush flowing down it!).

(Ice on the Paria. Yikes!)

After a few more crossings we gave up and sloshed right through the river whenever we needed to cross. Frozen feet were getting to be the norm already and only a few miles in-this was going to be a long day. From this point on, I was playing jedi mind tricks with myself to be o.k. with the cold (I'm skinny! I'm not made for this stuff). I had to pull out the old mental tricks from when I used to climb in the Cascades in Washington. Uggg. Alpine climbing. Always cold. Always suffering. That is why I moved to the warm desert!

After a bit we found that our shoes were freezing after every crossing. Definitely something new for me. My laces froze so thick that I couldn't get through the ice to mess with my laces. I was hoping at one point to take my shoe off to get some sand out but no luck. My laces were a chunk of ice! I guess I would have to wait.

(Ice ridden shoes.)

(One of the first few times crossing the Paria.)

It went like this for the first 4 miles of the canyon until the canyon finally tightened down enough to be a slot canyon. Here the walls extended hundreds of feet in the air and were so close in some sections that I could almost touch both sides. An amazing place to be.

We passed an cool Arch around mile 6.5, named Slide Rock Arch, because it was a huge chunk of the cliff that slid off and formed an arch. The water flowed right through the arch. Pretty cool.

(Slide Rock Arch.)

Then next section of the trail proved to be one of the cruxes of the day (maybe THE crux). In the last 1/2 mile or so, before the confluence with another slot canyon Buckskin Gulch, known as the longest slot canyon in the world, the canyon gets really deep and cold and the water gets deeper.

(Going deeper into the frigid slot canyon. About to get real wet and cold.)

Usually this section is about knee deep at it's deepest in the summer, but we were here late in the season and there had already been some winter storms pushing extra water through the canyon. When we went through the first long deep pool, we sunk in to about our waists. Big time wake up call! The water was freezing. My legs went numb fast and I lost my breath. Wow. I realized quickly that this section we were in was serious. I did not want the water to get deeper. If I go into a later pool and it is deep enough to go up to my chest my core temp would go down fast.

Well, we got to the next pool and it DID go to our chest. I was officially in survival mode. Or at least my head was telling me that. I can go into survival mode pretty quickly even if things aren't that bad. With all the long deep, pools we were going through (some were so long we couldn't see the end of them in the slot canyon) half of the problem was fear of the unknown. I was worried because I didn't know if it was going to get worse or not. I couldn't see around the next corner each time to see what was ahead. We just had to keep going forward with the knowledge that people hike this thing all the way up to November and only have to wade. I have never heard of someone having to swim (which we were on the verge off).

Matt and I had to keep trusting each other, believing it would all work out and we would get to the confluence, the canyon would start opening up and the water would go back to ankle deep so that we might get lucky and the sun would creep into the canyon.

Honestly, I am glad that Matt was with me. I was not psyched to be going through these pools! Having someone there to suffer through it with me did a lot for my psych.

I needed it through the next section, the worst pool of the day. This one went right up to our nipples and it was cold! I was already pretty much numb from the last pools and this one was the real ass kicker. I definitely couldn't see the end of it and we didn't know if it was going to get deeper. About a third of the way through it I remember not caring anymore and exclaimed to Matt that I wanted to swim but he answered back that I should just keep walking. I did and we half walked, half floated on the muck on the bottom to the other side of the pool.

Almost directly after this pool, we got to the confluence with Buckskin and I was very relieved. I knew now that we would have easier traveling. At least all we would have to deal with was the mileage, bushwacking and hundreds of shallow river crossings. Daunting but nothing like the suffering of the chilling pools we just went through.

(Cold but spectacular canyon. Just after wading through the pools.)

Our next goal was sunshine. We ran for a while, shivering and mostly numb (Matt even complained of nausea) clomping along on our frozen stumps until we hit a tiny patch of glorious sunshine that made it into the canyon! We stopped here for some 10 or 15 minutes and tried to warm our bodies up. It worked a little and the feeling to most of my body came back except for one of my heels and a few toes before the sun disappeared again and we were left in the frozen slot canyon again. Time to move.

For the next many miles, we slowly warmed up, became more psyched again and even felt parts of our feet here and there (every time we crossed the river our feet went numb again). I ate a bit of calories, giving my body something to burn too. I think that this helped a lot.

We were able to start enjoying ourselves again. The canyon is very impressive in this middle section, after the slot canyon, and at times 1,000 ft walls towered over our heads. sunshine poked in a bit more and we started feeling good. Back to the normal grind of doing an ultra run adventure. No more curve balls...

Then next order of business was thinking about picking up more water. There are supposed to be at least 3 or 4 good springs along the middle section of the canyon with the last one being 12 miles from Lee's Ferry. We passed the first one, Wall Spring, at about mile 10 with plenty of water in our bladders and lots of confidence we would find the later springs when we needed to fill up (we had information that made it sound like it is easy to find the springs). So, we kept moving down the canyon.

(Top photo: Cool side slot. Bottom photo: Much of the day was spent in the water.)

All went well for the next 10 miles or so, moving well, crossing the river over and over again (surprise), bushwacking and continuing to stay warm except for our frozen feet. Typical Paria.

(Taking a break. Getting the sand out of the shoes.)

Oh yeah...how could I forget (I almost forgot to include this in the post) the only silly, dorky thing to happen in this part was our stand off with the one pool that we didn't take serious enough. We came up on a pool with some boulders on the side of it and it looked a bit deeper than the ankle and shin stuff we were getting used to in this section of the canyon (it is difficult to know how deep a pool is because the water is so silty). I took the first shot at it, thinking I could walk across to a boulder, hop up on it and be off on my way. No chance. I got a few steps in and started sliding in. I got up almost to my waist before clambering back out. After another look at the pool, Matt decides to try a bit further down. All went well in knee deep water until he stepped off n under water ledge and disappeared into the water. His head didn't go under but it might as well have. When he started flailing toward shore, eyes wide open and crazy, I tried to go in and help him. Hmm...what do you think happened next...yep..I took a couple steps in the water toward him and fell off the same ledge into the water. Luckily, one of my feet stayed on the ledge and I didn't go in as deep. I was able to get myself out and helped Matt out too. It was hilarious! You tube video quality! We finally found a way through the pool without swimming but it involved some wandering around in the water and at one point the water went almost to our throats. Deep pool! Luckily, the water wasn't quite as cold here and the air temperature was warmer so it was more ridiculous than scary. It gave us a good laugh!

(Just after the rediculous slip in the deep pool. Note: I'm soaked up to my chest.)

After our dip in the drink, the only thing that was nagging us was that we couldn't find any of the springs that were listed. We found Wall Spring easily but the rest were non existent. I couldn't help being frustrated that there weren't any cairns or something to mark these springs. Will thousands of descents of this canyon, I would think that the park service would want the springs well marked so that people don't epic. Oh well...we sure couldn't find them and then, a little before mile 26, where Bush Head Canyon comes in from the right, we realized that we had missed all the springs and had only about 1 liter of water for the two of us to finish. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we weren't going to get any water refills as the trail leaves the Paria River at this point for the next 12 miles or so and we couldn't drink from the Paria even if we wanted to (extremely silty).

(Somewhere in this section of canyon were the last springs. We sure didn't find them. Beautiful canyon!)

Luckily, we were feeling pretty good for the miles we traveled and all that had transpired and weren't in any extreme danger from lack of water (maybe in hotter months we would be more worried but it was cold and we weren't loosing water to much (I hadn't been sweating the whole time because it was so cold). I was still peeing pretty clear and feeling good. Still, it can make you worry to be in the desert after traveling at least 25 miles in a remote canyon and still having 12 miles left.

When we reached the point where Bush Head Canyon meets the Paria, Matt informed me that we had run 26 miles and his first marathon! Congratulations Matt! Well Done. What a way to run your first marathon and the run wasn't even over. I gave him a high five and just like that we were off again.

From here the trail actually becomes a trail (it pops up on the mesa to the right of the Paria). Funny thing to say but the first 26 miles of the canyon has very few sections that would pass as a trail, making this section a pleasure. Actual singletrack to run on and we were able to get a bit of a rhythm. We even stopped to change socks a few miles into this stretch because our feet finally were drying out!!! Can you believe it. Finally. Man, it felt good to put dry, clean, cushy socks on.

(New socks!)

Besides normal fatigue for doing something this long, Matt and I agreed that we felt pretty good and enjoyed cruising along the trail for next hour of so of rolling, beautiful trail. I really enjoyed this section and tried to absorb as much of the experience as I could. It was late afternoon by this point and the light was beginning to soften. The views became expansive and the cliffs began to burn with a soft deep red with the setting suns rays.

(Matt running along a nice section of trail.)

The rest of the run went well. Water became an issue a little bit but we knew we didn't have much to go and it was all gravy from here. The last few miles the canyon bottom widened way out and had a bit of river crossings to finish us off with wet feet, just for good measure.

As we finished the last flat section at the end of the trail we bounded along together, energized by the finish, like a horse to the barn.

In the end, we finished just before dark and 10 hours and 20 minutes after we started. Not bad in my book, considering the terrain we went through.

We had to walk down the road a bit to find Philip (he had been spending his evening by the Colorado River and the trail finishes about a mile or so before the Colorado). Luckily, he drove up on us while we were half way to the Colorado and we got our down jackets out of the car and cracked some beers. We opted to continue walking the 1/2 mile or so remaining to the Colorado while he drove ahead. What an enjoyable walk. Toasty warm in our down jackets after freezing most of the day and the beer never tasted better.

Excellent finish.