What Is Buckskin Gulch And Where Is It?
Buckskin Gulch is a long slot canyon in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument along the southern Utah and Northern Arizona border. There are a number of different places you can enter it. For a real slot canyon experience the place to enter is down at Wire Pass. This is the same parking area you’ll go to if you are lucky enough to get a permit to hike out to The Wave in Coyote Buttes North.
The Wire Pass trailhead is about 47 miles from Kanab, Utah. Whether you are heading to Buckskin Gulch from Kanab, Utah or Page, Arizona you’ll drive along highway 89 and then turn down onto House Rock Valley Road. House Rock Valley road is a rocky clay road. As such you will need to check the road conditions if you plan to head down to hike Buckskin Gulch.
If there has been any significant rain or there is rain in the forecast, the road may be or could become impassable while you are down there. Heavy rains anywhere in the area can cause flash flooding in Buckskin Gulch and be deadly. When you hike Buckskin Gulch, chances are you will see trees and branches jammed in the canyon 20 feet above your head. That’s how high the water can get after a hard rainstorm.
You’ll need to sit what the ever evolving situation for permits is in this area of Buckskin Gulch.
What Is It Like To Travel To Buckskin Gulch At Vermilion Cliffs National Monument?
Buckskin Gulch is a pretty remote place. It’s awesome though. In order to get there you’ll need to get yourself to Kanab, Utah or Page, Arizona. Chances are you’ll want to use one of those as your home base. The town of Big Water Utah is another much smaller town you may want to stay. It usually has the cheapest gas station around but there is not much else around there. You’ll still want to go to Page or Kanab to stock up on groceries and things like that. Both Choice Hotels and Wyndham Hotels have a number of properties in the area.
If you’d prefer something other than a hotel, there is a Hostel International location in Kanab. There are lots of campgrounds around as well. The closest campground to the Wire Pass trailhead where the Buckskin Gulch trailhead starts is the Stateline Campground. It’s often full and has no facilities other than an outhouse style bathroom.
From Page or Kanab you should plan on a drive time of around and hour and a half to get down to the Wire Pass trailhead to hike Buckskin Gulch. Once there you’ll need to deal with the permit process and prepare appropriately for the hike.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The Red Cliffs Slot Canyon?
Slot canyon photography is really abstract photography. In a cool slot canyon, the walls are tall, the light can create brilliant red, yellow, orange and even purple tones in the walls of the canyon. Different canyons can have better or worse times to go in. It depends on the orientation of the canyon and how it aligns with the sun.
Sunny days are generally good because you want bright light but you don’t necessarily want to shining right on the walls of the canyon. You want it to bounce around in the canyon to bring out the colors in the walls. It can be dark in slot canyons so you’ll probably want to have a tripod with you.
Getting awesome wall art photos in Buckskin Gulch requires some creativity. Look in front of you, look behind you, look above you and pay attention to the colors and lines to try to create interesting compositions. If you’ve ever seen photos of Antelope Canyon in Page Arizona, you’ve probably seen light beam photos that look really cool. Those light beams don’t just appear there. The guides in Antelope Canyon know where the light shines down into the canyon. The throw sand up in the air to make the light beams appear so you can photograph them.
If you are going to Buckskin Gulch your prime time for the best photos is probably between about 9am and 3pm. It’s an awesome place to hike outside those hours. You can plan to spend as little at two hours there or make an entire day of it.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The Buckskin Gulch Slot Canyon?
If you’re heading down to Buckskin Gulch for photography you won’t have to worry too much about weight. The hike can probably anywhere up to six miles depending how far into the canyon you go and how much you wander around back and forth in the canyon. Its a flat hike that can be sandy. Since it is a slot canyon it can also be a wet nasty mess. You may want to check with the BLM rangers before you go down to see if there is a report on water in the canyon. If there is a lot you may want to get some decent boots or just be prepared for your shoes to get wet and nasty.
As for camera equipment, a DSLR or mirrorless camera with a fairly wide angle lens is good to take with you. A zoom range of anywhere from 17mm on up to 100mm can be useful. There might even be times when something as long as 200mm could be useful in the canyon.
In slot canyons I always recommend a tripod. In addition to holding the camera steady in lower light conditions a tripod can help you frame up the exact shot you want and help make sure you get that shot. If you want to get any photos of yourself you’ll probably want a tripod to make that easier as well. A circular polarizer might come in handy as well.
In order to get light beam shots like the one in this article, you’ll want to add something to your “camera” gear that will help you create these light beams. In order to create light beams you need a way to get a lot of sand or dirt high up into the air. This can be best achieved with something as simple as red solo cups or 1 or 2 liter coke bottle cut in half. You’ll want some kind of light weight container to be able to scoop up the sand in the canyon. A medium sized shovel might do the trick too. I’ve always used fairly big plastic drinking cups.
If you plan to try to shoot light beams, especially if you will be hiking solo you will definitely want a tripod. You’ll first want to look to see where the sun is shining down to the floor of the canyon or hitting the walls of the canyon. You’ll then want to setup your camera to include the light beam in the photo. Once your camera is setup on the tripod you’ll want to do one of two things.
You’ll either throw sand up in the air to make the light beam visible and the run back to your camera to press the shutter button. Alternatively you may want to throw sand up to create the light beam and use a wireless remote to trigger the shutter. This will make things easier so you won’t have to run back to the camera to push the button.
Creating light beams does of course create a sand could that will at least in part fall down on your camera and lens. If you can put some soft of plastic bag over your camera and lens, it an go a long way to preventing the camera and he lens from getting covered with sand and prevent sand from getting into the lens.
If you don’t care about photographing the light beams you can skip the sand throwing gear, the wireless remote and something to protect the camera from all the sand and dirt in the air.
The inside of a slot canyon isn’t likely to be somewhere you’d take a panoramic shot. You can safely leave any panoramic gear at home unless you’ll be hiking in more wide open areas in the area.
What Is The Story Behind This Buckskin Gulch Lightbeam Photo Print?
I first discovered this area way back in 2011 by accident. While road tripping across the southern US I ran into someone who had just been to The Wave. It was an amazing sight. I figured out where and when to get the permit. 13 people showed up for 10 permits and I got the last permit they awarded that day. On that first trip I hiked out to the North Coyote Buttes “The Wave” and back and that was it. I didn’t even know Buckskin Gulch was there.
By 2015 I’d been back to The Wave a few times and had time to research and explore more of the area around Vermilion Cliffs and Coyote Buttes. I’d hiked Buckskin Gulch a time or two in the past and gotten some cool photos. I’d also been to Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon. Back then, a pass to Lower Antelope Canyon gave you two hours to wander around on your own. Not many people went to Lower Antelope at that point. Upper Antelope Canyon is where all the cool light beam photos usually come from. I decided to see if I could create my own light beam shots in Buckskin Gulch.
When I packed the backpack to hike Buckskin this time, in addition to all the camera gear, water and everything else I put a couple average size Red Solo cups into the backpack. These would be used to scoop up some sand, and throw it high up into the air to create some light beams anywhere I could find them.
When looking for light beam opportunities, I looked for bright spots on the walls of the canyon. When I could find those, I’d take a Solo cup out and throw some sand in the air to see what the light beam looked like. If it looked good, I’d setup the camera on the tripod, take note of the high and low point of the light beam, focus the camera and then switch it to manual focus once it was focused. Finally, I’d hook up the shutter release. Unfortunately I’d didn’t have a wireless shutter release. A wireless shutter release would have made things MUCH easier.
Now that everything was setup, it was time to put the plan into motion. Withe the camera focused, I’d go out to where the light beam was with a couple Solo cups, fill them up with sand and throw the sand up in the air as high as possible. While the sand was going up, I’d run back to the camera, grab the cable release and snap a few shots. This was a messy process. The sand got all over everything. The lenses in use were zoom lenses and started making the dreaded crunching sound when zooming in and out. I neglected to bring anything significant to cover the camera and lens to protect it from the sans flying all over the place.
Changing cloud cover over the slot canyon, the moving sun, the breeze in the canyon and my skill at throwing sand up and snapping photos while the sand highlighted the light beam made this quite a challenging endeavor. This whole process was repeated more than 50 times at various spots in Buckskin Gulch as the sun changed position in the skies above the canyon.
After a few hours it seemed like there were likely some good photos on the chip. Tired, filthy, sandy and hopeful I packed everything up and headed back to the car. When the day was done, I headed back to the Wahwheap Marina to use the net, take a shower and go through the days photos and hope for a good sunset around Lake Powell. I hung out at the laundromat where the wifi connection was until past midnight. After that it was off to the Page, Arizona Wal-Mart parking lot to crash for the night.
In What Formats Is This Photo Print Buckskin Gulch Light Beams Available?
This Buckskin Gulch Slot Canyon Light Beam Photo Print is available in sizes up to 40×60 inches. It comes on metal, acrylic, canvas, paper, and wood. Any of these prints will look good in an area with diffused lighting. Anything with a shiny surface like metal, acrylic, or canvas or paper with a metallic or glossy finish will look really awesome in areas with diffused lighting. Matte canvas or paper prints will look best in areas with more direct light or light coming from exposed light bulbs.
Shower curtains, Sherpa fleece blankets, throw pillows and even towels are available and all make nice home decor items that you can actually use and use to compliment prints hanging on the walls.
For something you might use on a day to day basis there are cal phone cases, super strong tote bags great for grocery shopping and cel phone cases.
If you’d like to put together your own print, there are 500 and 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles available.
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