Buckskin Gulch: The Longest Slot Canyon in the World

Sixteen miles. That's the number that makes Buckskin Gulch what it is. Sixteen continuous miles of slot canyon, walls closing to shoulder width in places and rising hundreds of feet overhead, with almost no way out in the middle. It gets called the longest continuous slot canyon in the world, and for once the superlative holds up when you're standing in it.

The geology is simple and the effect is not. Navajo sandstone, laid down as desert dunes, then cut by a small creek doing the same patient thing for a very long time. Water finds a crack. Water widens the crack. Give it long enough and you get a corridor so deep that midday looks like dusk, and the light that reaches you has bounced off two orange walls to get there. Most of Buckskin has no sky. Just a bright ribbon somewhere far above.

Should you go to Buckskin Gulch, and what do you need to know first?

Buckskin Gulch sits in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness on the Utah side of the Arizona line, about 36 miles west of Page and 37 miles east of Kanab off US 89. Day hiking requires a permit that costs $6.00 per person and $6.00 per dog as of 2026, buyable in advance on Recreation.gov or at the trailhead self-pay station, with no America the Beautiful discounts of any kind. Overnight trips are a separate and much scarcer permit, capped at 20 people per day across all four trailheads and reserved in advance through Recreation.gov. The real gatekeeper is weather: this is a flash flood canyon with no escape routes for miles, so you do not go in if there is rain anywhere in the forecast, including storms 50 miles away.

How do you get a Buckskin Gulch permit?

Day use is the easy version, and it surprises people. There is no lottery and no quota. You buy the pass, you print it or write the pass ID on a trailhead fee envelope, and you leave it on your dashboard with the ID visible. Then you sign the trailhead register. Group size is capped at 10 people sharing any affiliation, and that cap is enforced.

Overnight is the hard version. Twenty people per day for the whole wilderness, which for a canyon this famous means booking the moment your window opens. Permits are reserved online and picked up in person at the office you chose when you booked, so build that stop into the drive. Fires are prohibited. You pack out your trash and your solid human waste, in bags, no exceptions. Check the current fee and booking window on the Paria Canyon overnight permit page before planning around either.

Access is its own permit of a kind. House Rock Valley Road is unpaved and minimally maintained. Dry, most people reach the trailhead in a two-wheel-drive vehicle with decent clearance. Wet, it turns to clay that has stranded four-wheel-drive trucks, and in winter it can be impassable for everything. Check the BLM road report if you have any doubt.

What is hiking Buckskin Gulch actually like?

Most people start at Wire Pass, 8.3 miles down House Rock Valley Road, because it's the fast way in. About a mile and a half of open wash, then the walls stand up and squeeze, and you scramble down a short drop that sometimes has a ladder and sometimes doesn't. Wire Pass alone would be a good hike. Then it spills into Buckskin at a confluence marked with bighorn sheep petroglyphs, and you turn left, and everything changes scale.

From there it's whatever you want it to be. An hour of wandering, a full day pushing toward the boulder jam, or a multi-day traverse to the Paria confluence and out at Lees Ferry. The canyon does not get boring. It corkscrews, it holds logs and flood debris 20 feet up the walls where the last big water left them, and it keeps pools of cold, opaque standing water that never fully dry out. The worst of them has a name, the Cesspool, and it is exactly as advertised. Bring a dry bag and expect to get wet from the knees down at minimum.

Time of day matters less here than in Antelope Canyon, since Buckskin is too deep for light beams. Midday still gives you the most usable light. Cell service is a rumor.

Can you bring a dog to Buckskin Gulch?

Yes, which makes this one of the rare marquee slot canyons that welcomes dogs. You pay $6.00 for the dog, same as for a person, and the dog goes on the permit. Think hard about whether your specific dog wants this. There are downclimbs, cold water of unknown depth, and mud that grabs. A dog that panics in a narrow space is a dog you will be carrying. Sand and slickrock also cook in summer, and there is no shade break in a canyon with no exits.

Bringing kids?

Wire Pass to the confluence and a short way into Buckskin is a great kid hike. Roughly four miles round trip, one real obstacle at the downclimb, and the payoff of walking into a slot arrives early. Turn around whenever you want. What does not work with young kids is the full Buckskin day, and it isn't the mileage. It's the pools. Wading chest-deep through cold water with no way to bail out is a different trip than it looks like in photos.

Stay safe

One rule outranks the rest: no rain in the forecast, anywhere upstream. Buckskin's drainage reaches far north toward Bryce, and a storm you cannot see can put a wall of water into a canyon you cannot climb out of. Monsoon season, roughly mid-July through mid-September, is the wrong time to gamble. Check the forecast the morning of, not the night before.

Past that, ordinary desert rules apply and matter more because help is far away. Carry more water than you think, tell someone your itinerary and when to worry, and know how your emergency beacon works before you need it. Sign the register going in and coming out.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need a permit to hike Buckskin Gulch?

Yes. Every hiker needs a day-use permit, which costs $6.00 per person and $6.00 per dog as of 2026. There is no quota for day use, so you can buy it in advance on Recreation.gov or pay at the trailhead station and display the permit on your dashboard. Overnight trips require a separate advance reservation that is strictly limited.

How long does it take to hike Wire Pass to Buckskin Gulch?

The Wire Pass trailhead to the Buckskin confluence and back is roughly four miles and takes most people two to three hours with stops. Continuing down Buckskin turns it into a full day, and a through-hike to the Paria confluence is a multi-day backpacking trip requiring an overnight permit.

Is Buckskin Gulch dangerous?

The canyon itself is not technical for most of its length, but flash flooding is a genuine and repeated killer in slot canyons because there is nowhere to climb. Storms far upstream can flood the gulch under blue sky. Deep, cold pools and long stretches without an exit add real consequence to any injury, so this is a trip that rewards conservative weather decisions.

When is the best time to hike Buckskin Gulch?

Spring from late April into early June and fall from late September through October give you mild temperatures and the lowest flash flood risk. Summer monsoon storms make July through mid-September the worst window. Winter is quiet and legal but the pools are brutally cold and House Rock Valley Road can be impassable.

Can you do Buckskin Gulch without getting wet?

Not reliably. Standing pools persist year-round in the deeper sections, and their depth changes after every flood. Short out-and-backs from Wire Pass often stay dry, but anyone going deep should plan on wading and pack accordingly.

Put it on the map

Buckskin Gulch is one of the 60 destinations on the McSenderson Arizona Outdoor Adventure scratch-off map, and it sits in the best cluster on the whole thing. Vermilion Cliffs and The Wave are the same drive down the same dirt road, so a Buckskin day and a Coyote Buttes lottery attempt can share a basecamp. For the full 60, start with the Arizona Outdoor Adventure bucket list.

Ryan Laboy — Co-founder, McSenderson. Single-digit handicap golfer and ten-year skier based in Flagstaff, Arizona. Researches and designs every McSenderson map. hello@mcsenderson.com