Long Canyon Rd Alternate
Good stuff. Pleasantly surprised. The road made for quick and easy travel, even passing on a bench above a neat looking slot canyon for about a mile (although we did not check, it looked like there was a large dryfall that would prevent upstream progress otherwise it would be an awesome detour). The road then climbs a ridge to gain a sparsely vegetated plateau. There is a large water trough that looked modern, reliable and clean up here if you were too lazy to go to the ranger station. From here the road turns into a trail bee-lining for the edge of Buckskin Gulch. Although there are many ways to get down from here, we pretty much followed the nearest drainage down some beautiful slickrock stretches, including some friction-y slab downclimbs and pothole avoidances. Down towards the bottom there are some nice teepee rock formations reminiscent of those in the Coyote Buttes. Fantastic geology through here (and this is only the set up for what is to come). This route is 6.5 miles long and joins the HDT at Section 9 Mile 59.3 in Buckskin Gulch.
Tested.
Nicolas Barth
Ryan "Tuna Helper" Weidert
September 2013