Seems like this is a highly recommended alt to avoid the bushwhack down the Escalante. See Spiderwoman's notes and others

Untested.
~5 miles Hwy walking.

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

We vetoed the 110 mile HDT detour to visit Bryce Canyon just because it is a national park (Sections 8 & 9). Too many "commuter miles" just to visit a corner of Bryce Canyon. Besides we had previously been to Willis Creek Slot, which I imagine has to be the highlight of all that otherwise generic wash and valley walking. Although we had cached enough supplies to hike from Kodachrome Road to Hwy 89 via Round Valley and Hackberry Canyon, we took a fortuitous hitch down Cottonwood Road instead to put us back on schedule for our Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness permits (also we had been to the good part of Round Valley slot canyon and Lower Hackberry up to Stone Donkey on previous hiking trips). This route connects the HDT to Hwy 89 via either the Paria River or Cottonwood Rd (faster). If walking follow the Paria River the last 3 miles to Hwy 89. The Paria Ranger station nearby has an outside water faucet (and can sort you out for Paria camping permits).

This route leaves the HDT at Section 8 Mile 23.1 and joins the Long Canyon Road alternate at Hwy 89, about 15 road miles southeast of where the HDT crosses Hwy 89. From the Cottonwood/Paria confluence, the Cottonwood Road route is 8.9 miles long.

Tested.
Nicolas Barth
Ryan "Tuna Helper" Weidert
September 2013