Edmaiers Secret Photo Essay (Paria Canyon - Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness) - 11/13/19

View from Top of Hill Climb

Large Fin

Buckskin Gulch far Below - Overlook View

House Rock Valley Road

So, you haven't heard of Edmaiers Secret? Well, let me introduce you! (And, that's all that this will be ... an introduction.) This place is vast, very delicate and virtually unknown, unlike its not-too-distant neighbor "The Wave." The American Southwest wrote an article on the web about it. Below, find a part of the article in italics.

The middle Paria River valley, around the north edge of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, is a particularly scenic and photogenic region, which includes several well-known sites in close proximity such as Buckskin Gulch, White Pocket, Coyote Buttes and the Wave, the Paria Rimrocks and the deep Paria Gorge.

Trail criss-crosses Buckskin Gulch

Passing Two Panels of Petroglyphs

Trail leaves Gulch at Old Fence

Teepee Rock

Most of the bedrock is Navajo sandstone, originally wind blown dunes, now containing, thin, differently colored, cross bedded strata, and eroded into many forms. Most of the exposed sandstone is found along the Paria and Buckskin corridors, extending a mile or so either side, and off-trail explorations can reveal many pretty formations.

Several smaller locations have been publicised in recent years including Nautilus Rock near the Paria River trailhead and Edmaiers Secret, on the east side of Buckskin Gulch about one mile upstream of the start of its long enclosed slot section.

Fat Fin Rock

Sandstone Cross-Bedding

Row of Large Fins

Many Animal Tracks dot the Sandy Terrain

The secret is a group of layered sandstone domes and cones, with a knobbly, brain-like texture, crossed by thin fins, often perpendicular to the underlying strata. These 'brain rocks' are one point of interest, but better, photogenically, are the erosive structures formed by the fins, which in some places combine to create larger protruding mounds containing very thin sandstone plates at various angles. The location is named after German landscape photographer Bernard Edmaier, who first identified the formations from the air. The place is also known as Brown Pocket, or West Clark Bench Water Pockets.

Group Shot on Cross-Bedding (Brain Rocks)

Sand Climbing above Lower Valley

Textures on Eastern Wall

Tiny Jawbone and Teeth

After proper introductions and a 5 hour perusal of the locale, I can say that it is truly a unique and delicate landscape. Nine hikers drove approximately 5 miles down the House Rock Valley Road (dirt) to the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead complete with restroom. After readying for the hike, my GPS still had not found me! (It would be a mile before it tackled my location.) We started out the trail through the golden grass and weeds crossing the dry gulch around seven times before we left it for good at the old fence. Somewhere in the middle of this first 1.5 miles, we passed two panels of petroglyphs that I have seen photos of in the past. Our trail moved along the fence then we veered left onto a trail fork that took us up to a sandy hill where the Fat Fin Rock resided.

View back through Valley

Don't break the delicate Fins!!!

Fins like Ruffles around Teepee Peak

Hiking Wash next to Teepees

Some of the names I am using in this entry are used by many hikers but not all and, perhaps, this rock is named something else in many circles. Nevertheless, here, we saw our first example of the millions of delicate fins of the area. Not too far past this, we saw a row of verticle fins sticking up out of the ground. These are quite popular with hiker/photogs. Continuing down into the wash, we hiked over the so-called Brain Rocks, or cross-bedding. To get up the other end of the "valley," we scampered up along the right side; staying out of the delicate fins for now. Finally, at the end of our valley, we passed the Dome and came to the pourover that lets water out into the Buckskin Gulch valley. Looking over the side of the cliff, we saw huge thin white fins jutting out from the side.

Passing the Dome to reach Saddle

Old Driftwood in Front of Dome

First View from Overlook

Hikers above Overlook Cliff

Our route curved around to the left where we had fantastic views of the strata on the hardened sandstone hills to the left. On the right, the vast view of the Buckskin Gulch valley was laid out before us. (See the 1st and 3rd photos of this entry.) On my maps, this is labeled as the Overlooks. As we took in the views on the right, we also noticed the tall wall to our left. We did look for evidence of the ancient Paiutes but found none. Hiking on this level of terrain, there was a hill (ramp) in front of us. Hmm. Yep, David directed us to the hill and said, "Climb!" This ramp was almost sloped at a 45 degree angle. I had to lean forward with two hands on the rock to get my center of gravity in the proper place for the scramble. Rita and I were the first up to the top with Randy close behind.

Passing Textures and Fins

Very Large Wall next to Overlooks

The Ramp Climb Experience

View of Wall from top of Ramp

 There was a significant step up about half way that was quite challenging. At the top, we found an old survey marker from 1917. The three of us sat for our break waiting for the remaining hikers to make it up the considerable slope. And, what a view we had! After all of us had climbed the ramp and taken our break, we headed on up to the nearby top of the West Clark Bench and turned to the right. Another amazing view of light colored calico rock went by us on our right. We found a cute free-standing arch (see 3rd photo from bottom) and passed by many dry tinajas. I would love to do this hike when there is water for reflections.

Terrain above Wall at Top of Ramp

Snack Spot Views

Reaching the Tinaja Plateau (West Clark Bench Water Pockets)

Bench toward Gulch Below

Alas, it was about then that I ran out of camera battery. ... I never run out of camera battery! So, I was able to squeeze out about five more photos through the end of the hike. We returned back along the bench and continued in the other direction from the ramp. The route traveled atop the cliff edge several feet away so the views were obstructed here. An area of deep sand welcomed us and we turned left for a soft descent. From here, the descent turned into a tour of the fins. So many fins. So little time. We all spent a lot of our concentration on not destroying any of them by stepping on them. They were overhanging every step in front of us at some points so we stepped big!

Bench toward Desert Above

Hikers cross the Bench

Textures on Bench

Never-Ending Rock Formations

At the bottom of this very long sloped descent on the rock, we completed our partial loop by stepping into the wash. We climbed back up to the Fat Fin Rock and followed our tracks back out across Buckskin Gulch about seven times. There you have it! The recipe for an amazing trip through Edmaiers Secret or Brown Pocket or another Big Finland. This is one I would definitely like to return to for a second exploration. It's too big to cover in just one day hike!

7.5 miles; 1200 feet elevation gain; 5.75 hours; average moving speed 1.3 mph

The Window View

Passing Fins on Way Down

Down, Down, Down - Dome in Background