Our friend Heath told us about this hike through a slot canyon called Paria Canyon, AZ  which looked amazing, so we decided to do it. Looking at the photos and videos, it seemed like such an adventure, since you spend most of the time hiking ankle deep in the water, exploring the slot canyon. What we didn't realize was he got the permits... for December. Which is winter. Which means the water is you know.... cold. 

For whatever reason, we went all-in for it and made sure we had all the equipment necessary to do it without getting frostbite or worse (all hail the mighty neoprene socks). Regardless, we began by driving all night to Lee's Ferry, sleeping a few hours, and then getting a ride to the trailhead. 

Side note: we were told there was water there by the park rangers, but there was not, so our driver (all hail his glory) gave us all the water he had to make sure we wouldn't die the first day, as there is zero fresh water on the hike till the second day.

Other than the first near-disaster with the water, the first day went super well 

We were feeling good and the sun was shining, so it wasn't even that cold... yet.

Soon after starting hiking however, we entered the actual canyon, where it was much colder due to the sun being so low and not entering the canyon. As you can see below, the water was frozen on top, but since it was running, it wasn't deep enough for us to fully trust. We began to hike really slowly since we were trying to keep our feet dry.

get better at all. We were going to have to deal with the cold, one way or another.

We hiked to the confluence where Buckskin Gulch meets with Paria Canyon, where we took off our backpacks and explored the other canyon for a while before going back and finding our first campsite for the night.

We were able to get some sleep but at approximately 3am the air got so cold it would seep into your sleeping back and literally burn your skin. It was so hard to sleep. 

The worst part however, was that all our shoes, which were wet from the water, froze solid. We couldn't get our feet into them, and we had to get hiking. As a solution, Heath went down to the stream, got some water and boiled it. Using a syringe, we took turns syringing water into our boots in order to melt the ice enough to get our feet into them. After each person was done, the next would do the same while the others danced in place to get their feet moving and not frozen. Amazingly, the ice cold water felt better than our shoes, as the flowing water was above freezing. Luckily, our neoprene socks did well at keeping the heat in.

Backpacking Paria Canyon in Winter