October 17, 2025

By Tim Briese

6.1 miles, 500’ elevation gain, 5:10 roundtrip time

Teresa and I did this hike once before, on a chilly day in January, and wanted to go see this amazing place again at a warmer time of year. It may have been a "secret" at one time, but no more, as we saw a small number of other hikers today.

We took US 89 northwest of Page for 30 miles or so and turned left on the dirt House Rock Valley Road. This road is a little bumpy but otherwise suitable for two wheel drive vehicles when it is dry, but can be problematic for any vehicle when it is wet. After about four miles we parked at the spacious trailhead for upper Buckskin Gulch on the left side of the road. We proceeded to hike the well worn trail down Buckskin, which is a wide and scenic wash at this point but which narrows a few miles down and becomes one of the longest and most famous slot canyons anywhere. Unusually heavy rains had moved through the area the week before and evidence of flash flooding abounded in the otherwise dry wash.

the muddy streambed in buckskin gulch

the trail down the wash

a view in buckskin gulch

After a couple of miles we turned left and slogged through sand up a wide side wash. We followed footprints and soon climbed up out of the wash and into Edmaier’s Secret. This is a vast otherworldly playground of colorful slickrock domes, layers, brain rock, and other formations.

some brain rock as we were climbing up into edmaier's secret

a natural sculpture

There are no trails, just freelance exploration with routefinding needed to navigate the complex terrain.

we hiked up this slope to a ledge above

brain rock domes

interesting layers in the sandstone

a nice spot for a break

We made a big loop exploring to our hearts’ content.

there were a few pools of water from the recent rains

When we completed our informal loop we hiked back down the wash to the trailhead and headed back to Page.