White Pocket Trip

On Sunday, 4 March 2012, six Skyliners drove to White Pocket, camped overnight and explored the site the next day. We all met at George’s house and consolidated our gear into two high-clearance, 4-wheel drive vehicles, my pickup and George’s Jeep. We had been warned to expect very rough roads.

Left to right: Ellis Price, George Everman, Becky Fowsky, Jim Manning, Lila Wright and Gordon Bice

The neighborhood roadrunner (right) perched on the roof, view the proceedings with a seemingly skeptical eye. Did he know something we did not?

“But, what could a roadrunner know,” we said, as we climbed into our vehicles and headed up Oak Creek Canyon toward Flagstaff.

From Flagstaff, we took US 89 north and 141 miles from George's house, turned left onto US 89A. We crossed the Colorado River at Marble Canyon, below Lee's Ferry, and continued along the Vermilion Cliffs until we came to House Rock Road, 42 miles from the turnoff from US 89. Turning north on House Rock Road, we drove 9.4 miles before turning right on BLM 1017 (Pine Tree Road). About 6.2 miles from House Rock Road, we turned left (onto BLM 1087), continued about 4 miles and bore left (onto BLM 1086). From here it is about another 5.4 miles to White Pocket. The Google Earth map incorporated into this report (attached at end of report) shows the route from US 89Alt to White House.

The section of House Rock road we traveled on turned out to be relatively smooth and well-maintained. The roads after we turned off House Rock were less well-maintained but still passable. The surface was largely packed sand was delightful to drive on, although the ruts were deep enough in places to make us glad that we did have high clearance vehicles.

We arrived at the White Pocket parking lot early enough to have a quick look around before setting up camp for the night. To find a good spot, we drove on past the parking area for about a quarter of a mile and camped at the edge of a rock ledge. George and Akemi were sleeping in his Jeep, Jim, Becky and Lila had each brought a tent, while Gordon and I were sleeping in the open.

It was much colder than we expected that night. I used two sleeping bags and long johns and was still cold. When we arose the next morning at sunrise, the thermometer said 26⁰ F and it must have been a few degrees colder during the night. But it was a beautiful morning, and George captured the sun it as slowly illuminated the countryside.

Sunrise at White Pocket

I felt dizzy and a little queasy that morning, barely eating anything for breakfast, and think that I must have picked up a bug along the way. We had come down a fairly steep sand dune on a deeply rutted road to reach the camping area from the parking lot and I didn't want to be driving while feeling dizzy, so asked Gordon to drive my truck back to the parking lot. He did and after that I left the driving with him for the rest of the trip. After all driving on the packed sand roads was a lot of fun, and I had gotten to do it on the way in.

When we arrived back at the parking lot, I was still feeling a bit down and stayed with the truck for a few minutes while the others entered White Pocket. However, after about half an hour I felt better and, camera in hand, went to see for myself the other-worldly vistas I had read about. I must say White Pocket does live up to expectations. Below are only a few of the many photographs we took during this visit.

White Pocket – photograph by George

White Pocket – photograph by George

White Pocket – photograph by Ellis

Gordon at White Pocket – photograph by Ellis

Akemi at White Pocket – photograph by George

White Pocket – photograph by Ellis

White Pocket – photograph by Ellis

One could spend hours wandering around taking photographs at White Pocket. But enough for now, still not fully recovered from my early morning spell of queasiness, I made my way back to the parking area and found a nice sunny spot for a nap. Soon dead to the world, I knew nothing more until Lila woke me up an hour later and gave me some chocolate. I was now fully recovered.

The rest of our group soon straggled in and we headed back home, stopping at an old building, apparently with only a cat as resident, at the junction of BLM Roads 1017 and 1087 in Corral Valley to look around. George found a perch for his camera and we posed for another group photograph.

Akemi feeding the cat – photograph by George

Leaving the old building behind, we continued on down Corral Valley on BLM 1017 to connect with House Rock Road.

We made one more stop on the way back, to get a closer look at the old stone house built in the shelter of a fallen rock below the Vermilion Cliffs in Marble Canyon (photograph below).

Stone house built under a fallen rock – photograph by Ellis

A nearby sign was inscribed as follows:

We still had over 150 miles to go, so we didn't stay long to admire the old rock house, but were soon on our way home from what had turned out to be a very satisfying overnight trip.