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White Pocket

Photo: John Fowler from Placitas, NM, USA / CC BY 2.0 · source

🏜️ Canyons & deserts

White Pocket

Page, AZ · Vermilion Cliffs, Colorado Plateau, Northern Arizona

About

White Pocket is a square mile of Navajo sandstone that looks poured rather than laid down. Cream and coral domes crack into polygonal plates people call brain rock, with red and orange swirled through. Formations start about a hundred yards from the lot, and there is no trail past that. Most people wander a mile or two over open slickrock and sand. The Wave runs on a Recreation.gov lottery and Coyote Buttes South needs a permit. White Pocket sits outside both, with no permit, no fee and no quota. The road is the toll: 23.5 miles of dirt down House Rock Valley Road, then roughly ten more of deep sand that strands high-clearance 4WD trucks every year. Sedans and crossovers do not make it, and rain or snow can shut the route to everything. Many hire a guide from Kanab or Page. No water, no toilets, no shade, no cell service, and BLM is blunt that rescue is not guaranteed.

Highlights

No permit, no fee, no lotteryHigh-clearance 4WD required23.5 mi dirt road, then deep sandGuides from Kanab or PageImpassable when wetNo water, shade, toilets or cell service

Getting there

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Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature White Pocket.

Best Slot Canyons and Red Rock in the US15 places

Best Slot Canyons and Red Rock in the US

The sandstone country of the Colorado Plateau and its edges: corridors sanded smooth by flood water, arches by the thousand, hoodoo amphitheaters and thousand-foot buttes. Fifteen places, honest about which ones need a permit, a Navajo guide, or a high-clearance truck, and which you can simply walk into.