Like many unique places in the Southwest’s Colorado Plateau, White Pocket is an island of color and contrast in the middle of a virtually featureless desert. Its red sandstone rocks, replete with sweeping carved lines, create fantastic shapes and flow. In contrast, its brain rock creates geometrical patterns where there should be none. It rises over the desert, a beacon of shape, color, and impossible rock formations. But let’s start at the beginning of the adventure.
White Pocket is in Arizona’s Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, located in the northern part of the state, near the border of Utah. Access appears quite simple. All one has to do is drive a few miles down a desert road, park, and instantly be transported into another world. There are no permits to obtain, no rangers to contact, and no paperwork to deal with. All you have to do is drive down the road, park, and you’re there.
Except, of course, it is more complicated.
There are several roads that you need to take to get there. Most of the time, the dirt and lightly graveled main road, House Rock Valley Road, is passable to a passenger car. It is dirt and incredibly bumpy, but still, it’s passable enough. Unless it’s rained recently, that is. In this case, the mud will quickly trap the unwary in. Or, it’s rained further away, in which case the washes will be impassable, a fact which you won’t know until you’re in one.
But still, this main road is often passable. Usually. Or at least some of the time.
From there, you turn off onto a minor, less-traveled dirt and rock road, which is far less passable for a car. From this point onward, a high-clearance four-wheel drive is mandatory. The road becomes more or less passable, depending on the time of the year.
Finally, you turn onto the final access road, which is nothing but sand—deep, shifting sand. The road is miles and miles of sand, broken up only by sharp rocks. It’s an easy road, except, of course, for the sand. And the rocks. When you get clear of the sand, you have to deal with sharp, tire-puncturing rocks. Then, you plunge back into the sand again.
And that very sand will trap the unprepared. You will realize once it’s too late that you’re stuck, and rescue is neither quick nor inexpensive.
No one officially maintains the roads in this area. The Department of Transportation is not fixing potholes, clearing sidewalks, or re-striping the pavement because improved roads don’t exist. Instead, the local ranchers will take a road grader down the road occasionally and only when needed. They’re used to the conditions and have the vehicles to go on them. They’ll fix the roads only when necessary, which is rare. Beyond that, anyone else using the roads had best understand what they’re getting into.
Occasionally, the most unlikely car finds its way to White Pocket. Usually, this results from someone trying to go to the nearby feature called The Wave. The Wave, as the crow flies, if there were any crows, is just six miles away. But, visiting The Wave requires a permit. Alas, not everyone knows a permit is required. And, in any event, permits are challenging to obtain.
A ranger, or even a random visitor, will tell the unfortunate about White Pocket. A quick Google search reveals directions without the road details and the unprepared heads out in a small car. And so it happens that, amazingly, now and then, someone makes it out there in a passenger car, either due to incredible driving skill or, more often, sheer luck.
Seeing the parking area with lifted 4x4s such as Jeeps and a small passenger car is wild.
Honestly, don’t try it. Don’t even think about it. You will only make it if your luck and driving skills are beyond reproach. You won’t even come close, and your visit will consist of walking to cell phone range and waiting for someone to come get you out–if you can even arrange a rescue. Even the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has this to say:
You are responsible for your safety. If you get lost while hiking, experience a non-life-threatening emergency, or if your vehicle becomes stuck or breaks down, it is your responsibility, not the responsibility of emergency services or BLM, to deal with the situation.
— Bureau of Land Management White Pocket Trailhead Brochure
That’s government-speak for you’re on your own, and hopefully, you have a high-clearance 4×4 and aren’t trying this in a passenger car.
To return to our story, let’s say White Pocket is at the end of a problematic road.
No, wait. Turns out there’s more to say about the roads.
Usually, when you’re on a back road in the Southwest, there are endless other opportunities along the road. You typically see a myriad of other exciting places to stop and explore. If you’re not careful, you never reach your destination because there are too many other places to explore. This road, however, is entirely different. There’s nothing else interesting to see, period. There are no side tracks to wander off onto. There are no other significant sights to see along the way. It is little more than a ranch road that ends at a fascinating place.
OK. Now we’re done with the road and arrived at White Pocket. Finally.
From the parking area, White Pocket doesn’t look like much. Nothing indicates the extraordinary nature of what lies before you if you don’t know better. There’s a single large rock, but even that appears wholly unremarkable. It’s a remarkable example of deceiving appearances, and it makes you wonder what other wonders lie all around you, hidden behind the ordinary.
Luckily, we know the marvel that awaits us just a few hundred yards away.
White Pocket is a geological feature that is slowly sinking into the desert. Or, more accurately, the desert is slowly rising around it. Either way, one day, the sands will take it away. Seeing the currently buried features would be awesome, but at least we have this. It will take the sands millennia to encompass everything, so it will be around for a while.
White Pocket is relatively small, roughly a square mile in size. You can walk from end to end and side to side in no time. Or, more accurately, you could if it was smooth and flat, which it is anything but. There are swoops and swirls and protrusions everywhere that you have to walk around, so walking is a slow process. But the overall point remains: it is a relatively small area.
It happens, though, that everywhere, and quite literally, everywhere, within this area is incredibly interesting to look at. Every single step provides something new and different to see. I can think of no other area in the entirety of the Southwest that is as interesting as it is here. None. Absolutely none.
Here and there, you can find small pockets of vegetation. A few bushes struggle to survive against impossible odds, and whatever plants grow here struggle to do so. With a base of rock, there are little footholds for plants. A plant’s best bet is to find a purchase in the sand and attempt to put down strong enough roots to survive the winds. Mostly, though, the rock is barren.
You are free to wander wherever you like. There’s no barrier, other than common sense, to anywhere you wish to go. Some parts of the formation are incredibly steep and, in some places, nearly vertical. A slip here would be severe because no one will find you anytime soon if you’re hurt.
Despite the remote setting and difficult access, White Pocket sees a reasonable number of visitors. You’re unlikely to be completely alone while visiting. Paradoxically, despite its small size, you will unlikely be next to someone else. The formation gives you a strong sense of isolation; although you know others are around, you still feel alone. It is an odd juxtaposition.
And finally, we can talk about just what we see while we are there!
There are two main types of rock here: white sandstone and multi-hued sandstone. The white “brain” sandstone is white and light grey in color. It’s primarily flat, with deep cracks forming irregular polygon sections. One side of the pocket features this type of sandstone almost exclusively and is attractive.
Also stunning is a single pine tree growing here. Against all odds, this pine tree has survived and thrived. Pocket’s Tree showcases not only the white sandstone but also the tree. It is one of the most potent and exciting photographs I have made here. Despite the wild shapes and formations throughout the pocket, this one photograph speaks to me. It shows that nature can and will find a way despite odds against success.
In any event, Pocket’s Tree shows how the white sandstone looks far better than I can describe it.
Elsewhere, though, the formation begins to show its true colors, every single pun intended.
Everywhere else you look, you’ll see swirls, outcroppings, ridges, lines, waves, potholes, dips, and anything else you can imagine happening in rock. Eons of erosion have worked magic on the soft sandstone, chiseling and sculpting each area to perfection, making for a photographic playground.
Pocket Panorama showcases a significant section of the area; some of each type of rock formation exists here. Also, it shows us that the area is anything but level and easy to move around. It might appear to be a short distance from here to there, but it is slow going, and sometimes, you need to skirt around the more fragile sections of the formation.
However, when we go for more close-up and intimate views, White Pocket truly begins to shine. This photograph illustrates the prototypical sandstone swirls and swoops. The top layer of rock is white sandstone, but the colors come through underneath it. It appears as if something impossibly large took a bite out of the rock. It’s easy to let the imagination run wild, and each fanciful rock structure evokes its own unique emotion.
As expected, some parts of the formation are more popular than others. Many call this outcrop “The Lollipop,” although I don’t see the resemblance, even when I stretch my imagination. Still, despite any name, deserving or not, this brightly-colored swirl of rock is one of the more photogenic parts of the formation.
And, in any event, this photograph exemplifies the sandstone layering that is everywhere. Underneath its white cap lie striking yellows, oranges, and reds, all in neat yet swirled lines. Many compare White Pocket to The Wave, and Pocket Swirl, perhaps better than any other photograph, perfectly illustrates that comparison.
Paradoxically, water is readily available here despite being in the desert, surrounded by endless miles of sand.
Rainwater collects in small pools through the pocket. Some pools are surprisingly deep, and some see full-time shade from the sun. This arrangement provides a mostly reliable water source, even in the hottest part of the summer. During the monsoon season, the pools are plentiful everywhere, but you will likely find one at any time of the year.
The water is not drinkable. Not by a long shot. Cattle drink from these pools, as does every other animal in the area. One can only imagine the contaminants and what drinking it would do to a human, filtered or not. Still, the pools make for a beautiful counterpoint to a barren desert.
You might wonder what’s on the other side of the formation. The answer, simply enough, is nothing of interest. The rock falls steeply into the desert and instantly transitions from wondrous to ordinary. Once you leave the formation, you’re back in the desert. There are no other sections to head toward, no secondary formations, no anything of interest. I know. I spent hours at the edges looking for more, yet my search was utterly fruitless. Surely, I thought, there would be something else. I was optimistic about this. But there isn’t.
It’s hard to leave White Pocket. As you turn to go, you’ll find one more feature you didn’t previously see that you must now explore. There’s one more rock to examine, one more pool to find, one more formation that sparks the imagination. It is, after all, an explorer’s dream. The longer you stay here, the less you must deal with the sandy road back.
Eventually, it is time to go, and White Pocket recedes in the rearview mirror. The only thing that makes it bearable is knowing it’s pulling on you, and you’ll be back to explore more of it, likely sooner rather than later.
One day in the distant future, the sands will reclaim White Pocket and bury this treasure. Nothing but a distant memory, if that, will remain, and it will fade into mythology and legend. Until then, though, this remains a wonder of our world, which I am blessed to document.