Guided 4x4 day · Kanab, Utah
A guided 4x4 day from Kanab across the sand roads of the Paria Plateau to White Pocket, a field of swirled white and red sandstone inside Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. Pick it because it is the proven option: the cheapest of the three White Pocket tours here and the one with by far the most reviews.
White Pocket sits on the Paria Plateau in the monument, a few miles of open slickrock where the stone folds into domes, cracks into polygons and swirls in bands of cream, orange and red. No permit, no lottery, no entrance fee. The catch is getting there. The BLM says the roads in the monument other than House Rock Valley Road generally need a high-clearance 4x4 because of deep sand, and the last stretch to White Pocket is exactly that. A rental SUV is the wrong tool. A guide who drives this sand every week is the right one.
This listing does the simple version well. It leaves from Kanab, Utah, takes 8 hours, and the listing calls it a small group. It has far more guest feedback behind it than the lunch tour, and a lot more than the new $430 tour, which has none yet. It is also the cheapest of the three, from $183 in 2026.
Be clear on what it isn't. White Pocket is not The Wave. No tour can take you to The Wave without a BLM permit in your own name, and this one doesn't try. And a lot of the 8 hours is the drive: you sit in the vehicle for a big share of the day, much of it on rough, slow sand.
The day starts in Kanab, Utah. Check the pickup point when you book. The first part runs east on paved US-89.
South on House Rock Valley Road, a maintained dirt road, then onto the sand tracks that climb across the Paria Plateau. This is the slow, bumpy part and the reason the tour exists.
With the guide on the slickrock: the swirled domes, the cracked brain-like surface and, after rain, pools that reflect the formations. There is no marked trail.
The same sand and dirt roads back to US-89, then pavement into Kanab, all inside the 8 hours the listing gives.
Read next:
No. As of October 2026 there is no permit, no lottery and no fee to visit White Pocket. The BLM has proposed a day-use fee in a draft business plan, but as far as we can find it has not taken effect.
No. Both are swirled Navajo Sandstone on the Paria Plateau, but The Wave is in Coyote Buttes North and needs a lottery permit for each hiker. White Pocket needs no permit. The hard part there is the sand road.
The last miles are deep sand that the BLM says needs a high-clearance 4x4. There is no cell service out there and no services in the monument. A guide removes the risk of getting stuck.
It is the cheapest (from $183) and has by far the most guest feedback. The lunch tour is an hour shorter and includes lunch, from $225. The tour and hike is new, unreviewed and from $430.
Ready to book
A guide drives the deep sand to White Pocket and walks the swirled rock with you. No permit needed, small group, from Kanab.
White Pocket Hiking Tour with LunchThe only White Pocket tour here with lunch in the title: 7 hours from Kanab, from $225.★ 4.8 · 7 hours · from $225
White Pocket Tour & HikeA new small-group White Pocket day from Kanab, 8 hours, from $430: more than twice the price and no reviews yet.New · 8 hours · from $430
Lower Antelope Canyon with a Navajo GuideThe famous slot near Page: entry and Navajo guide in the title, 1 hour, from $75, no lottery.★ 4.7 · 1 hour · from $75