White Pocket, Arizona

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Destinations > Arizona

Blog Post - September 6, 2025

White Pocket is located in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument on the north side of Arizona.

You don't need a permit to go, but you will need a 4x4 vehicle with high clearance to get there.

This is a 2 mile stretch of swirling sandstone and rocks that look like dragon scales that is great for hiking.

There are 2 common places to go from to reach White Pocket. You can go from Page, Arizona and travel 2 hours, 20 minutes to cover the 91.7 miles to get there.

You can also drive from Kanab, Utah. It's a 2 hour 8 minute drive and is about 75.5 miles. This is the route that we took.

We filled up our tank with gas in Kanab, but there is a Chevron Gas Station by the Jacob Lake Campground. That would be your last chance to fill up with gas.

As you drive out of the mountains there is an overlook area where you can see the red rock Vermilion Cliffs and the turnoff where the 25 miles of dirt roads start.

We made a left hand turn onto House Rock Road. This is where the dirt roads start and it is about 24.9 miles to White Pocket from this turnoff.

As you start driving House Rock Road, you'll see the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument sign. There is a large area where you can pull off to air down your tires.

We chose to drive 2.8 miles to the Condor Viewing Site to air down our tires. We also chose this location because it has the last bathroom before heading to White Pocket. White Pocket doesn't have any facilities.

There was a picnic table and some binoculars to look for the condors, but we didn't see any while we were there. There is a sign to show how large condors can get.

Driving to White Pocket requires driving in some deep sand, so we went ahead and aired down our truck tires to 20 PSI. We used our LASFIT H4 Tire Inflation Deflation System to air down all of our tires at the same time and then to air them back up after. We used the LASFIT X4 Off Road Air Compressor to air up our tires after going to White Pocket.

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After airing down our tires, we got back on onto House Rock Road heading north.

After driving 9.4 miles we made a right hand turn heading east on Pine Tree Road. This is what the turn looks like.

After turning onto Pine Tree Road, we saw this sign that said "4-wheel Drive (4x4 or 4WD) High Clearance Required. Know the Difference 2 WD vs. AWD vs. 4x4". We saw a 2WD minivan stuck in the sand at White Pocket. We did fine in our high clearance 4x4 truck.

Pine Tree Road is still a lot of washboard dirt roads. This is what it looked like.

You'll know you're heading the right way as you pass the Corral Valley sign.

After driving 6.2 miles from the Pine Tree Road turn, we made a left turn onto Big Sink Road. Google Maps showed us turning and driving through the ranch house. You go past the ranch house and there is a road that goes around it. There is also plenty of signs pointing the right direction.

After passing the ranch house, the roads start to go from a washboard to a softer sand and some rocky areas.

We drove 3.9 miles from the turnoff onto Big Sink Road when we veered left onto White Pocket Road. Once you veer off, you will see a sign pointing straight ahead to go to White Pocket.

With about 5.4 miles to go to White Pocket is where we found the areas with the deepest sand. The deepest we found was about a foot deep. Our high clearance truck did fine and we had no problems getting there.

We pulled up to a closed cattle gate. This is perfectly normal to keep the cows out. We took off the chain and opened the cattle gate, drove through, and then closed the cattle gate while securing the chain.

As we got close to White Pocket the road veers to the left. This is about 0.5 miles from White Pocket. Stay on this main dirt road.

You definitely don't want to drive a 2-wheal drive vehicle here. We saw a mini-van stuck in the sand. Another Jeep was helping him so we took the road around him.

There is one last cattle guard crossing. This one had a deep dip on the other side. Our truck did fine, but this is another reason to have a high clearance vehicle.

As you pass over the last cattle guard crossing, you'll see the White Pocket Recreation Area sign. We drove past that and then turned left into the dirt parking lot.

From the parking lot, there is a wood fence with an entrance to the trail that takes you over to White Pocket. You want to bring plenty of water and some snacks as White Pocket is about 2 miles long and can easily take 3.5 or more hours to explore. We explored for about 3.5 hours.

As we reached the end of the sandy trail you step onto the rocky terrain.

This is the view from Google Maps of White Pocket. You can see that it is a long stretch of this amazing rocky formation.

This is what the southern end looks like where the desert turns into this rocky landscape that looks like dragon scales.

The sandy trail from the parking lot takes you to about the middle of White Pocket. We chose to go over to a small mountain to the right first and then to the first swirl formation directly ahead.

One of the things that we loved about White Pocket is that you can explore anywhere. We were blown away with the vibrant colors on these swirl formations.

After exploring the middle section of White Pocket, we started heading toward the northern end to explore. This is what it looked like

After exploring the northern end of White Pocket we started hiking back to explore the southern end. This is what it looked like.

As we got close to some of the puddles of water, we could see what looked like tadpoles swimming around.

After hiking around White Pocket for 3.5 hours we were exhausted. It would be really fun to camp here so we could take breaks and enjoy the sunrise and sunset. I guess we will have to do another trip back to experience White Pocket in these different lighting situations.

We then headed back to the Condor Viewing Site to air our tires back up. The drive back was just as fun as the drive in.

We then got out our LASFIT X4 Off Road Air Compressor and our LASFIT H4 Tire Inflation Deflation System to air up all of our tires at the same time. The compressor has battery cables to hook up to your truck battery. This is nice so you don't have to worry about charging it up.

After airing up our tires, we put the compressor and hoses in the back of the truck.

You can see that we also brought two sets of MAXTRAX MKII Vehicle Recovery and Extraction Device to help us get out of deep sand just in case. We didn't need it while we were there, but it gave us peace of mind to have them.

We then drove back to Kanab, Utah. This was an absolutely amazing experience. We would highly recommend going to White Pocket.

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