Canyoneering in Keyhole Zion — Inside Keyhole Canyon, Zion National Park

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Technical Canyoneering in Zion

I absolutely love slot canyons! There are several slot canyons in the United States that can simply be hiked (and when I say hiked - I mean you can walk them in either direction). There are other slot canyons that can only be approached top down, as is the case with Keyhole Canyon. This means once you drop into the canyon, there is no going back, only continuing forwards. It’s a lot like a real-life escape room with obstacles that need to be navigated. Keyhole Canyon includes several drops that can be downclimbed (without ropes or just using a belay rope), 4 places where ropes and harnesses are required, and a lot of extremely cold non-moving water that may be waist-deep and a few spots may require small bits of swimming. This hike is going to require back-country permits, wetsuits, rappelling gear, and canyoneering skills. Most people that travel to Zion have no idea that there are these amazing canyons throughout the park that can be explored with the right amount of strength, knowledge, planning, and gear.

For anyone interested in how we got started canyoneering as a family, here is my post on an Intro to Canyoneering. Note that we are still very much beginners, so I’m not going to offer much advice, other than to be watching the canyon’s weather for rain days ahead of a planned hike through a slot canyon. The only way to prepare for a flash flood is to not enter the canyon. This post is just to share pictures for people that might not ever be able to see this part of Zion National Park and perhaps inspire others to consider learning more about canyoneering. If you are attempting to hike Keyhole Canyon, find other sources that explain the rappelling requirements.

Slot Canyons in Zion National Park — Down-climbing Keyhole’s Middle Canyon

Keyhole Canyon Location

Keyhole Canyon is in Zion National Park along UT-9, on the east side of the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel. There is a small pullout for parking not quite 2 miles east of the tunnel’s exit, or just over 2 miles west of Zion’s east entrance. The parking area is marked with a star below. Walk along the road, past the bend, and then head up the hill. The exit from the canyon will be right by your car.

Cascade Falls and Petroglyph Canyon are additional places to explore along UT-9. These hikes do not require permits or ropes and are very family friendly. Keyhole Canyon is not safe to enter without being prepared to drop 30ft (ropes required). There isn’t a way to enter it and return the way you came. Additionally, you need to purchase a permit to enter Keyhole Canyon, which requires the permits be picked up from the Zion Visitor Center and you will need to speak with a ranger to ensure you are fully prepared for this hike.

where is keyhole canyon? — Location of Keyhole Canyon within Zion National Park

Logistics

Exploring Keyhole Canyon requires a lot of pre-planning. First, permits need to be reserved from the National Park website. Next, you’ll need to find a hiking guide to know how long the longest rappel is (so you bring enough rope) and have an idea ahead of time for how each of the obstacles will be overcome during your hike. We used this guide to Keyhole Canyon by Tom Jones. The website matched the same trail descriptions in his book which was sold in the Zion National Park Gift Store, so I think it’s reliable. We thought the descriptions matched, although, as you’ll read below, we struggled to find the canyon entrance at the beginning.

In addition to rappelling gear, it seemed absolutely ridiculous to me when I was planning this trip, but you really will want a full wet suit. It was 106 deg F on the day we dropped into Keyhole Canyon. And even with wetsuits on, by the end of the hike we were so cold that the heat of the sun when we exited canyon was extremely welcomed. For anyone that SCUBA dives, a wet suit is a wet suit - there isn’t a different sort of canyoneering wet suit. Dry bags and a head lamp are the other two things to remember.

Entering Keyhole Canyon - and yep, that blue rope is not tied very well and is going to become a tangled mess in a matter of minutes… Tying ropes is an important skill to learn.

Exploring Keyhole Canyon

Keyhole Canyon is rated as a 3B I canyon. 3 meaning rappelling is required, B meaning swimming is likely required, I meaning the trail is short and therefore only requires a portion of the day.

Keyhole Canyon Map — Map of Keyhole Canyon

The Keyhole Canyon loop is 0.7 miles roundtrip. Although the guides we read said it would take us a couple of hours, this was our first technical hike solo as a family without a guide. It took us 4.5 hours. There were two issues that caused the increased time. The first was that we packed way too much, and we spent a lot of time dealing with our stuff to keep it all dry. The second issue was that we were all new to this, so we were figuring out each challenge together. But that’s what made this experience so much fun - figuring it out together. We had a second set of permits for Pine Creek for the same day, but we decided based on how long it took us for Keyhole that we probably didn’t have enough light left in the day. We went over to Sand Hollow State Park, and spent the late afternoon cliff jumping instead.

Where to park for Keyhole Canyon — View from the parking area for Keyhole Canyon

We get our gear ready. We are pretty proud of ourselves that we are hiking with ropes. We are doing this - we are canyoneering on our own! And we immediately head down the hill in the wrong direction. We see what we looks like the bottom of a slot canyon, and I’m thinking to myself, how many slot canyons are there around here? We scale up a large portion of slick rock and look down - we are definitely at the top of a slot canyon looking down into it. And we realize that’s our slot canyon, and we started off in the wrong direction. Walk of shame back towards the car to start over…

Our family “before” picture - And then we started down the wrong direction…

30 minutes after our initial starting time, we are headed off in the correct direction. We needed to walk up the road first (east on UT-9). The exit of the canyon is right next to wear we parked.

Route finding is the other fun thing about canyoneering; and it really is fun, even though we made a mistake. These trails aren’t marked. The permit process is two-fold. 1) It makes sure hikers are prepared for what they might encounter. 2) It protects the land from too much over-use. The fact that there isn’t an obvious trail was really impressive to me. This is an extremely well protected part of the park. As much as we could, we stayed on the slick rock to avoid causing erosion, which then hides the trail.

I use the GAIA map app at all times, even when canyoneering. Although the map isn’t pre-marked in the app, I looked at the maps provided in the guides and drew it out best I can into GAIA and that’s what we followed. I messed up pre-marking the map, which started us off in the wrong direction. I didn’t quite catch the right curve in the road. But we eventually figured it out and corrected ourselves.

Heading down into the canyon going in the right direction this time

We started on the road and then turned to our left and walked into the canyon for a short bit before needing to head up on the slick rock. I mentioned canyoneering means you can only really go one way - top down. That means the hike always starts with a walk up.

Hiking up the slick rock to get to Keyhole Canyon

Even though we picked up our permits right when the visitor center opened, by this point in the day in the middle of June, it’s hot out already. We are carrying our wetsuits - the advice to wear them seems ridiculous. I’m still skeptical that us Minnesotans will actually need them.

How to get to the Keyhole canyon entrance — Hiking up to the Keyhole Canyon entrance

I’m including this picture to make it obvious why slot canyons have problems with flash floods. The slot canyon is down below. This is really big valley, and this picture is just a small part of the watershed. All rain water is going to flow down the mountains and end up in that slot canyon. If it rains a half inch, it rains a half inch everywhere, and it all funnels into the same tiny slot canyon at the bottom of this picture. A group of 7 hikers died in Keyhole Canyon during a flashflood that occurred September 14, 2015. As the pictures through the rest of this post show, this would be an extremely difficult canyon to get out of quickly. There is only one potential emergency exit point mid-way.

Above Keyhole Canyon in Zion National Park

We are up and over the first mountain. Now to get to Middle Keyhole Canyon, we need to descend down some extremely steep and precarious stone steps. These were “sit-down-and-crabwalk” steep rocks. The goal in any backcountry situation is to not get hurt and require any kind of rescue… The includes the boring stuff that happens before the more fun hard stuff.

steep descent into Keyhole Canyon — Crabwalking down the steep hill to get into Keyhole Canyon

There is a little bit of sand at the end that is unavoidable to get to the mouth of the canyon. It’s very obvious how to get to the canyon from this point.

At the bottom of the hill, there is a nice flat spot before the canyon starts that we used to organize our gear. Again, we were still skeptical - do we put the wetsuits on or not? Our older son took a few steps into the canyon. There was calf-high water right away. And yes, extremely cold water. We took the ranger’s advice and changed into our wetsuits before we walked into the canyon.

Exploring a few steps into the canyon and establishing that yes, wetsuits are going to be required for us to hike through Keyhole Canyon

Suited up, but not yet quite ready to commit to getting wet, our son is considering if spiderwebbing might be an option to avoid the water.

We even have neoprene socks on, so we gave our son a tough time at this point - just get in the water. You have everything you need to be warm. (Not quite true - even with it being 106 deg F and all of the neoprene, we were still cold by the end)

Starting into Keyhole Canyon - this is the point of no return

In the water and it’s cold - how is it cold when it’s 106 deg F? This hike is a reason to be in Zion during the summer months.

My younger son surprised at how cold the water is. And that rope….. Just a few short steps in it’s already a huge tangled mess…

These pictures are why I am in love with slot canyons.

Zion Keyhole Canyon — Middle Keyhole Canyon in Zion National Park

It was hard to pick - we had so many great pictures.

do I need a permit for Keyhole Canyon? — Middle Keyhole Canyon, Zion National Park

The first section of slot canyon (Middle Keyhole Canyon) had water, then a dry section, then steep drops that would require downclimbing, followed by more water. And repeat, repeat for most of the canyon.

Figuring out the next obstacle in Middle Keyhold Canyon

Is there always water inside Keyhole Canyon? — Middle Keyhole Canyon, Zion National Park - and that blue rope is everywhere… By day 2 we figured out how to tie it better.

There were several tight sections of this canyon, but none so tight that you couldn’t bring a backpack. We did have to take them off from time to time though and pass them forward do to the squeeze. Better advice would be to just pack less.

Exploring through Keyhole Canyon, Zion National Park

Slowly stepping through Middle Keyhole Canyon

A brief easy section of Middle Keyhole Canyon to navigate through

There were multiple sections of this canyon that were waist deep. The wetsuits were a wise idea.

Navigating over a steep boulder - again, we brought too much stuff. I bet we could have cut out half the time if we cut half of our stuff we brought with.

Middle Keyhole Canyon is easier than Lower Keyhole Canyon - there aren’t any places that require rappelling. But there are lots of spots that you need to think about how to navigate over an obstacle. It’s an extremely fun hike.

Downclimbing Middle Keyhole Canyon — Navigating through Middle Keyhole Canyon

Taking pictures in Middle Keyhole Canyon

12 and having an absolute blast with his family on this hike!

Middle Keyhole Canyon, Zion National Park

This is still considered downclimbing. Even though we used a rope to help each other out, the rope wasn’t attached to a bolt in the canyon wall.

Using ropes in Keyhole Canyon — Downclimbing Middle Keyhole Canyon in Zion National Park

This was the biggest drop in Middle Keyhole Canyon. There wouldn’t have been an easy way for us to climb back up it. This really is a hike where you have to keep going in the direction you are heading in.

For an added challenge, there is a tree lodged midway through Keyhole Canyon. This one you go through and under. The water carried this large log into the canyon, and it’s not going to go anywhere - this tree is here to stay.

Navigating through waist-deep water in Middle Keyhole Canyon

By this point we are a bit cold, but still having so much fun. Again, as crazy as it seemed, those wetsuits were a bright idea.

Wading through waist-deep water in Keyhole Canyon, Zion National Park

Do I need a wetsuit for Keyhole Canyon in the summer? — More water in Keyhole Canyon

Eventually we stopped trying to carefully pass the bags between us… From here on out they get tossed back and forth a lot.

Although the canyon is plenty wide, towards the end of Middle Keyhole Canyon, the bottom of the canyon gets so tight there isn’t any obvious place to put your feet. This resulted in a lot of bracing with our backs and shuffling our feet along the wall.

Navigating through Keyhole Canyon as best as we can imagine to brace ourselves between the walls

This is about the moment in the hike that I’m pondering out loud - “how do I describe hiking through a slot canyon” to someone that’s never done this before? This is an absolutely crazy way to “walk”. It’s more like sliding across a sandy wall.

Navigating through Middle Keyhole Canyon

There is one last hard section to walk through.

I thought the wetsuits were also helpful in keeping our skin safe as we slid along the gritty sandy walls. This was a bananas part of the hike though - it was so hard to move through this section of the canyon.

Eventually it gets so tight you can’t brace your back anymore on the wall, and you just have to carefully step as best you can.

Hiking Keyhole Canyon in June — Squeezing through Middle Keyhole Canyon

Keyhole Canyon in the summer — Canyoneering through Keyhole Canyon

Eventually this canyon opens back up and there is another impressive tree lodged inside Keyhole Canyon.

Might that be sunlight up ahead???

The walls get a little shorter and wider towards the end of the first slot canyon section.

Hiking with teenagers through Keyhole Canyon

We made it halfway! The walls suddenly drop all the way and the canyon opens up to a short sandy section before Lower Keyhole Canyon.

Exit Middle Keyhole Canyon — Exiting Middle Keyhole Canyon

If there were an emergency, there supposedly is a way to exit the canyon at this point. It would require scaling a really steep cliff however, and the National Park Service doesn’t want you to walk here do to the potential to cause erosion. The only people entering Keyhole Canyon are those that are prepared to rappel through Lower Keyhole Canyon.

We stopped for a bit to warm up in the sun, eat some lunch, and get our gear ready for rappelling. Lower Keyhole Canyon starts with a rappel.

Sandy wash between Middle and Lower Keyhole Canyon - And at this point we need to untangle that blue rope…

It’s pretty obvious where Lower Keyhole Canyon starts. It’s just a few steps away and look on the wall to your left to see the bolts.

You won’t be able to see the bottom of the canyon from the top. That’s ok, it’s obvious what the options are a few steps into the rappel. Either rappel straight into the pool of water or swing left to a dry spot.

Keyhole Canyon first rappel — First rappel into Lower Keyhole Canyon, Zion National Park

It’s easier to land on a dry spot than rappel into the water. But there isn’t a way to completely avoid that water. After dropping onto the dry spot, you’ll need to wade / swim through waist deep water. My husband also belayed from the bottom - and if you do that, you are going to do that in the refreshingly icy cold water… Prepare to rappel quickly while everyone is warm and dry on the top before heading down in sequence. It’s not a fast thing to have 4 people using the same rope, unfortunately.

Deep water after first Keyhole Canyon descent — Land in a dry spot in the first Keyhole rappel, but then you’ll need to swim / wade across the water

Last hiker down the first rappel.

After wading through the water, follow the slot canyon under the tree.

There’s a short hike to the second rappel, where you’ll find webbing over a log. It’s a little bit awkward from a footing standpoint, but you walk under the log first and then there is a short downclimb section. This one was tricky to belay from below due to the high water and narrow canyon section, so we tried to help each other instead from above.

Second Keyhole Canyon Rappel — Second rappel in Lower Keyhole Canyon

This picture below better captures the entire second rappel. There is no way to avoid this water. It’s deep and very cold.

Rappel off log in Keyhole Canyon — Lower Keyhole Second Rappel under a log and into the water

The hardest part of the canyon is right here. You are in the extremely cold water and the third rappel is right away. There isn’t enough space for people to wait for the rope and stay dry. This resulted in us getting extremely cold prior to the third rappel. We did have two ropes with us, but we were trying to figure things out together, so in reality we really only used the one rope.

The third rappel was easy. It’s just a short gentle decline, but it still took us newbies to complete the third rappel. If you have two ropes and someone in the lead with experience, have them do the second and third rappels together and wait at the bottom of the third rappel where it’s dry.

Third rappel in Keyhole Canyon — Third rappel down Lower Keyhole Canyon

The picture above makes it look like an easier drop than it was. You do need to use the bolt on the wall and ropes to do this safely.

The last rappel is in the deepest part of the canyon. It’s really dark, and we thought this water was somehow even colder.

Fourth and last rappel in Lower Keyhole Canyon

It was fun watching our sons work together throughout this hike. Sometimes we put them between two parents, and sometimes we descended first and let them figure it out together.

Belaying from the top of the last rappel into Lower Keyhole Canyon

Like I said, this was the deepest, coldest, and darkest part of the canyon. We had headlamps on, but the camera didn’t pick up the extra light.

Fourth Rappel in Keyhole Canyon — Teenagers helping each other down the last rappel of Keyhole Canyon

At the bottom of the 4th rappel is a swimmable section of the canyon, and somehow this water was even colder than other sections of the canyon. Our older son was the last one down the ropes. He’d had enough of listening to us cry out in incredibility for how cold it was when we got in. So, he took a different approach and avoided the water all together in a maneuver known as planking. This would not have been something I would have been strong enough to do, but a 16 year-old varsity athlete in 3 sports is apparently a lot stronger than his mom… And yes, he dropped a water bottle throughout this process, but he was able to scoop it up as he passed over it. I’m below in the canyon, having no idea what is going on until this water bottle comes flying over my head, resulting in a scream and followed by a lot of laugher from all four of us. I was so impressed by our boys throughout this hike, and we had such a fun time overcoming every obstacle in front of us together.

16 year-old showing off a successful planking maneuver and avoiding the coldest water in the canyon

From here out, it’s too dark to take pictures. There is a fifth drop that I was not aware of from the trail guides that I read. It did not require us to hook into a bolt, but there was secured knotted webbing that we held onto as we navigated around a very large rock. We added a second rope to belay each other from above.

Stop and look up - This section of the canyon was really hard to get through, but it was no less stunning

The canyon isn’t done yet. There’s more swimmable sections and then the last part (again no pictures, it was way too dark) is called the “Slanted Wall”. You are not vertical, there is no real spot to put your feet on the floor so you navigate using just the walls. Incredulous thoughts at the difficulty of this last section resulted in a lot of laughter of the shear ridiculousness in how hard this part of the hike was. It took us a bit to figure out how to get our bodies to move through this section, but eventually, we found ourselves with the sun above us, and we happily climbed out - ending where we had started when we were going the wrong way - and we get why we couldn’t tell it was the slot canyon because of the non-vertical nature of the canyon at this point.

The next pictures are from our way into this section of the canyon when we started in the wrong spot. I was too cold to think of much beyond the sun and didn’t take any other pictures on the hike back to the car.

This is what the end of Lower Keyhole Canyon looks like from above. The slot canyon is just visible from above in the middle of the picture.

Exiting Keyhole Canyon — Walking to the exit of the slot canyon

Tunnel underUT-9 in Zion — Avoid erosion impact - walk under UT-9 through the tunnel. Our car was parked on the pullout on the other side of this tunnel

Other Places to Hike in Zion National Park

Here is my post on hiking in Zion National Park.

Other Places to Hike within an Hour Drive of Zion

Below are hyperlinks to other posts I’ve written about things to do that are located within an hour’s drive from Zion National Park.

Sand Hollow State Park

(south) Sand Hollow State Park includes a crystal clear reservoir, great for swimming and cliff jumping, and a fun place for families with older kids to cool off on a hot day. This park also has ATV trails that cross over sand dunes.

Pioneer Park

(southwest) Pioneer Park is a city park in St. George. Although it has no playground, swings, or ballfield, this is one of the coolest city parks we’ve ever been to with slot canyons, arches, Moki steps, and amazing rocks to explore through, under, over, and around. There aren’t trails at Pioneer Park - this is a full out rock scrambling adventure.

Yant Flat Candy Cliffs

(west) The Yant Flat Candy Cliffs is a relatively short desert hike to a hidden and strangely beautiful display of geometric patterns cut into red-and-white-striped Navajo Sandstone surrounded by green brush-covered mountains. Use the road from Leeds - the road from St. George is not well maintained.

Red Reef Trail

(west) Red Reef Trail is a relatively easy 1.7-ish mile out-and-back trail that includes pictographs and Moki steps for anyone with a bit of extra courage. There are also preserved three-toed dinosaur footprints accessible from the same trailhead.

Snow Canyon State Park

(west) Snow Canyon is a unique place to hike that has a short slot canyon and lava tube caves that can be explored, in addition to some beautiful hikes.

Kanarra Falls

(north) Kanarra Falls is a moderately difficult hike that travels through a slot canyon with four waterfalls. This trail goes through the water and feet and ankles will get wet. Permits are needed for this hike. Consider pre-purchasing as only 200 hikers are allowed in per day.

More from www.NatureImpactsUs.com

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Zion's Keyhole Canyon - Technical Canyoneering