Water Canyon near Zion — Water Canyon - looking downstream from above the waterfall

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The Raw, Rugged Canyon Experience

Water Canyon, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, is truly a wilderness experience. A little less than an hour outside of Zion National Park’s entrances, this canyon is just as impressive without the crowds. The downside (or upside, depending on what sort of hiker you are) is that the trail is much less developed. There are no signs or trail markings other than at the trailhead. Some sections of the trail may be slightly overgrown with prickly raspberry plants. Other sections have boulders, and the trail just goes up and over these large rocks. Don’t expect an easy way around them or steps cut into these rocks. The best part of this wilderness experience in Water Canyon, though, is how connected to the canyon you will feel as a result of being in it, struggling through it, and continuing on anyway due to its beauty. Water Canyon will inspire you to find your inner strength and perseverance.

The waterfall would be a good place for families to turn around. Beyond this point, don’t expect much for switchbacks. This trail goes mostly straight up along the canyon edge with steep drop-offs below. At the top, the trail gets even harder to follow, with many social trails crisscrossing. A GPS map will be extremely helpful.

For anyone interested in technical canyoneering (rappelling) on the return, instead of an out-and-back hike, there are options to drop into the canyon at various points and make this canyon an even more challenging experience. This requires up-front planning, technical knowledge, and gear (hiking up this canyon with ropes was no easy feat on its own). Between hiking and rappelling, we spent about 9 hours in Water Canyon. This was a beautiful spot to spend the day connecting with our teenage sons and the world around us.

Finding Water Canyon's waterfall — Water Canyon, Utah

Water Canyon Location

The trailhead to Water Canyon is south of Zion, just over an hour from Zion’s main entrance in Springdale, and not quite an hour west of Kanab. From UT-59 or AZ-389 (depending on which direction you travel from), turn on Utah Avenue in Hildale, UT. This road becomes Canyon Street. Drive through the town and turn on Water Canyon Road. Take this road all the way to the end. There are two parking lots. If the lot you stop in doesn’t have a vault toilet, you stopped too early. The road keeps going. Take it all the way to the end. Any car should be able to get to this trailhead.

Hildale is a big enough town to have a few places available for lodging, but I would recommend staying in St. George or Kanab. It’s a longer drive to both cities, but there are more choices for food and other things to do.

Water Canyon waterfall — Waterfall within Water Canyon

Logistics

There is no fee to park or hike at Water Canyon, nor are there any permits required. Beyond the waterfall, the trail is not always obvious and internet access is unlikely. Pre-download a map of the trail with GAIA or AllTrails. There is a vault toilet at the trailhead but no water. In the summer months, most of the water sources will be dry, so bring extra drinking water.

I wouldn’t suggest this canyon for anyone with little kids, and for elementary-aged kids, I wouldn’t plan on going further than the waterfall. The trail is narrow, has steep drop-offs, and re-iterating, is a tough trail to follow.

Technical canyoneering through the canyon is an option on the way back. Again, no permits are required. Water Canyon is a 3B III canyon. 3 means rappelling is required. B means swimming is likely required. III means it will take most of the day (approximately 5-7 hours) due to the longer hike and large number of rappels. It took us 9 hours, but we hiked up the canyon a ways first, and we are very much beginners at this whole rappelling thing. For anyone interested in how we got started canyoneering as a family, here is my post on an Intro to Canyoneering.

Hiking Up Water Canyon

Hiking back-and-forth to the waterfall in Water Canyon is 2 miles, with an elevation gain of 725ft. Out-and-back to White Dome is 6.2 miles with an elevation gain of 2,100ft. Our goal had been to turn this into a 10-mile hike, going a bit past White Dome and tacking on rappelling at the end. Our younger son was trying to earn his Boy Scout Hiking Merit Badge, which requires four 10-mile hikes. We then planned to have some fun rappelling on the way back. The trail was extremely rugged, and route finding, even with a downloaded map was slow. We made it a little past Top Rock, at the top of Water Canyon and realized we had to pick - 10-mile hike or rappelling. We can hike 10 miles at home, so we turned back early, and spent the rest of our day playing at the bottom of the canyon, enjoying rappelling, and working together to figure out how to get out of our “real-life escape room” and find our way back to the car.

The trail at Water Canyon starts off heading upwards. Don’t expect many switchbacks. This is a challenging trail. The canyon itself is gorgeous, however, and it’s fun that these rugged experiences exist for those adventurous enough to try them.

We completely enjoyed our day at Water Canyon, but carrying ropes and rappelling gear straight up into this canyon took a lot more effort than we expected.

Below is more of the trail - rough, rugged, and up, up, up. The trail does not really go between or around these rocks - it pretty much goes up and over the rocks.

Water Canyon is worth every ounce of effort though. No people, beautiful views, and an extremely fun adventure.

There were two groups of hikers that we saw at the trailhead. A group of women were returning to the car, and a group of men, wearing jeans and flannel shirts who took off running together up into the canyon - we never saw them again. We didn’t understand the jeans, flannel, or running… There were also two smaller groups that we saw canyoneering below us while we were climbing up to Top Rock. We never passed a person while we were on the trail.

Water Canyon - Looking back out of the canyon

The trail descends into the canyon in just one spot - right before the waterfall. There was a small amount of water in June 2025, and it was easy to stay dry while hiking.

At this point there isn’t really a trail, just follow along at the bottom of the canyon until you get to the waterfall.

Water Canyon - Even though my boys are teenagers, they still love climbing up any boulder they can find

Once you get to the waterfall, this is either your turn-around spot, or you will need to climb up the waterfall. It hadn’t rained in quite some time when we visited in June 2025, and it was pretty easy to scramble up.

Don’t forget to turn around and appreciate the view from the waterfall.

Water Canyon viewed from on top of the waterfall

As I mentioned, route-finding above the waterfall can be tricky at times. Look to your left. There are rocks that you can scramble up. The trail is narrow and it’s on the canyon edge.

Keep following the trail on the left of Water Canyon - It’s going to be a rock scramble most of the way up the canyon

At the top of the first rock scramble, remember to turn around. Stop for a bit and enjoy this amazing view!

At this point in the trail, we noticed the rope grooves in the rock. We assumed it was from people rappelling. As we returned in the waterway, that assumption was correct. This is the highest rappel. We ended up deciding to skip this last rappel on the way back and chose to hike back versus making a mistake when were tired.

This is a second, taller waterfall in the spring. Had water been flowing here, we probably would have changed our minds and taken the opportunity to rappel through a waterfall. That would have been tough to resist.

Water Canyon - This is such a stunning view that most people are not going to notice the small rope grooves on the bottom right side of the picture. It was disorienting when we returned through the canyon. Having noticed these grooves on the way up though, we knew there was an alternate way to get back down via hiking that allowed us to skip this last rappel.

Keep hiking up along the left edge of the canyon.

For anyone interested in hiking Water Canyon, the picture below is a good example of what the trail feels like on the canyon edge.

As we continued to climb up into Water Canyon, there were two times we noticed canyoneers below us. When we got to this particular spot inside of the canyon, we couldn’t quite figure out how or why they chose to make a zipline here. It was much easier to just do a simple rappel next to the water, and we didn’t have any problems staying dry. Seeing them zipline here though did confuse us for a while on our return as we thought that’s what we were supposed to do. We never did figure out how or why they approached this part of the canyon in the manner that they did.

Water Canyon - Watching Canyoneers make a zipline through a section of the canyon

We hiked a little past Top Rock, which meant we kept following the canyon up, up, and up. This was a hard and slow hike, but worth every ounce of effort.

While climbing up to the top of Water Canyon, it’s easy to appreicate the multi-layered colored rocks cut into strange but beautiful shapes.

Switchbacks aren’t really a thing in Water Canyon. The whole trail just scales up the rock along the edge. There is one notable switchback though that literally involves the assist of this log… I feel like the terms “rough” and “rugged” are understatements in this canyon…

To get up to the top of Water Canyon, we did need to climb up the rock using the help of this log.

Once you get up to the top of Water Canyon, there are social trails everywhere and a pre-downloaded map is absolutely necessary. When we were there in June 2025, the rock kerns seemed to be in the correct places marking the true trail.

Water Canyon - Rock kerns mark the trail to White Dome

We attempted to follow the trail quite a bit further past Top Rock. Along the way, we made wrong turns, my younger son slipped and fell into a prickly pear cactus, and we picked our way slowly across the canyon’s top, double checking every few feet with the help of our GPS map. Eventually, we realized how slow of progress we were truly making. We knew there were going to be several rappels on the way back if we dropped into the canyon, and being newbies, we also realized that was probably going to take us awhile to navigate.

I think we made a wise choice, and we turned around prior to getting to White Dome, despite being disappointed we didn’t get to see it. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch in a beautiful place and spent the rest of the day in a real-life “escape room.” There’s no turning back once you rappel into a canyon…

It’s humbling to know there are places this wild and rugged and inspiring and challenging that have been protected for us for hundreds of years so that those who wish to truly experience the wilderness can still do so. There’s risk that requires training and critical thinking and trust. The reward is that the spirit which moves through the wind within the canyon, for a moment, moves through you too.

Rappelling (Technical Canyoneering) Down Water Canyon

I think there are multiple spots to enter into the bottom of Water Canyon and rappel on the way back. We entered just a bit down the trail from where the dead log was needed to complete a switchback. From here, we had 6 rappels and two downclimbs. There was an option for a 7th rappel at the end, and we ended up choosing the easier trail option and returned along the way we had hiked in.

Rappel and downclimb sections within Water Canyon are marked with approximate pin locations

We are very much beginners, so I’m just going to share pictures and a bit about our experience canyoneering. Find a more reputable site for more information about each rappel or hire a guide to take you. Unlike Zion National Park, guides are able to take you on trips throughout Water Canyon.

The picture below is where we dropped into Water Canyon.

Bear in mind, the moment you choose to enter into a canyon, you are in it until the end… This very much felt like a real-life escape room. Although I had information about the trek, experiencing it is different than just reading about it. You’ll need to find the anchors on your own.

Just being real - we were so tired of getting wet inside of canyons (and cold, despite it being June and often 100+ deg F) by this point in our vacations, we were bound and determined to stay dry (and warm) on this hike. We were successful, except for our older son who belayed within one pool of waist-deep water. Had we been willing to get wet this trek would have taken much less time. Trying to stay dry though did add an interesting aspect to the puzzle of canyoneering.

Water Canyon - Is belay on? All four us of had taken the classes together. Our original plan was to sandwich the boys between my husband and myself. When we were actually hiking though, we realized that the best way to show our kids that we trusted them was to at times let them check our gear and belay us. We also practiced friction ropes throughout this hike to practice, essentially belaying ourselves. This is my younger son checking Dad’s connections before letting him head down.

Our first rappel was off a tree.

Our younger son helped me check all of my gear, and I was the second one to go down… Yep, we left both of our boys at the top, by themselves. I think this gave them confidence that we trusted them and their opinions for the rest of the way through the canyon. An unplanned change in strategy that I think ended up being important - maybe beyond just this one day inside of Water Canyon.

Younger son down next, followed by older son. This picture below might be my favorite from the entire day!

Conquering Water Canyon - Wilderness-shaping character

At the bottom of the rappel, there is a bunch of rock and no clear trail. Follow the water. We found a spot to carefully down climb into a short slot canyon.

Inside Water Canyon - follow the water around the corner. There is a spot to crawl into a small slot canyon.

You can see my son in the next picture. It’s just a small crawl to get into the slot canyon.

Water Canyon - carefully slide / crawl into the short slot canyon

From inside this small slot canyon section, there are bolts on the wall to use for the next rappel.

Water Canyon - same spot as the previous picture but looking into it from above

This is an easy climb into the canyon. There is a spot to set your bag down to gear up for the second rappel.

We had the belayer sit on a nearby log, and there are anchors in the wall above. Out of the entire canyon, this rappel took us the longest to figure out, simply because we didn’t want to get wet… There is a deep pool at this end of this rappel.

Second rappel in Water Canyon - Reflections as a mom - Is he wearing shoes??? Maybe I have failed as a parent… I don’t remember him making that decision… Always protect your feet on a hike. Arrrgh…

Our older son went first on this rappel, while my husband belayed everyone from above. There is a ledge off on the right. It is possible to maneuver to that ledge and jump down to the ground and avoid the water. In hindsight, the water wasn’t that cold - we should have just gotten wet. There is plenty of time left in the hike to dry off before returning to the car.

I went second. 2/3 of this rappel was easy. Then I scampered off on the right to the ledge to try and stay dry. Again, in hindsight, this was silly. It would have been much easier to just rappel straight into the water.

My husband was the last one down. This picture shows the end of the short slot canyon, as well as that ledge (left side of the picture). If you can get onto that ledge (harder than it looks), shimmy all the way to the left and there’s sand to drop onto. Or just get wet… The water isn’t that deep, nor is it super cold. And most of the canyon is in the sun throughout the day.

Second rappel into a deep pool in Water Canyon

We explored a bit around this rappel before continuing into the canyon. Incredible terrain!

There’s a short walk to the next drop. Look for a sling on a pine tree off on your right.

The next drop is pretty easy - no water, short, and an open cliff. No one was scared on the third rappel.

Superman on his way down the third rappel in Water Canyon

View of the third rappel from below - nice and easy

There is water upstream of the third rappel, but it doesn’t need to be crossed - I was just exploring to see what the canyon looked like from below.

Belaying our boys, who we left at the top again…

There is a decently long section of canyon to just walk before you get to the next drop. It’s sandy but not a hard walk.

I am starting to wish I could think of more adjectives than “beautiful” “stunning” “incredible” - there just aren’t words sometimes to describe what you see and how you feel. There is just the spirit in the wind that keeps moving through you.

There is another short slot section of the canyon to explore before the 4th rappel.

You will come to another open-face cliff. Look for bolts on the wall off on your left. This is pretty straight forward rappel, but it’s high, making it a little bit scary.

Still confident inside Water Canyon because do I have a choice? Nope! This is about the spot we realized there really aren’t other options than to just continue figuring out the next rappel.

Scary? Yes. But we are all still having fun.

Superman is secured and ready for his next rappel

Looking down from the top - this was the highest rappel we did in June 2025

This looks a bit daunting, even from the bottom

At the very bottom of this rappel, the wall falls away. Rappelling is slower than you’d think, though. Even without belay ropes, there is a ton of friction on the rope. Walking down the wall is easier than the free fall sections. It was relatively easy to get down this cliff (minus the courage needed at the top) until this last section just a few feet from the ground. We all laughed and struggled for a moment at this last moment in the rappel to get to the bottom.

There is another long walk at the end of the fourth rappel. At this point in the hike, I was very confused from the directions I had been following. I thought this was it - that we had finished all required rappels. As we walked, we folded up our ropes. We thought we were done…. This was not the case.

Continuing to hike in the sandy wash of Water Canyon

We came around a bend, and we were confronted with another unexpected obstacle - a tree, another drop, and another deep pool. We realized this was the point in the canyon that we had seen the other canyoeers make a zipline, so we assumed that was what we were supposed to do. We never did figure out though why they made a zipline, however.

The easiest way to navigate through these next set of obstacles was to climb up a short distance on the rock on our right. There was a super small exposed section of rock, followed by bolts anchored to the wall. We used those bolts to make a fifth rappel, and the pool of water was easy to navigate around using ropes. Swimming would have been an alternate option that would have avoided the rappel all together.

Fifth rappel inside Water Canyon with a sandy section that was very easy to stay dry

There is another drop, rappel number six - that occurs in stages. We had packed a long rope and had no problem using webbing from the tree to do both drops together. There are also bolts on the wall where rope can be switched mid-drop to another anchor, but the ledge is small and can only hold a person or two.

This picture shows that ledge available if you only have a short rope. There is a spot with a new anchor. I’d recommend a longer rope? That seemed safer and easier.

Being honest, by this point in the canyon we were quite disoriented and didn’t realize how close to the trail we were. There was another option for a rappel with bolts into a pool of water. I thought we were done two rappels prior… we were all done and ready to be back at the car by this point. We maneuvered together over to our right and scrambled down the rocks. A few minutes later, we realized we were back on the trail that we had scrambled up.

As we were looking at the rocks, we saw the anchors, but then we noticed the rope grooves, and realized exactly where we were. We had noticed these grooves on the way into the canyon. We had one last option of a 100ft rappel or following our footsteps back down along the rocky edge of the canyon. After almost 9 hours of hiking and rappeling, although we had had an awesome day, not one of us wanted to tackle that last rappel. Mom’s decision - we were tired, we were not going to risk making a mistake, plus we were all fine just using our feet - we skipped that last rappel, and just hiked back along the canyon edge to the base of the water fall, and followed the trail back to our car.

Bypassing the last Water Canyon rappel by using the “trail” - remember that rugged trail I kept mentioning to find on the left? Yep, still rugged on the way back…

What a day! What an unexpectedly beautiful canyon that we had to ourselves. I hadn’t even heard of Water Canyon more than a few days before our trip, as I was looking for options on how to fill one more day. What a puzzle and adventure and experience that used our mental, physical, and spiritual selves. What a day of laughter, trust, skill, and love. I don’t think we had a favorite day on our June 2025 trip to southern Utah - we had a lot of amazing days. This day will always rank up there on the top of my favorite days, ever, in the wilderness, with my family.

Other Places to Hike within an Hour Drive

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

Zion National Park

Zion National Park is probably the reason for traveling to this part of Utah. There are so many fantastic hikes for all types of hikers - beginners through advanced. The main Springdale entrance to Zion Canyon is just over an hour from Water Canyon.

Kanarra Falls

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. Walking sticks will be helpful on this hike. Neoprene booties under hiking boots will keep your feet warmer. Kanarra Falls is just over an hour north of Water Canyon.

Sand Hollow State Park

Enjoy swimming, cliff jumping, or riding ATVs through sand dunes at Sand Hollow State Park. Jumping Rock is a short 0.3-mile relatively easy walk from the parking lot. This state park is going to be better suited for older kids. Sand Hollow is an hour east of Water Canyon.

Pioneer Park

Pioneer Park is a free city park in St. George, UT. There are no playgrounds or swings, but there are arches, slot canyons, caverns, Moki steps, and tons of rocks to scramble over, under, through, around, up, and down. Pioneer Park is an hour drive west of Water Canyon.

Red Reef Trail

Red Reef Trail is a relatively easy 1.7-ish mile out-and-back hike along Quail Creek within a stunning canyon. The first obstacle involves some Moki steps that require a bit of courage to cross. The trail continues upstream but will likely be underwater in the winter and spring months. The trailhead is an hour west of Water Canyon.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is a fun place to explore a sand dune habitat and play in the sand. Walk up a dune and have fun running down, sledding down, or rolling down. Repeat over and over. This State Park is 40 minutes east of Water Canyon.

Belly of the Dragon

Belly of the Dragon is a cool place to stop for hikers of all ages. There’s a little cave that has been formed through the rock under US-89. Belly of the Dragon is an hour drive northeast of Water Canyon.

Kanab Sand Caves

The Kanab Sand Caves (also known as Moqui Caverns) are a small man-made cave that can be explored with a short hike. Note that there is a steep scramble that’s needed to get up to the caverns. The Sand Caves are an hour drive northeast of Water Canyon.

Kanab’s Peekaboo Slot Canyon

Peekaboo is a short and beautiful slot canyon near Kanab (not to be confused with the Peekaboo Slot Canyon in Escalante). This canyon requires an off-road vehicle to get to the trailhead. The off-road pullout from US-89 to Peekaboo Slot Canyon is just over an hour northeast of Water Canyon.

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