Hiking in a Cool Slot Canyon near Kanarraville Utah…

Before we left Leeds, Utah I had found another hike that sounded real interesting. We had discussed wanting to hike the Narrows Trail in Zion National Park but the weather was never warm enough for me to want to hike a long time in cold water. Luckily, after researching on the web I found what was described as a mini Narrows Trail near Kanarraville, Utah.

 

We drove north about 30 minutes and pulled into the town of Kanarraville. The city charges $10.00 per car to park at the trailhead but allows free parking near the town hall on Main Street. We elected to park near the town hall and ride our bikes to the trailhead. Not only did we get a little more exercise we saved ten buck as well…

 

The Kanarra Creek Trail is just east of center of town in Kanarraville and the trail began on a old dirt road that was once used to get to the trailhead before the city erected the fee paid parking lot. The dirt road is on an uphill grade that .had us a bit winded. At the end of the dirt road we encountered our first creek crossing. Knowing that we going to have to cross the creek many times we elected to rock hop across the creek for as long as we could as we were in no hurry to get our feet wet in the very cold water of the creek.

 

We crossed many times and as we made our way further up the canyon  the trail began to narrow which meant we had to scramble over some rocks to try and keep our feet dry. We came prepared with water shoes to wear once we got to where we would be unable to avoid crossing the creek without getting wet and eventually we got to a spot where we decided it was time… Man that water was cold! Not much further down the trail we encountered the main feature of this trail… the slot canyon. The vertical walls constricted leaving only the creek as a trail. The walls weren’t further than 10 feet apart in places making for a very, very cool hike.

 

We hiked in the creek bed for a short time enjoying the slot canyon while looking skyward at the thin slit of blue sky above. We eventually came to the Lower Kanarraville Falls which was our goal for this day. Although we knew there was another Upper Waterfall to also hike to, we had no real plans of making it that far. We did however decide to take the ladder and rope element up and over the Lower Falls. Knowing this would be a challenge for Sharon because of her fear of heights I encouraged  her slowly all the way up the ladder. She made it over the top boulder and we continued to hike a bit further even though we were now out of the slot canyon…

  

Deciding we had gone far enough and not wanting to keep our feet cold we elected to turn back. As we came back to the Lower Falls I asked Sharon if she wanted to have me go first and then her follow or just her go it alone. After much consternation she decided to go it alone and when she reached the bottom she had a great sense of accomplishment of overcoming her fear and being able to manage the obstacle on her own.

We then walked in the creek through the magnificent slot canyon once again. We couldn’t feel our feet as they were very, very cold. After we emerged on the other side of the canyon we tried to stay out of the water so our feet would warm. It was a mile or so down the trail before they began to thaw but once the trail merged into the sun again we at least felt much warmer.

We hiked about 4.5 miles overall and met only a few groups of people along the way.  This was, we felt, our best hike of all ones we took while we were in this area. Next up for us after all this remote rural camping is some urban scenery as we are now in Las Vegas at the Main Street Station RV Park…