Kanarra Creek (AKA Spring Creek Canyon)

Update 8/13/2019:

As of March 1, 2019, permits are now required for this hike for $12 per person and typically sell out about a week prior to the date they are desired. 150 permits per day are issued. Permits can be obtained at www.kanarrafalls.com

After trying to get a permit for the Subway in Zion National Park to no avail, some friends and I decided to try another slot canyon, just north of Kolob Canyons. Besides the Narrows, this would be my first attempt at canyoneering, albeit a tame one. Bruce Summerhayes, Nick McKinlay and I met at the gas station by exit 16 in Hurricane at 9:00. We quickly hopped in Nick’s truck and were on our way. We took exit 41 and headed north toward Kanarraville for a couple of miles. One in the small town we found 100 North, took a right, and followed the road for a short distance until in turned to dirt. We saw a gate with a sign indicating that parking for the hike was back in town. There was an obvious parking area just off to the left before reaching the gate so we pulled in there and were on our way at about 10:00.

The trail starts by passing through the gate and hiking towards the water tanks. Once past the tanks the trail descends into Kanarra Creek Canyon. Soon the creek is visible to the right and the trail enters the creek after about .5 of a mile.

For most of the hike, there are short trails to avert the water if you so desire. Because the water was usually only a few inches deep, it wasn’t too much harder to just stay in the creek. Soon after we entered the creek and the cliffs started closing in, my GPS unit lost reception.

The water was cold and my feet soon began to ache and became numb shortly thereafter. As we entered the “narrows” the high water marks were visible in places and it was a reminder to us that this was not the place to be in a flood. We also noticed one of the old ladders (used for assistance in climbing the two waterfalls) that had apparently been washed down stream during a flood.

We came to the first of two obstacles – about a 10 foot waterfall. At the time we hiked it, there was a makeshift ladder with wooden rungs nailed into it with a short section of metal also for two footholds. There was also a rope hanging off to the right for balance, I guess. All in all, a pretty easy obstacle to get up, assuming that you are placing your feet in the center of the wooden rungs and not on the edges where they would twist a little.

Once up, the canyon walls are still just feet apart. About half way in between the first and second waterfalls, there is a little pool with a natural water slide going down into it. Bruce decided he would slide down on our way back.

We continued on and came to the second waterfall. This one was a little more challenging to get up. The water from the waterfall was poring down on the ladder portion, which was only about 4 feet high. The pool of water by the bottom of the ladder was also one of the deeper pools we encountered. The ropes attached to the right side of the wall came in handy here. Once to the top of the ladder, I grabbed the rope and hand over hand climbed as I carefully placed my feet on wet rock where the water from the water fall was coming down. It was a short hand over hand but with the slippery rock, made it a bit more challenging.

After the second waterfall, there is a short section of narrows and then the canyon starts to open up a bit with much more vegetation than had been present earlier. We hiked for about another 1-2 miles up stream and finally decided to stop, eat our snacks, and turn around and head back.

Retracing our steps was easy and quick. Our feet had also warmed up by this point. But the exciting part on the way back was watching Bruce go down the “water slide.” The pool at the bottom was only about 5 feet deep, and Bruce swears he saw icebergs floating in it. At least I was cold watching him!

We made it back to the truck about 1:00 after hiking for about 3 hours. I would guess that we hiked about 5 miles round trip, though my GPS unit showed about 2.8. It was out of reception range for a majority of the hike. Kanarra Creek was a very beautiful hike, similar to the Narrows in Zion National Park, but with much tighter sections of narrows and with a couple of waterfalls that needed negotiating making it a little more interesting.