During our stay here in Leeds, we drove down into St. George and stopped at the Inter-agency Visitor Center to gather as much information as we can about this area. One of the things on our bucket list was a drive out to Toroweap Overlook on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, the recent rains and snows had made the road impassable. Our stop was not for naught though; we picked up lots of maps and trail information.
As we chatted with the rangers, we noticed some amazing photos on the walls of the visitor's center. We recognized many of them - Bryce, Antelope Canyon, the Narrows in Zion. We noticed one photo in particular that was a slot canyon with a cool looking waterfall and ladder. "Where's that?" we asked. The ranger informed us that that was Kanarra Falls.
Well, if we can't drive out to see the Grand Canyon, let's take a hike to Kanarra Falls!
On Sunday, March 24, 2019, we drove north from Leeds to Kanarraville. Here we are at the trailhead kiosk. The town of Kanarraville charges $12.00 for parking and trail access and limits the number of visitors to 150 per day. Like its next door neighbor, Zion National Park, this place was getting loved to death. The permit fees help maintain the trail and provide restroom services for the hikers. Here we are at the trailhead:
The trail quickly left town and followed an old gravel road that climbed up into the Hurricane Cliffs. The first part of the trail is rather steep. At 5,700 feet in elevation, we didn't mind stopping to snap a picture of the valley below.
The Kanarra Falls are managed by the Bureau of Land Management. This particular section of the trail is a wilderness study area. Dave stands by the trail sign. Beyond him was the first of many, many stream crossings.
At one point, the old gravel road went right up the stream. Today there is a hiking trail cut into the left side of the cliff. If you look really closely, you can see Kathy way down the creek standing on the new trail cut.
For the next half-mile or so we followed the old road up to the spring which provides Kanarraville with its water supply.
Once we passed the spring, the trail narrowed and began to alternate between hiking in the water and hiking short trails along the banks. Kanarra Creek was constantly cascading down toward the valley as we hiked higher and higher into the mountains.
We did our best to rock-hop as long as we could. But we were warned that sooner or later we would have to walk in the water. We actually wore our kayak boots and neoprene socks so we were ready for the wet, but nothing can prepare you for the cold.
Hidden in nooks and crannies all along the stream were piles of SNOW. Despite the blue skies and warm sun, the creek water was frigid. In the photo below, Kathy does her best to minimize cold by finding the driest rocks to walk across.
The walls began to close in on us.
We soon found ourselves completely surrounded by tall rock walls.
Sunlight rarely finds its way this far down.
We had to wait our turn to climb the ladder. A family with young children were trying to make their way back down the ladder from above the falls. We waited patiently while the little 5 year worked his way from step to step. We made sure to give him a big cheer when he made it down.
Here we are just before taking our turn.
We were glad we made the climb. Here is what we saw as the canyon opened up beyond the first waterfall:
Unfortunately, to go further would require hiking up the right side of the big boulder shown in the photo below. The volume of water didn't bother us -- it was the temperature. Further back, we had passed two women who had climbed up past this boulder, and they were soaked up to the hips, shivering from the cold and their lips had turned blue. I don't know about you, but that's not our idea of fun. We decided to call this our turnaround point.
On the way back, we stopped at the first sunny spot to warm up and eat our lunch. Now that our feet were completely soaked up to our shins, we weren't nearly as careful crossing the steam as we were on the way up -- we just tromped straight through the water when we crossed the stream.
Before long, we were back on the dirt road heading down to the trailhead.
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