Walking the Hidden Canyon Trail

Zion National Park has so many options to explore. On our second day in the park we decided to try to get away from the crowds and seek out a slightly less popular route. We read about a Hidden Canyon trail and thought it sounded like just what we had in mind. Feeling like I needed to build my confidence back after backing down from the last section of Angel’s Landing, we thought the steep and narrow Hidden Canyon trail would be perfect reassurance.

Foliage along the Hidden Canyon Trail

The trailhead starts at Weeping Rock, which produces some pretty amazing hanging gardens. According to our shuttle driver the water takes 1200 years to penetrate through the rock and feed the greenery that dangles from the rocks. Hidden Canyon Trail climbs the east wall of Zion Canyon. The side-canyon at the end includes some narrow slots that were fun and challenging to scramble around. The trail is about 4.5 miles in length, and Hidden Canyon feels truly remote and rugged, a nice change of pace.

Chain on the rock-ledge

Our hike started with a well-maintained switchback path and slowly turned into sand and rock. Before reaching the mouth of Hidden Canyon you must use several anchored chains to make your way around some cliff edges. Hidden Canyon Trail, we later learned, is said to be as challenging and vertigo-inducing than Angel’s Landing. Great. The drop-off was super steep, but the climb and the views were thrilling enough to command our full attention. Fortunately, we didn’t pass many other hikers, since navigating around to pass each other was challenging in these narrow spots of 2-3 feet or so in width.

The trail ends at the entrance to Hidden Canyon. When you enter, the floor of the canyon itself is a dry creek bed. This probably has some run off during spring from snow melt, but when we arrived it was like walking on the beach. Hidden Canyon was narrow and steep-walled. The sandstone was carved out by the wind and water in some pretty interesting formations. Near the end of the canyon there is a free-standing arch that is about twenty feet across.

he Arch at Hidden Canyon

The canyon gets more and more narrow until no amount of climbing and scrambling without canyoneering tools will get you any further. We ate our gas-station ham and cheese sandwich with a granola bar and sipped our water while sitting on a fallen log before making our way back.

Hidden Canyon Trail and more Zion photos.