The Adventurous Arizona Hiking Trail Full Of Water-Carved Canyons That Leads To A Serene Beach

Journey to the rushing rapids of the Colorado River. Test your skills with some tricky scrambles. Walk along the walls of a red canyon so enormous that just looking at the rock formations around you makes you feel tiny. This is the Cathedral Wash Trail. Even though the famous Double Arch landmark collapsed back in 2024, the Arizona side of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is definitely still worth a visit for the chance to experience this thrilling hike for yourself.

But as exciting as it can be to experience natural landscapes like this on your own, this isn't a spot where you should take your first solo hike. Cathedral Wash Trail is, as the name implies, a wash, a geological passageway where water flows downhill, in this case, to meet the river. As you explore this incredible landscape, taking in craggy red layers of ancient stone around you, you're going to need to navigate some trickier parts of the trail, and that's a lot harder to accomplish safely on your own.

The views at the beginning of this hike are beautiful, if typical of other natural landscapes of the Southwest. If you stick with it, though, more unique and intriguing sights begin to reveal themselves. As the rough red walls of the canyon rise up around you, you'll find yourself in an almost alien landscape. After the first, relatively easy mile of your journey, you'll arrive at the dry falls. This steep, 30-foot drop is definitely difficult to traverse, but not necessarily as impossible as it appears. It's not immediately obvious what the safest route down is, but with a little exploration, experienced hikers will find their way.

There are many different ways hikers traverse deep into the canyon, but if you don't see a way that appeals to you, consider looking on the right-hand side, near the rock wall. There are some steps that you can take down, but be aware that they are quite far apart, so if you don't have long legs, they might be dangerous to navigate.

As you continue on your way, there will be more steep areas, so you may have more luck navigating the trail on ledges than on the ground. If you doubt a particular way is safe, there's nothing wrong with changing your mind and trying a different route to get to the river — some hikers even crawl part of the way. After all of this, once you've celebrated your victory at the serene, chilly waters of the river, it's time to make your way back up.

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is nestled in amongst the "Grand Circle" of US National Parks, which includes icons like Zion and the Grand Canyon, so if you're planning a road trip to see them all, this hike is a perfect addition to your itinerary. If you're hoping to catch a flight straight to Glen Canyon, you'll want to book your tickets to the nearby Page Airport and pick up a rental car. In just a few minutes, you'll be inside the park.

You'll need to pay the park entrance fee when you drive in (unless you happen to have an America the Beautiful National Park Pass). Once you find yourself on Lees Ferry Road in the park, you aren't far from the Cathedral Wash Trailhead. Keep an eye out for the parking area to your left, and then hit the trail. But be warned: some hikers have reported that cell phone reception around the trail can be spotty, so you may want to take a look at the route in advance rather than relying on your mapping app to find your way.

White some people have successfully hiked this trail with their kids, it's generally not considered a hike for pets, children, or inexperienced hikers. If there's any chance of precipitation in the forecast, skip this hike and come back another day. This wash was created by massive amounts of water rushing downhill, and there is a risk of dangerous flash flooding whenever it rains. Even if the rain itself is over, mud from recent precipitation tends to make this hike even more difficult.