Cottonwood Canyon

The Red Cliffs wilderness area is a beautiful area to be and explore. My family and I took a backpacking trip recently over spring break to this area for 2 days. This is a BLM land, and at one point in the hike, the trail passes through the edge of Zion National Park. The trail that we took was Cottonwood Canyon. It is a very rough expanse of land with mostly boulder hopping and sand for the entirety of the hike. It is in a washed up river bed that has many twists and turns. The canyon is shaped by the river encompassing you with beautiful cliff walls, full of the orange and red color scheme, reaching very high up to the sky.

This trail is not for beginners and is difficult. At the beginning of the hike it starts out on a well defined trail that comes before the river bed. This part is moderately easy to navigate; however, the trail soon splits into two trail heads: Quail Creek and Prospector Trail. At this point we accidentally took Quail Creek instead of the right way: Prospector. This led to some cross country traveling cutting back to the right trail after realizing that we had made the mistake. Once you are in the river bed it is easy to navigate without many other options other than what is in the river bed. The trail is about 7.8 miles long; however, you can stop depending on the conditions of how far and long you want to go (and how tired your legs are). To get the full experience of this scenic hike I would recommend staying at least one night in the canyon. The further you travel, the more exquisite the land becomes.

The rock formations that have been developing over many thousands of years are something you can only experience by going deep into the canyon. The harder the hike, the greater the reward!