Echo Canyon

Echo Canyon, another conveniently approachable slot canyon of Zion National Park, touches Zion Canyon a few miles South of the tail of the park road—at the Temple of Sinawava, close to The Narrows. The tip of the canyon falls very abruptly just before the primary valley in an array of sharp steps with fine channels and round potholes set in concrete. However, it emerges as expanded and more in line upstream. The cliffs come close after half a mile upstream, and the lower section of the canyon narrows to become a slot—a few feet broad, with even red and white cliffs rising steep over a sandy ground normally containing several murky water pools. The canyon is rated as 2B II, and you do not require any special permit to explore it!

You can reach the canyon from a junction outside the well-used route to Hidden Canyon—it begins from a parking block, which is two miles from the end of the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. Presently the only mode of reaching here is through free park shuttle! There is a track up the canyon, but this moves to the wider upper portion—quite simple to explore some of the deep canyon below. Above all, to explore the lower portion of the canyon, you are not required to have any special permit—just the Zion National Park entry fee; however, getting down for entire length is an exception, as it involves rappelling.

The track runs parallel to the canyon ground for almost half a mile, on a section. It is flattish and still proportionately wide, but then the stone-like walls immediately around the stream come close instantly. The trail then starts to move up step by step, approaching the upper section of the canyon, broad and extended, with trees and bushes; in spite of the fact that the narrow crack below is still apparent from above, and quite gloomy and deadly. To explore it fully, you need hiking up the trail for one more and a half mile, and you will reach a point where the walls give way sufficient for entry, then moving downstream.

Most fine canyons in Zion National Park have immersed pools, where water runs over rock beds of varying stiffness resulting in a short waterfall and a deep pothole below—both can create a little problem hiking in an upstream direction. Echo Canyon is no exception to this fact—for most of the year, there is a sort of stream running through, and even in summer some water remains in rock fissures.