Water Canyon

Water Canyon is a slot canyon north of Hildale, Utah on the side of Canaan Mountain near the Arizona border. This is a short, but beautiful hike/scramble. We hiked 3.5 miles with about 500 ft of elevation gain.
The first mile is on sand and rocks following the stream.

 The canyon walls are beautiful, this is in the Vermillion Cliffs area.

 There is some short scrambling to do on the way to the slot canyon

a small arch can be seen high up in the cliffs

 Looking back down the cliff wall toward the beginning of the trail

 There is plenty of green vegetation in the section where the canyon walls narrow and water falls over the ledges.

 a beautiful canyon, with gorgeous rocks

 the walls tower above us

 so much fascinating scenery.

 each short section has beauty to it

 later, we saw rock climbers coming down the waterfalls

 from here, the trail climbs up the side of Canaan Mountain

 on a variety of ledges

 some sections are very narrow, with steep drop offs

 As we continued to ascend up the side of Canaan Mountain we could see these "beehive" features across the canyon

 Looking back down the canyon

 Looking up toward the top of Canaan Mountain

 When we had climbed as high as we felt comfortable, we stopped to enjoy the view of the surrounding cliffs before returning the way we came.

 We decided to wade in the creek to cool off before returning to the car.

Some of the wildflowers and cacti we saw in bloom today::