UT: Zion – Red Caves – July 4th weekend

Best contingency plan ever. Given the flash flooding this past weekend, and more flooding predicted, we needed something safe yet fun.

Red Caves seemed like the best bet. I had called earlier to gain permission, and further talked to a few of the locals on the way. We were warned that the creek washed out the road, so we parked on the highway and hiked in.

The approach is straight forward, and both the upper and lower canyon/caves can be done as a loop if you go up one of them. The recent rains gave us lots of warm water to wade through. No wet suits were needed.

We found a ladder at the exit (our beginning of the trip), which almost gained access past the last rap. However by hiking around and then dropping back in, you can go up canyon and just miss the two raps at the end. We chose to actually rap it, and ascend back out thus gaining the full experience.

These canyons are some of the most photogenic and best I’ve seen. Not much technical, but they are worth visiting.

Thanks to @Mike Zampino for sharing some pics and joining up. We had a blast that day.