Belly of the Dragon
About 17 miles north · Free · Ten minutes on foot
Start here if you have never been in a slot, or if you have somebody with you who is not sure they want to be. Belly of the Dragon is a tunnel under US-89 near Mount Carmel that running water has worked into ribs and hollows, and the name is not an exaggeration.
It is free, it is a few minutes off the highway, and the walk is short enough to fit inside a drive rather than needing a day of its own. There is no permit, no dirt road and no vehicle requirement. Take a torch.
Wire Pass into Buckskin Gulch
Off House Rock Valley Road · Day permit · Half a day or more
The serious one that anybody reasonably fit can do. Wire Pass narrows within the first mile and delivers you into Buckskin Gulch, the longest hikeable slot canyon anywhere, where the walls close over and the light turns amber and reflected.
You buy an inexpensive day use permit online, priced per person and per dog. How far you go into the gulch is up to you; there is no obligation to do the whole thing, and most day hikers walk in until it stops being fun and then walk out.
This is flash flood country, and the sky above you is not the one that matters. Buckskin drains an enormous area and a storm you cannot see can put water through it. Locals check the forecast before going in even when the weather overhead looks settled, and the summer monsoon months are when it counts most.
Peekaboo, also called Red Canyon
North of town · Short walk, hard road · Guide, four wheel drive or a long approach
This is the one on the postcards: tall red walls, Moqui steps cut into the rock, moss where water sits. The canyon itself is short, well under a mile in and back, and it is beautiful in a way that photographs have not managed to exhaust.
The difficulty is entirely in the approach. The access road runs a couple of miles through deep sand and all wheel drive does not get through it. Realistically you want a four wheel drive with the tires aired down, a rented side by side, or a guided trip from town. In winter, when the sand is frozen firm, it occasionally goes without either, but that is not something to plan around.
Buckskin Gulch end to end, and Coyote Buttes South
Multi day or technical · Separate permits · Experience required
Beyond the day hiking there is a harder tier. Buckskin Gulch walked in full, usually with a night in Paria Canyon, runs on a separate overnight permit system with far fewer spots, and it involves committing to a canyon that is difficult to leave partway. Deep cold water, log jams and route finding are all normal parts of it.
Coyote Buttes South, meanwhile, is a permit area rather than a slot, but it belongs in the same conversation because the access sand on that side defeats more trips than the terrain does. Both of these are trips to build up to rather than start with.
What this list leaves out, and why
- Coyote Buttes North and the Wave. It is a permit area rather than a slot canyon, and the lottery system behind it needs a page rather than a paragraph. That is the permits guide.
- The unnamed drainages. There are dozens of them out here and some are excellent, but publishing route descriptions for unmarked canyons on ground with no cell coverage is how people get hurt. Hire somebody local if you want to go further than this list.
- Zion's Narrows and the Subway. Both are slot country, both are on the far side of the park, and both belong to the three parks guide rather than to Kanab.
