Wahweap Hoodoos are a great place to visit if you’re spending time in the Kanab, Utah and Page, Arizona area, make sure this place is on your hiking list! Ghostly white hoodoos with brown capstones, make for a unique one of a kind landscape, that will make you think you’re on a different planet!
Wahweap Hoodoos Hike Details
Distance – 9.0 miles roundtrip
Approximate hiking time – 4-5 hours
Elevation at Trailhead – 4025 feet
Elevation at Wahweap Hoodoos – 4266 feet
Difficulty – Easy. Route finding ability – Moderate
Trail – Sand, dry wash, Wahweap Creek is occasionally a wet wash, no shade in the wash
Amount of water recommended – 3+ liters
Bathrooms – None
Season to hike – March to November is the best time to hike Wahweap. Can be hot in the summer.
Prone to flash floods? – Yes, can be prone to flash floods. Luckily the gulch is wide enough to find high ground, but watch and respect the weather report.
Permits – N/A
How to get there:
If coming from Page, AZ, take US-89 west out of town. After crossing the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge, take US-89 for 14.6 miles to the tiny town of Big Water, UT. I would recommend going to the Big Water Visitor’s Center for current conditions as well as a map for Wahweap Hoodoos. It is on the left side of the road. It will be on the right side of the road. I would recommend going to the Big Water Visitor’s Center for current conditions as well as a map for Wahweap Hoodoos. After going to the visitor’s center, go straight across US-89 and go straight. The road is call Ethan Allen Road. If you choose not to go the visitor’s center, just turn right onto first road in Big Water, called Ethan Allen Street. If you miss it, just take the next right off of US-89 which is Aaron Burr Street, and double back to Ethan Allen Street. After turning onto Ethan Allen Street, you’ll be heading north for 0.6 miles. You’ll then merge left onto Fish Hatchery Road. This road is a gravel road, so travel with care. Follow Fish Hatchery Road for 2.5 miles. The road will cross a normally dry wash, and most vehicles choose to park here before entering the wash. There is room for 3-4 cars to park. (On some maps it says that Fish Hatchery Road turns into Nipple Creek Road. Regardless of the name, you will stay on the main gravel road.)
If coming from Kanab, UT, take US-89 east out of town for 57.1 miles to the Big Water Visitor’s Center. It will be on the right side of the road. I would recommend going to the Big Water Visitor’s Center for current conditions as well as a map for Wahweap Hoodoos. After going to the visitor’s center, go straight across US-89 and go straight. The road is call Ethan Allen Road. If you choose not to go the visitor’s center, just turn right onto first road in Big Water, called Ethan Allen Street. If you miss it, just take the next right off of US-89 which is Aaron Burr Street, and double back to Ethan Allen Street. After turning onto Ethan Allen Street, you’ll be heading north for 0.6 miles. You’ll then merge left onto Fish Hatchery Road. This road is a gravel road, so travel with care. Follow Fish Hatchery Road for 2.5 miles. The road will cross a normally dry wash, and most vehicles choose to park here before entering the wash. There is room for 3-4 cars to park. (On some maps it says that Fish Hatchery Road turns into Nipple Creek Road. Regardless of the name, you will stay on the main gravel road.)
Hitting the Trail!
I would recommend parking before you cross the dry creek bed. That way, if it does rain, you won’t have to worry about trying to cross a creekbed that may no longer be dry, and get stuck. Parking here will add an extra ten minutes of walking, but it’s flat and easy going. I always recommend having a GPS and a map with you, especially on this hike. I use the Trails Illustrated Map 213 Glen Canyon Recreation Area. You will be heading north from the trailhead/parking area to the Wahweap Hoodoos.
There’s a very good chance that won’t see anyone else on this hike, so you want to make sure that you are prepared. Since you’re walking up a typically dry, wide creekbed, you will not see a marked trail. There are also several dry tributaries that come in from the left (west) of the wide Wahweap Creek. The landscape will look very similar the while hiking to the hoodoos, and it’s possible to get disoriented.
As you leave your vehicle, you have two options:
1) You may begin by following the dirt road across the wash and follow it for 0.5 miles until you reach the 4WD parking area which is marked Wahweap Hoodoos Trailhead, and will be a dirt parking area with room for about 5 or 6 cars on the right side of the dirt road. From there, head directly north up the wide Wahweap Creek wash.
2) You may simply begin to walk up the wide creekbed and head west for about five minutes and then the creekbed will turn north.
Both routes are about the same amount of time and will take you to the same place, which is the wide, typically dry creekbed of Wahweap Creek.
Follow the wide wash!
From here, head north. As you walk up the wide, dry creekbed, there will be two main tributaries coming in from the left. The first one, Coyote Creek comes into Wahweap Creek just north of the 4WD trailhead. It is much smaller than the wide Wahweap wash, but occasionally hikers accidentally take this only to have to turn around a couple of minutes later. (The other main wash that comes in from the left is about 2.5 miles up Wahweap Creek. This is West Fork which will lead to Sidestep Canyon.) Please be alert, so you don’t take a wrong turn. Once again that wash is considerably smaller than Wahweap Creek wash.
Approximately 1.5 miles from the 2WD Trailhead (the trailhead described in this article) you’ll come to a hanging fence that should span the width of the dry Wahweap Creek. Walk under the hanging fence and continue north up the wide creekbed.
The landscape on either side of the dry wash is not very spectacular, but just a ways past the hanging fence, along the right side of the wash, if you look closely are the entrances to two small slot canyons. The entrances are about 500 feet apart and are fun to explore. Exploring these short slots will take less than 30 minutes. They are shallow but the cream colored walls are a unique change from typical slots. Remember, that since it is a slot canyon the conditions in the slot can change with each flash flood that scours races through it. There may be chockstones, which create impassable dryfalls. Always proceed with safety in mind.
At about 3 miles from the trailhead, you’ll start to see the walls rising and West Fork wash will come in on the left. Continue north up the wide Wahweap Creek. About a mile after West Fork wash you’ll begin to see the short formation of hoodoos protruding from the walls on the left side of the wash. At this point you may be able to make out some social trails that will lead you to some of the hoodoos.
Feel free to photograph the hoodoos, but please do not touch them or climb around them. They are fragile and we want to make sure that those after us can enjoy them too. After the first cluster of white hoodoos, with the brown caps. If you continue past the main cluster of hoodoos, just a quarter of a mile north and on the same side of the wash, is the Great Ghost hoodoo, the most impressive in my opinion.
This area is best photographed early in the morning as it is bathed in light and not in shade, although mid-day works as well, the colors just may not be as rich.
Once you’re ready to head back, just retrace your steps from the way that you came, which will be due south. The hike from start to finish will take about 5 to 6 hours to complete.
