A couple of years ago I began searching for off-the-beaten track hikes in Zion and discovered that while many of them are technical (climbing/rope skills required), some are relatively easy. Many Pools Canyon is one such hike. We have hiked there once before, but decided to return and explore a little farther.
Climbing the slick-rock wash
Access to the canyon is about a half-mile east of the short tunnel on highway 9. There is parking in a good-sized turnout. A short hike up the road leads to an obvious place to scramble down into the canyon bottom and begin route-finding up the wash. The canyon is wide with lots of slick-rock and a number of bathtub-size potholes in the drainage channel. I’d love to see the area when the snow is melting and the drainage has flowing water.
Some of the many pools
Surveying the bottom part of the canyon
We mostly followed the bottom of the wash, although in a couple of places we needed to climb around a dry-fall. Towards the upper end of the canyon the wash became narrower and more brushy, but we found a nice use-trail up out of the wash that was quite nice. We turned around when the canyon became more choked, but clearly an intrepid hiker could continue up and reach the east rim.
One of the dry-falls that we worked around
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