Neon Canyon & The Golden Cathedral
I guess it must be me, but I can never understand why people fly to the South West and just hit up Vegas. It’s glitzy, I’ll give you that, but a mere 300 miles to the North-East, in Utah, is a small town called Escalante. It sometimes has a shortage of fresh fruit and veg, but the people are awesome friendly, and the town itself sits on the edge of the Escalante Grand Staircase (note: not an actual staircase but 1.9 million acres of protected land). At any rate, we passed through there in 2010, and discovered one of the highlights of our trip, Neon Canyon. A short trip to the BLM Office in Escalante will get you directions. You find your own way across the desert, drop down into a canyon cut by a river, and after a while you’ll hit Neon Canyon, a side canyon. Probably one of the most amazing hikes of my life. Trust me, forget about Vegas. See this place instead.
Just a few notes though:
- Take plenty of water (obviously)
- Consider long pants. You have to navigate down the river for a while, and the horse flies are vicious. They’re like aliens running around in the space ship air ducts, busting through the walls, and eating the crew alive – vicious. They’re not in the canyon though.
- I did it in my shoes. Man, I wish I had done it in my sandals.
- We had a GPS as a safe guard to our map navigation skills.
The Golden Cathedral @ the end of Neon Canyon, Utah
Best hike of my life too, awesome place!
Jay, by any chance do you GPS coordinates to the canyon. Heading out with our kids next June may want to take a hike to Neon canyon…I have a garmin GPS
Thanks Jon
I highly recommend going to the BLM office in Escalente and talking to the staff there. You have to drop into the main canyon a couple miles upstream of Neon, and if you plan to hike (vs rope down) the route is unmarked and different. We used maps and didn’t have any problems.