RonnieAdventure #0004M1 - Cathedral Wash, Coconino County, Arizona

Although we did not have the opportunity to hike down Cathedral Wash to the Colorado River while we were on our Lees Ferry fishing trip, during the driving home I remembered one time that we did make the trip. We were making preparations for a hike down Paria Canyon and had stopped at Lees Ferry to leave a vehicle and decided to stay overnight at the local motel. Since it was early in the afternoon, we were looking for a local adventure and the park ranger recommended that we hike down Cathedral Wash for a little exercise before eating dinner.

We found the trailhead parking lot for Cathedral Wash to be a wide spot in the road about four miles downstream from the Lees Ferry boat dock. We were the only vehicle parked along the side of the road, so we did not anticipate meeting anyone on the hike. Looking around for the actual trailhead, we discovered that the trail actually starts on the opposite side of the road and then turns back and goes under the road through a concrete culvert. This is a nontechnical hike that is less than three miles in length (roundtrip) that can easily be made in less than two hours, so we did not take a lot of equipment. We also noticed the warning signs not to attempt the hike if it had been raining because the narrow slot canyon can be dangerous during or after a rainstorm and often there is no way to get out of the canyon in the event of a flash flood. This is always good advice when you are in canyon country.

Although this is not one of the most colorful slot canyons in the area, it was a fun hike because as you descend the canyon to the Colorado River (total elevation change of about 300 feet), you often walk on ledges along the sides of the canyon walls. And, like all slot canyons, the views of the rock formations are spectacular. We found a number of dry falls in the bottom of the wash that were easy to negotiate around and in some areas there were large rocks that required some minor scrambling, but no technical climbing gear or ropes were needed.

Walking along ledge in Cathedral Wash

Colorado River at Cathedral Wash

When we arrived at the Colorado River we were surprised to see three other people because we had seen no other vehicles in the trailhead parking lot. Shortly after we arrived, the three people left and started hiking back up the canyon. After taking some pictures we hiked back up the wash to our vehicle and headed for the motel. About a half-mile down the road we found the three people that we had seen hiking out of the canyon walking along the edge of the road toward the motel, so we asked them if they wanted a ride. Much to our surprise, we found out that one man and a woman were from Chile and one man was from Switzerland. When we asked them where there car was, they responded that they didn’t have a car – they had an airplane. The man from Switzerland explained that he was a commercial airline pilot and the woman and man from Chile were his relatives. He went on to tell us that they had flown into LAX and then rented an airplane so that they could tour part of western United States by air. They wanted to visit a slot canyon and somehow had ended up landing their airplane at the Marble Canyon airstrip and walked down to Cathedral Wash; thus, the explanation for no car. We were all staying at the same motel, so we ended up visiting with them at dinner and then decided to invite them on a RonnieAdventure as we traveled to Paria Canyon.