Hiking Spring Creek Canyon, Utah

Spring Creek Canyon is an all-around lovely hike – dogs are allowed, there is a small creek that flows year round, there is very little elevation gain, and it all leads to a beautiful slot canyon.

The most popular time to go is April – October when the temperatures are warm and both you and the dogs want to hike in the creek to stay cool. However in winter, there are plenty of routes to avoid walking in water, and it is much less crowded.

The best part about this hike is that while its much more famous neighbor, Kanarra Falls, sees hundreds of visitors each day, Spring Creek Canyon is more on the quiet side. As mentioned in Summer it can still get busy, but on a Winter day mid-week we didn’t see a soul!

You will encounter a few small obstacles but our dogs only needed a boost in one or two spots. Otherwise, its very dog and kid-friendly.

Directions

From Cedar City, Utah use this map link. You can also just type into Google Maps “Spring Creek Canyon Trailhead, Kanarraville” and it will pop up. 4×4 is NOT needed – only the last 1/2 mile drive is a well-graded dirt road. One port-a-potty is available.

Trail Info

Distance: 5 miles RT
Elevation gain: 500 ft
Time: 2-4 hours
Dog friendly? Yes, off leash
Kid friendly? Yes, all ages
Fees/Permits? None

Here we go – what a beautiful blue sky day!

You will follow Spring Creek Canyon the entire way.

Within the first 10 minutes you will see the first creek crossing. Thankfully in March, the water level was quite low making it very easy to get across.

Drop up and down a few small ditches. Charlie leads the way!

Perfect timing for another creek crossing – the dogs were thirsty!

Next walk through flat sections filled with sage brush. Watch out for cactus.

At 1.5 miles Spring Creek Canyon finally narrows.

Now that we were in the shade temps dropped at least 10-15F degrees. The dogs loved it! We were surprised to run into snow.

So pretty! It looks icy, and some parts were but not enough to need microspikes.

Penny & Teddy love to run as fast as possible in cold temps!

The canyon gradually gets more narrow. We helped the dogs up one steep scramble and continued on.

However when we got to this iced-over log jam, we decided to turn around. It would have been very difficult to get three dogs up and over this (plus getting back down!).