About Peekaboo Canyon in Kanab, UT

All of our Kanab tours include a meander through the gorgeous, red rock slot canyon known locally as Peekaboo. The ½-mile canyon is one of the easiest slots to walk through in Southern Utah. It is not to be confused with another slot canyon that is also called Peekaboo that lies off Hole-in-the-Rock-Road near Escalante and is usually explored on the same trek as Spooky Gulch.

At our Peekaboo Canyon, brilliant red Navajo sandstone walls tower about 80 feet over a narrow slot that has been carved into abstract shapes over the millennia by flowing water. The first narrow section is short, but continue walking up the wash and the slot soon narrows again and it becomes deeper and darker. Eventually hikers come to another rock jam that’s high overhead, and they turn around and exit the way they came in.

About half way through the hike, keep an eye out for Moqui steps on the left side of the slot canyon. This stairway was carved by Anasazi roughly 800-1,000 years ago. It is likely these Native Americans stored grain on the high ledges of the slot canyon, perhaps to protect their food from rats and mice that carry hantavirus.

Further into the slot canyon, you’ll see logs that are wedged in the slot high overhead – evidence of flash floods that have torn through this landscape. Warnings of flash floods in slot canyons are real. It is essential to be aware of the weather and have a good understanding of a landscape before entering a slot canyon. Peekaboo Slot Canyon is safer than many other slot canyons because it has a fairly small draining. A summit lies about 8 miles north of the slot, meaning it takes a very local storm to flood the canyon. Some slot canyons, such as Buckskin Gulch in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, have a very large draining. Slots like this are particularly dangerous because you could be hiking under clear blue skies and be surprised by a deadly flash flood that originated from a storm many miles away. The Peekaboo Slot Canyon near Kanab gets deadly flash floods also but they are less frequent and the hiker would have some idea that there is a storm in the area and it is a good day to stay out of the slot canyon.

Why is there more than one Peekaboo Canyon?

In early ranching days, “peekaboo” was a general term used for any narrow canyon because kids loved to hide among the steep, curvy walls and play peek-a-boo. The name has perpetuated for several slot canyons in Utah including this one where we do so many tours.

Hike Peekaboo, it’s easy!

Many slot canyons are not accessible by vehicle and often have mud, cold pools of water, large obstacles or pour-offs that require climbing gear. Peekaboo Canyon is dry, and the floor is mostly flat with only a couple of small obstacles that almost everyone can negotiate.  As of summer 2021, a flash flood created a ~5ft mid-canyon obstacle that requires the ascent of a ladder.  In other sections of the canyon, small rocks strewn about do make the footing uneven at times.
We drive guests right up to the entrance of the slot canyon. From there, the tour is a mostly easy stroll, about 1 mile or less round trip. This is also a great tour in the summertime because you’re out of the sun most of the time, and the rocks in the slot canyon hold the cool temperature from the night before.

Getting to Peekaboo

Peekaboo Slot Canyon lies off Highway 89 about seven miles north of Kanab. This is where things get interesting. The next 3.5 miles or so traverse very deep sand along BLM route 102, which drops you to a wash about one mile downstream of the slot canyon. We drive up this wash and right to the entrance of the slot canyon. Some choose to hike the sand roads from Highway 89. The distance is roughly 4 miles each way, but hiking through that deep, loose sand makes the hike feel longer. There is limited cell service and the network of sand roads is confusing, so some hikers never actually find the slot canyon. Driving is a challenging option, too. The sand is really deep. Even with a good four-wheel drive vehicle with abundant ground clearance, good off-road tires and deflating your tires properly for sand driving some drivers still get stuck. This is not the road to practice your sand driving skills if you are inexperienced. To get a good sense of how bad the sand is, read a blog post one of our guides wrote about driving to Peekaboo. The good news about the difficult road is it thins the crowds. On most trips we see very few others here.

Photographing the canyon

Lighting changes quickly in the slot canyon and varies every few steps because more light filters into the slot where the canyon is wider. If you shoot with manual settings, you will have to change your ISO continuously. Even in mid summer, it is fairly dark in the back of the canyon and a tripod may be necessary for longer exposures in a couple of dark sections. Most of the canyon is light enough that a tripod is not necessary and some areas are quite sunny.

The best time to photograph the canyon in the summer time is in the early morning or late afternoon: Choose a tour start time of 8 or 10 a.m. or an afternoon time of 4 p.m. or try our sunset tour.  In the winter months when the sun is lower in the sky, midday is best in the slot canyon. We do see some light beams in Peekaboo in the summertime.  For the casual photographer, iPhones and other smart phone cameras work – surprisingly – remarkably well for producing great slot canyon photos. They are good at compensating for the uneven lighting in the canyon.

Another tip for shooting in the slot canyon is look for areas where the light is less varied. It is hard for a camera to compensate when there is a dark shadow and a bright sunny area in the same frame. Try to compose photos so that the light is more even and the exposure will be even, avoiding areas that are both very dark or overexposed in the same photograph.

A great family hike

We love experiencing the slot canyon with kids, it’s like seeing nature through fresh eyes. It’s impossible to lose kids in the slot canyon, so this trek make the parent’s job easier. And kids love climbing around on the curvy walls in the shade where it stays relatively cool, even in the summer heat.