Cathedral Wash Trail
Personally, I have a love/ hate relationship with Cathedral Wash Trail near Page, AZ. On one hand, this was probably the most amazing trail I’ve ever hiked. The scenery is absolutely breath-taking, climbing among the rocks while hiking this trail is beyond spectacular and the feeling of adventure here is so incredible. Yet, on the other hand, hiking Cathedral Wash Trail actually scared me. The heat was so intense here, the trail was more difficult than I thought it would be and I simply didn’t realize prior to our hike just how much water our family would go through in such a short period of time.
Below, I’ll take you (step by step) through Cathedral Wash Trail and show you not only what outstanding scenery you can discover here, but also what obstacles you’ll encounter during your hike. In addition, I will provide you with helpful tips so that you can avoid some of the problems that we faced along the way.
I’m hoping that, with this information, you can more comfortably decide whether or not you (and possibly your family, if you have older kids) should hike this spectacular trail at Cathedral Wash.
Where is Cathedral Wash Trail Located?
Cathedral Wash Trail is located in the northern Arizona near Marble Canyon in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. This is about 40 miles (or a 45 minute drive) from Page, AZ.
Cathedral Wash Trail is also only 3 minutes down the road from the Historic Navajo Bridge. (This is a great, quick road trip stop as well!)
How to Get to Cathedral Wash Trail?
When heading south on 89A from Page, just after crossing the Historic Navajo Bridge, you’ll turn right onto Lees Ferry Road. This enters into Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Continue for 1.4 miles. There will be a narrow pullout on the left side of the road where you can park.
(Please note: There is a $30/vehicle fee to enter Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as of 2021. You can also use the America the Beautiful Pass here.)
Once parked, you’ll see a big brown sign for Cathedral Wash Trail. Follow the sidewalk and it will take you down steps and under the road to get to the beginning of the wash.
Please note: There is no toilet at this trailhead.
Important: Do Not Hike Cathedral Wash Trail if it has recently rained or it is going to rain!! This area is prone to flash floods!
How Long is Cathedral Wash Trail?
Cathedral Wash Trail is a 3.3 mile out and back hike according to Alltrails’ website and Google Maps (~1.6 miles each way) but when we hiked it, we walked 4.5 miles.
This trail took us 2 hours 20 minutes of hiking time and we rested for approximately 30 minutes along the way for a total of almost 3 hours.
Hiking Cathedral Wash Trail in Arizona
After following the path under the road from where you parked, the first part of Cathedral Wash Trail is pretty straight forward. The trail is flat, easy to hike, yet very sunny with no shade. (see pictures above and below)
Hiking early in the morning or late in the evening is highly advisable for this trail. And if you are hiking with kids, this portion of the trail would be no problem at all. Just make sure you have sun hats, sunscreen and lots of water because this trail can get really hot.
Along this first portion of Cathedral Wash Trail the rock surrounding you is so unique and incredible looking!
Cathedral Wash Trail will remain flat and easy for about the first 0.8 miles. This section should take less than 30 minutes to walk, but it is in complete sun the entire way.
The lack of shade makes this section incredibly hot and unfortunately for us, we hiked later in the day than I would have liked. (Arizona’s heat wave that day didn’t help us either.) Going when the weather is cooler or not as sunny will dramatically improve your experience here.
One important thing to remember when hiking Cathedral Wash Trail is that the cairns (stacked rocks) will guide your way and show you the best path to take. Look for these cairns on the ledges of either side of the main wash and follow that path. Also, know that for a lot of the hike you will be about 5 feet above the wash, walking on a ledge, on one side or the other of the wash.
The First Scramble
After about 0.9 miles, Cathedral Wash Trail begins to change and turns into a fun rock scrambling adventure!
For reference, (if you are trying to decide whether or not to hike this trail with your family) our children are ages 10, 12, and 14 and my comments will address their thoughts on this trail, its highlights and its difficulties as well.
The picture above shows the first spot where the rock scramble begins. At this point, I thought that this was the big 30′ drop-off that all the reviews talk about. But it is not! This is just one of the first scrambles on the trail. And although it doesn’t look too steep from the angle of the picture above. The picture below shows more of how significant this first drop is.
As you can see, this is decently steep to climb down, but my kids were absolutely loving it! (At the time I wasn’t thinking about having to climb back up this on the way back when everyone was hot and tired. Just something to keep in mind.)
After this first drop, there are several more fun rock scrambles that we all loved.
The Big Drop
At about 1 mile in you will come to the significant 30 foot drop that all the reviews talk about. Most people have a hard time figuring out where to go here. First, always look for the cairns to help guide you (but do know that occasionally they may not be present due to being washed away if there was a recent flash flood). Usually the cairns are there so look for one stacked off to your right (when facing down canyon). Go towards your right and go under an over hanging section. This leads you to a manageable climb down onto a wide ledge.
Below is a picture of this section looking up the canyon (after we had climbed down.) It’s hard to see, but you will be coming on the trail from the right side of this picture. Find the woman in the blue shirt. She is following the trail, to her right, to go around the big drop (which is off to your right in this photo.) Then look below her and find the man. He is coming down, the manageable climb down, to get to the wide ledge mentioned above.
I added a photo (below) of what it looked like as our family was climbing down. This section was really hard to photograph, but I hope these pictures help.
After this steep climb down, with about a 5 foot drop, you will stay to the right and walk on the ledge under an overhang (where you may have to hunch down for a little) until the ledge gets wider. This is the biggest drop and the most difficult part of this trail, so once you pass this section, the rest is much more manageable rock scrambles. (But know that there are still several places where you will be climbing up and down the rocks.)
Remember, What You Climb Down, You’ll Have to Climb Back Up Later
This was also the hardest section to climb back up on our way out when we were all hot and tired. Luckily my husband is 6′ 1″ and athletic and so he was able to help each of us up this cliffside to get back out. This would have been really hard to do without any help.
Finding Our Way
One of the confusing (yet fun adventure) things about this trail is that it is not always obvious which path to take. For example, in the picture above, my husband took the path on one side of the wash, while we were on the other side of the wash because we didn’t see any cairns to guide us as to which side to take. This lead to some back tracking for us (and extra mileage) when one of us would reach and impassable obstacle and have to turn around to go on the other side of the wash.
At this point, we didn’t mind a little back tracking. We were having a great time exploring this gorgeous trail! (See Chris and my youngest on the other side of the wash from myself and my son, Matthew, in the picture above.)
We were having a blast walking along the ledges, crouching and climbing among the rocks and trying to figure out where to go next. It was only after we started getting really hot and began running low on water that the not-so-obvious trail path became more annoying, but I’ll discuss that more later.
At this point, our family was absolutely loving our hike at Cathedral Wash Trail!
Gorgeous Scenery
As we continued we entered into a more narrow slot-like section and walked along the bottom of the wash itself for a little.
The scenery here completely wowed us at every turn. And better yet, this section is in the shade! So make sure you take a moment here to cool off and soak up this incredible atmosphere in the shade before venturing back out into the hot sun.
In the picture above, can you find all three of my kids? Hint, one is all the way to the right, and that ledge is the trail!
Family Hiking Tip:
I don’t recommend hiking this trail with any child that you can’t completely trust near steep drop-offs and who isn’t a confident and careful hiker. This trail can be really dangerous and would probably be completely nerve-racking for most parents.
(For our family, our youngest, Bryan, is 10 and that was pushing it I think. But our family has hiked “A Lot” and Bryan has always been an extremely careful hiker. Aside from needing several boosts to get up onto high rocks and some help getting down off the rocks into the wash, he did really well through it all.)
Please know that there are many places here where someone could get really hurt if they fell and this would be an extremely hard trail to hike out of if you are hurt.
But if you have older kids and if everyone in your hiking party is really careful and responsible, then the challenges of this trail is just one of many things that makes this hike absolutely fantastic!
The Colorado River
Near the end of this amazing out and back hike, the trail opens back up and you’ll soon start to hear the sound of the Colorado River. At this point, when walking in the wash, watch where you step because the ground may be soft and muddy in spots. But just know that in only a few moments you’ll have reached the Colorado River and it’s beautiful!
Take a moment to relax here before beginning your trek back to your car. The water is wonderfully cold and so refreshing. Some people even swim here. We did not, but we really enjoyed splashing the cool water on our faces.
No Shade & Low on Water
One thing to note is that there is no shade when you reach the Colorado River. When we hiked this trail, I was really hoping for a shady spot to relax in before heading back through the wash. Instead the blazing sun was beating down on us and we were getting incredibly hot. Arizona was having an unusual heat wave and it was getting near mid-day. The temperature started getting closer to 100 degrees F (probably hotter in the wash itself) and we were all starting to feel it’s effects.
How We Had Prepared
Immediately before our hike we had eaten lunch where we each drank a full 20 ounce Gatorade. For hiking we each had over a liter of water with us (we had read to take between 1-2 liters per person for this hike) and we had a bunch of cold water and Gatorade waiting for us in the car when we got back. We thought this would be enough for just a 3.3 mile trail that according to the AllTrails website was only supposed to take us 1 hour and 35 minutes to hike. (I had estimated 2 hours because I like to stop and take pictures and enjoy the scenery.) But we were wrong.
What Went Wrong
First, instead of this hike being just 3.3 miles, it ended up being 4.5 miles. Second, this hike ended up taking us almost a 3 hours. Usually this would not be a problem for us, but in the hot Arizona sun every extra minute now mattered.
It was at this point that I was really wishing we had brought our LifeStraw Filtration Bag with us. Then we could have drank the rest of the water we had with us and then collected and filtered cold water from the Colorado River to refill all of our water bottles. Our filtration bag was unfortunately sitting in our car. (Go Figure.) But at this point I was still thinking that we would be ok on water and that we would just need to walk back quickly and not dilly dally.
Heading Back
Heading back, I’ll admit, this was probably one of the hardest, most scary hikes I’ve ever done. We were hot, tired, low on water and I wasn’t thinking clearly. (Let alone trying to think about taking care of my children and making sure they were ok. That alone was pretty scary for me.) And every rock that we had climbed down from and scrambled across while hiking to the river, now had to be climbed up and scrambled across once more.
I could tell I was starting to get heat exhaustion and I was desperate for shade. Not far into our hike back, we each had finished all of our water. I knew that we had a bunch of water and Gatorade waiting for us back at the car. Now I just had to make sure that we got there. At this point we were about 1.2 miles from the car, but at that moment it felt like an eternity away. And scrambling up and across the rocks seemed like a daunting task, especially that steep drop that we had come down at about 1 mile in.
My Amazing Husband
Luckily, my husband, Chris was able to take charge and help the rest of us keep moving. (He’s more used to the heat because he is an avid runner and we live in Florida. Many a time I had thought that he was crazy to go running on hot Florida days, but today I was extremely thankful that all of this training in the intense heat let him function today and be able to guide us to safety.)
I have no idea what we would have done without Chris on this hike. He helped each of us climb back up the rocks in the steep areas, he carried the extra weight from our packs and then when we got near the end, on the flat part, he ran ahead to start the car (to get it cooled down), grabbed drinks and brought them back to us as we were still making our way up the trail. He truly was our hero and saved our hike from becoming a catastrophe!
Mixed Feelings
So now you can see why I have a love/hate relationship with Cathedral Wash Trail. This truly is a spectacular trail with scenery that is absolutely incredible. But it is also a dangerous trail, especially when hiked in the heat of the Arizona sun.
Overall, I completely understand why everyone loves this trail. And I love this trail! But I also understand why it is rated difficult and with the heat from the Arizona sun, this trail can be deadly. So please if you hike Cathedral Wash, go as early as you can, make sure it hasn’t rained recently and bring at minimum 2 or even 3 liters of water per person. Having a water filtration bag (like the LifeStraw Water Filtration Bag) with you where you can refill your water bottles back up at the Colorado River would be an amazing added bonus.
Overall Thoughts
I really do believe that with a few modifications to the timing of our hike, having extra water and having more knowledge about what to expect on Cathedral Wash Trail (a lot of the reviews I read made it sound like it wasn’t hard at all), that our hike would have been one of our all time favorite hikes.
My children also have very mixed feelings about this hike. One of my kids calls it our disaster hike. (He got heat exhaustion and threw up when trying to drink something when we got back.) And my other two have the same mixed feelings of love/hate for this hike that I do. And then there is my husband Chris, who is already talking about going back and hiking this trail again in cooler weather!
Now You Can Decide
Now you know more of what to expect (or possibly encounter) while hiking the Spectacular Cathedral Wash Trail in Arizona. I hope this answered some of your questions and let you better decide on whether or not this is a good trail for you and possibly your family. If you do decide to hike this spectacular trail, then I hope that you found some useful tips on how to avoid potential problems and hopefully turn your own hike at Cathedral Wash into an Amazing Adventure!
We Wish You a Safe Hike with Your Traveling Feet!
Top Gear for Your Hike:
Platypus 2L Collapsible Water Bottle
The perfect way to carry extra water for your hike
(Both Chris and I love this hat!)
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POPULAR TOURS NEAR CATHEDRAL WASH
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