How to Hike Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch Slot Canyons

Are you considering hiking Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch Slot Canyons? Good – you should! Read on for a detailed guide on how to do it.

If you like a bit of adventure and a really unique type of hike, Spooky Gulch and Peekaboo Slot Canyons are absolutely an experience you need to have!

These vibrant orange, pink, and red-orange canyons have twisting, turning trails and super tight, super narrow passages and make for an unforgettable hike.

Both canyons are part of the Dry Forks Slot Canyons area, which is part of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which is run by the Bureau of Land Management. This is a very remote area of southern Utah, and is neither a state nor national park.

Hiking Peek-a-boo and Spooky Gulch slot canyons (or, as we affectionately call them: Spookaboo canyons) was one of my favorite hikes ever, and is one of the absolute best slot canyons to explore in Utah.

Quick Tip: If you’re planning a Southwest US road trip, I recommend reserving a rental car ASAP for the best prices and availability. I always book my car with this rental car aggregate site to find the best deals.

Everything You Need to Know About Hiking Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch Slot Canyons

Here’s everything you need to know about hiking in Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch slot canyons, including how to get there, what the hike is like, and a ton of practical information and details at the end!

How to Get To the Trailhead

Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch Slot Canyons are two slot canyons located right next to each other and can easily be combined into the same hike, making one big loop.

Right next to these two canyons is a third slot canyon: Dry Fork Canyon. While still considered a slot canyon, it is much wider and less windy than Peek-a-boo and Spooky, so most people choose to skip Dry Fork and just do the other two.

However, if you are claustrophic, are traveling with very young children, or want to bring your dog, Dry Fork is a great and still cool option that would be a better choice for those situations!

As we mentioned in the introduction, the slot canyons are part of the Dry Forks Slot Canyon area, and are located in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Southern Utah. There are two trailheads for this hike: the Upper Dry Fork Trailhead and Lower Dry Fork Trailhead. We parked in the Lower Dry Fork Trailhead. this is where most people park.

If the Lower Dry Fork Trailhead parking lot is full, there is an overflow lot about a half mile south, or you can park at the Upper Dry Fork Trailhead. If you park in the Upper Dry Fork Trailhead, you will hike in through Dry Fork slot canyon to reach Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch canyons. So, this is also just a good option overall if you are interested in doing all three.

Driving Hole in the Rock Road

To arrive at the Lower Dry Fork Trailhead, you will need to drive for about an hour on Hole in the Rock Trail (it’s also named as BLM 200 on Google Maps), which is off of Highway 12. You will drive 28 miles total, which took us about an hour. It’s slow going as the road is not in good condition.

After 26 miles, you’ll come to the turnoff from Hole in the Rock Road for BLM 252, or K9285. It’s not super well marked, so I would download off-line maps for this ahead of time so you can watch for the turnoff on your maps when you lose cell service.

I would also recommend resetting your odometer when you turn onto Hole in the Rock road and watching for the turnoff at 26 miles. Once you turn onto BLM 252/K9285, you’ll follow the road all the way to the end for the main parking area.

You should know that Hole in the Rock road is unpaved and unmaintained and is essentially an incredibly bumpy washboard, with occasional sections that are particularly bad (sandy, big potholes). We did not have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and did the drive in our old minivan just fine.

They do say the road is much harder to traverse if it has rained recently and the road is muddy. I don’t think our minivan would have made it if it was muddy.

We started driving Hole in the Rock road at about 25 miles an hour, but then realized that going a little bit faster, around 40 mph, actually helped our van skim across the washboard instead of hitting every bump.

Now, this does come with a little more risk because you can come across a big pothole or a sandy area unexpectedly, and will need to slow down for these areas. We found that 10-15 miles an hour in the really bad (sandy, big pothole) sections was about the right speed.

Peekaboo + Spooky Gulch Slot Canyon Trail Stats + Map

• Distance: 5.2 miles
• Elevation Gain: 604 ft
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Time to Complete: 3-4 hours (we took 4 hours, but we were hiking with kids and did take a couple of breaks between the canyons for resting in the shade + snacks)

At the Trailhead

When you arrive at the parking lot and trailhead, there are vault toilets and this “tightness guide.” At it’s narrowest, Spooky Gulch is only 10 inches wide! These posts demonstrate how large that gap is, so you can test and see if you will fit through (you’ll definitely need to turn sideways and hand-carry backpacks).

Note that there is basically no cell reception in this area. If you cannot fit through, I would just do Dry Fork Slot Canyon instead. Matthew is a fairly big guy, and he did fit through this guide – tightly – but even then there was a spot in Spooky that he almost got stuck and had to do some creative movement to get through.

Starting the Hike

One important thing to know is that you will actually have a 1.5 mile hike before you even reach the slot canyons! This hike starts through dry, scrubby desert.

And then continues on along the edge of these ridges. These two sections are pretty flat and last about 1 mile.

While most of the way it’s pretty obvious where to go, there are some spots that you should pay attention to where the rocks and cairns are, marking where the trail goes. If you’re not familiar with cairns, they are piles of stacked rocks that mark a trail. You can see the cairn in the right-middle side of the photo, below.

Eventually, you’ll start heading down from the rocky ridge and into the path that leads to the slot canyons. This 1/2 mile stretch of the trail is fairly steep and sandy, although rarely at the same time.

Our kids didn’t love how much sand was getting in their shoes, which was pretty unavoidable with tennis shoes. Matthew had hiking shoes and they were tight enough to repel the sand a bit more.

Entering the Peekaboo Slot Canyon

I would recommend starting with Peekaboo Slot Canyon and doing a loop, ending with Spooky Gulch Slot Canyon. This is the route most people take, and while everyone loves to escape crowds and get off the beaten path, I wouldn’t recommend it here.

The reason? It is HARD to let someone who is going the opposite direction pass you when you’re in the very narrowest parts of the canyons. It’s easier to just go the same direction!

Okay so you’re at the start of Peekaboo Slot Canyon. First, you’ll need to scale up a 15 foot rock wall to enter the canyon! This is a little tricky and requires some hoisting, but helping hoist and pull each other up in a group makes this go a lot easier.

Pro tip: Use your legs more than your arms as much as you can. Getting your foot in a little nook and pushing yourself up is easier than using your arms to pull yourself up.

When you’re finally in, you’ll be treated to these cool rock formations! Aren’t the arches and tunnels incredible?!

The undulations in the walls are magnificent! The rocks are orange, and sometimes more pink, depending on the angle of the sun. The canyon does tight, little turns, creating a lot of visual interest and making the hike pretty exciting as you twist and turn your way through.

By my estimation, the canyon walls were anywhere from 15-30 feet tall, depending on the section, giving you a sense of being enveloped in the rock.

I’m slightly claustrophobic, but didn’t have any problem in these canyons, because the top was open to the sky (if I had been doing this in a cave I think my claustrophobia would have definitely come out more).

Peekaboo Slot Canyon ranges from pretty narrow to actually decently wide. There are also some small arches that you’ll have to duck through and some small ledges and rocks you’ll have to climb up and over. The most difficult sections are near where you start, with a couple more tricky ledges. After that it’s a more casual experience, just enjoying the vibe.

This is at the end of the Peekaboo Slot Canyon. Here, the canyon is pretty wide and easy to walk through. Note that the entire time in the slot canyons you are walking through sand!

Peekaboo Slot Canyon is not long in pure distance, but it will definitely take you more time than anticipated to hike through the canyon.

Between Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch Slot Canyon

Once you finish Peekaboo slot canyon, you’ll go over and around rocky hills and sand dunes to reach the beginning of Spooky Gulch slot canyon. This section of the hike is a little less than a half mile long. The trail isn’t super obvious here, so just pay close attention to following the cairns along the rock face.

This is a good spot to remind you that although the canyons are the focus of the hike, much of the hike is along exposed trails and you will want to have some good sun protection.

Entering Spooky Gulch Slot Canyon

Finally, you’ll enter Spooky Gulch slot canyon! This slot canyon has plenty of similarities to Peekaboo, but, despitethe proximity in location, it has a few key differences. First, the walls have more knobby protuberances on them, as you can see in the picture below.

Also, the canyon is definitely much narrower than in Peekaboo slot canyon. You will need to hold your bag and walk sideways for a big chunk of this canyon! The narrowness of the canyon makes it a little bit darker, as well.

There are some arches to duck under…

And overall, just some of the absolutely coolest curving rock walls. You’ll look at these sections of the trail and think, “There’s no way I could fit through that,” but sure enough, you’ll make it through!

Pay Attention to This Spot

Now, there is one spot in Spooky Gulch that you’ll need to be particularly careful at. This spot has a big rockfall, with large boulders piled up (this happened thanks to flash flooding). There’s a small hole with a 10-15 foot drop to where the trail continues.

It’s a decent drop and the angle and rock placements are a little funky, so there’s also a rope with some foot holds to help you safely descend.

However, when Matthew went down first, his foot got caught weird in the rope and his center of mass got out of line with the rope, and he tilted and swung, which made his foot get caught above his waist.

Thankfully, there was another person at the bottom who quickly jumped in and helped Matthew get rebalanced and recentered, but it was a tense moment.

While this was mostly just an unlucky incident, this is definitely a spot to use plenty of safety and caution as you descend! Matthew turned his body around to descend, but after his experience, the rest of us went down facing forward, and we found that with this orientation it was actually easier to stay balanced.

Hiking Back

When you finally exit the tight slot canyon, the sudden openness can be jarring. Fortunately, you still get to walk through a fun canyon and some cool scenery. Be prepared for some sandy hiking – it makes it a bit harder on the ascents.

When you reach the sandstone rock, it becomes much easier to hike, but… it’s pretty steep. That, plus the fact that it was much warmer than when we started, made this hike up much harder for our kids. However, you’ll reach flat ground soon enough, and then it’s an easy hike back to the parking lot.

Practical Information and FAQ’s

When to Go and When Not to Go

You can do this hike anytime of year, in any season. Spring and fall are the most pleasant times to go, as the weather is very mild, but winter and summer are totally fine times to go, too.

We started this hike at about 9am in the morning in the middle of June. Weather conditions were clear, sunny, and hot. We actually found that when we were inside the slot canyons, the high canyon walls provided quite a bit of shade in the morning hours and the temperature was very pleasant.

Of course, hiking back out (and up that sandy hill) at noon in 90+ F weather was much less pleasant.

Definitely DO NOT attempt this hike when there is even a chance of rain in the forecast, as conditions can be very dangerous. Flash floods can and do occur in the slot canyons, even if there is rain in a nearby area. These floods can happen suddenly and dramatically, with water and debris rushing through and can injure or kill hikers.

Entrance Fees and Hours

There are no entrance fees to hike Spooky Gulch or Peekaboo Slot Canyons, or to park in the parking lot.

There are no hours of operations, you are free to hike any time you wish. However, I would not recommend hiking during the dark, so plan to start your hike early enough that you finish in the canyons before it gets dark.

Where to Stay Nearby

The closest place to stay with hotel is in the town of Escalante, off of Highway 12, and before you get onto Hole in the Rock road. This is about 1 hour from the slot canyons. A few good hotel options are:

The Ponderosa Inn: This budget inn is highly rated (9.3/10 stars), in central Escalante, and rooms are clean and cozy.

Slot Canyons Inn Bed & Breakfast: Beautiful property and incredible views just outside of town, in a lovely building with a fantastic breakfast, all for a mid-range price.

Escalante Yurts: A glamping experience in a secluded spot in nature, where you can stay in a gorgeous luxury yurt.

Camping

If you prefer camping, this area of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is BLM land (Bureau of Land Management) and you can wild camp for free. You just need to find a spot that is cleared enough for you to park and set up a tent.

This is actually what we did, and we saw just a few spots on Hole in the Rock road that would accommodate someone parking and camping. Most of the road has brush and small cacti along it, plus it seemed like the shoulder either fell off or rose up suddenly, making it pretty hard to pull off.

There were occasionally roads that intersected Hole in the Rock Road, so you could go down those further to try and find a spot suitable for camping.

We actually camped right at the turnoff from Hole in the Rock road to BLM 252 (aka K9285, aka the turnoff at 26 miles for the trailhead). There was a large open dirt area and it was easy to pull off the road.

You do need to fill out a backcountry camping registration form. You can do this at the BLM office in Escalante or at the trailhead parking lots (either Upper or Lower). At the lots, you will find a metal stand with a log enclosed where you can put your information. You cannot camp at the lot, though. You can also sign the log when you start the hike – in case something goes wrong, people know to look for you.

And remember, if you’re wild camping, you will need to use the bathroom in the wild and pack all your waste and garbage out – including number 2.

How Long Does it Take to Hike?

While the actual canyons are pretty short, the entire loop from the lower trailhead is about 5 miles. Each slot canyon is approximately 0.5 miles long. While that seems short, I promise you it feels longer, and will definitely take longer than just walking 0.5 miles on unencumbered ground.

Leave No Trace

Please remember to leave no trace as you are exploring Spooky Gulch and Peekaboo! This includes picking up all your trash and packing it out, not taking rocks with you, and not carving into the soft sandstone.

These trails are unbelievable and in good condition – let’s all do our part to keep them that way.

If You’re Really Claustrophobic…

This might not be the hike for you. Consider doing Dry Fork Slot Canyon instead, which is right next to Spooky and Peekaboo, where the walls aren’t nearly as tight.

FYI, There are Actually Three Peekaboo Trails in Southern Utah

One of the these canyons is the one we’re discussing here – Peekaboo Slot Canyon in Escalante.

There’s also Red Canyon, which is also referred to as Peekaboo Slot Canyon, or Peekaboo Kanab. This trail is located about 10 miles north of Kanab, Utah.

Finally, there is Peekaboo Loop Trail, which is in Bryce Canyon National Park.

Just make sure you have the right trail when looking at maps and directions!

What Not to Bring on Your Hike

Dogs: While dogs are allowed here, your dog may struggle with the areas where you’d need to do some rock climbing/scrambling, and narrow spaces. It will be easy for leashes to become a hinderance, too.

Baby Carriers (Front or Back): There is definitely not enough space in the canyons to fit an adult who is also wearing a baby.

Frame backpacks: There is for sure not enough space to wear a frame backpack in the tighter part of the canyons,

Flip flops: Don’t do this. Wear proper footwear; it’s safer and will make your life so much better! (As we were hiking back, we did see some people walking towards the canyon in flip flops. They were definitely going to regret that choice later…)

Can Children Do This Hike?

Yes, children can definitely do this hike! We went with our 5, 7, 9, and 11 year old girls, and they all did great.

Our girls are all able to hike by themselves, and love to climb and scramble on rocks. We did have to help them up quite a bit at the entrance to Peekaboo, and every so often in the canyon, but overall, they did great.

However, I don’t think very young children (or their parents) will have a great experience on this trail. I would be very hesitant to go with kids three or younger, or who are not able to walk confidently by themselves for long periods of time. This is a difficult place if your kids want to be held, or if they need to have their hands held while walking/hiking, etc.

Other Places to Visit on Your Trip to Southern Utah

There are so many incredible spots to visit near Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch, and in the general southern Utah area. For example, Lower Calf Creek Falls is another amazing hike to a beautiful waterfall, located in Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Arches is one of the most popular destinations in southern Utah, and you can’t miss highlights like Delicate Arch, Devil’s Garden, Fiery Furnace, and Tower Arch, You can swing by nearby Goblin Valley and freely roam through the goblin rock formations, or head down and spend a day in Capitol Reef National Park, the least visited park in Utah that is massively underrated and has beautiful rock formations.

In the southwestern corner of Utah, Zion National Park is very popular, but Bryce Canyon National Park is maybe my favorite park in Utah and can’t be missed, St George has a host of excellent hiking opportunities, and Snow Canyon State Park is a great hidden gem in Utah. Nearby Valley of Fire State Park and Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada have the most stunning scenery.

In the southeastern corner of the state you’ll find gems like Valley of the Gods, Natural Bridges National Monument, and Four Corners Monument, as well as access to nearby attractions like Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado or Lake Powell and Page in Arizona.

Final Thoughts on Hiking Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch Slot Canyons

Hiking the Peekaboo and Spooky Gulch slot canyons trail was one of my absolute favorite hikes in southern Utah. This is a definite must do hike in southern Utah – you don’t want to miss it!

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