Boundary Canyon is just on the border of Zion National Park which is why it is called Boundary Canyon, yet the canyon itself is one of the most beautiful routes that I have seen in the area.  It is rather short but it offers a high reward of beautiful scenery in a minimal impact and less visited area.

at the top, looking down into Boundary Canyon, Utah

The canyon is surrounded by Kolob Canyon, Pipe Springs, and Eye of the Needle Canyon which are all in the area so this one makes for a beautiful day trip if you are planning on visiting the other canyons. The famous MIA exit will need to be used but will take you right back to your car for a great loop trip in the high desert backcountry.

The top of Boundary Canyon, Utah

After spry canyon we made our way up to the top of Spry to get the shuttle and get up to lava point and Kolob Lake only to find out that all of the campsites were taken.  We ended up having to camp at the reservoir which was about 9000ft of elevation, yup it was quite cold at night.

Walter Descending Boundary Canyon, Utah

 The temp dropped into the lower 40s and upper 30s which woke some of us up at night with the chills which made it quite difficult to sleep.

Boundary Canyon Photo By: Mike Green

We were not prepared for cold weather camping but we made the best of it.  The sky was clear which was nice and at 9000ft up, the stars were amazing!!

Mike Green in Boundary Canyon, Utah

 We got up early to make our way over to the west rim trail and into boundary canyon.

Boundary Canyon, Photo By: Mike Green

We headed over to the trailhead and attempted to find some campsites at the Lava Point campground without success.

Boundary Canyon, Utah

Troy Derek and Daniel took the day off so Walter, Mike, and I headed over to boundary. The day was a bit more chill and the dynamic was a bit different which was nice as we got to immerse ourselves into the canyons beauty and esthetic.

Mike Green Descending down in Boundary Canyon, Utah

We could see the canyon from the top of the MIA road and headed down through the woods to the rim of boundary canyon.

Adam haydock in Boundary Canyon Photo by: Mike Green

The hike to boundary was not that bad as we basically had to go downhill and follow a few dry washes until we reached the top of the canyon.

Walter Descending a beautiful drop in Boundary Canyon, Utah

Now this was a beautiful view!!! The canyon walls had colors of pink and cream color with the top of the canyon appearing to look almost like a limestone layer. The first drop was around 170 ft into the canyon which had a shear drop and a beautiful view.

Walter descending in Boundary Canyon Utah

The raps were rapid fire and were right next to each other that took us down about 9 rappels that were all less than 200ft. The fluted walls were pastel and tarnished with a beautiful array of design that the sun gave dynamic to with regard to the shade that casted behind that sculpted walls.

Tarnished walls in Boundry Canyon

 It was spectacular to see and one unique canyon that I am so grateful to have went to visit.  I have never seen sculpted like this before in Zion. It was completely dry too!!!

Walter descending Boundary Canyon

 The beta mentioned water but we did not see any water coming into this canyon so we ended up carrying wetsuits through out this canyon and up the MIA trail.

Mike Green in Boundary Canyon

We eventually made it to the bottom of the canyon and followed the dry wash through the beautiful canyon walls and the forest at the bottom as the maple leaves changed which took us into Kolob creek.

Walter in Boundary Canyon, Utah

We had lunch at the confluence of Kolob and boundary than followed the watercourse to the MIA exit.

Boundary canyon wash, Utah

The towering walls reminded me of the narrows as the large walls towered over us which also included one plunge into the water.

Kolob Creek Narrows, Utah

Eventually we made it to the end of the route where the MIA exit starts. This is a trail that ascends 2200 ft of elevation in only a couple miles of lofty sand and scree where branches, roots, and gravity is used to balance ourselves up this canyon exit.

Kolob Creek Narrows, Utah

It was either this route or we go out the narrows which would take almost a day to complete.  The MIA exit was strenuous but it was not as bad as it was made out to be, yet it did take around 2 hours to complete and total time in route for the canyon was around 7 hours.The MIA exit is split up into two sections so once we got to the top it was nice to look back and see how far we have come from the bottom.  We ended up going back to the Kolob Lake and camped with everyone to prepare for the following day into Pipe Spring.

Last Rap in Boundry Canyon, Photo by Mike Green

Kolob Campground Photo by Mike Green