Fall 2024 Back to the Southwest, 10.19.24 - 11.13.24, Part 6, Lower Cathedral Wash, AZ

We wrapped up our stay in Page in fine fashion. We drove down 89 and turned onto 89A, crossing the Colorado River and taking the Lee’s Ferry Road to the Cathedral Wash Trailhead where we met Mike. Cathedral Wash was billed as a fun family friendly hike but we thought it was just a notch above family friendly (although we did see some families). I guess what I’m saying is that it was a bit harder than I expected but still relatively easy.

Cathedral Wash starts out by dropping down and going through a small tunnel under the road that plops you into the wash. As we moved down the wash, the walls rose up on either side. Unlike some washes where you walk on sand or sediment, most of Cathedral Wash is rock. Over eons the water has carved a deep gouge into the floor of the wash that created many pour-offs and various levels of rock shelves along the sides.

At first we found some small easy drops in the middle of the wash but soon we came to a thirty foot pour-off. The trick here is to stick to the shelves along the side of the wash until you can find a spot that is easier to drop down to the next level or back into the bottom of the wash. Most of the time that meant staying on the right hand side as we went down, but a couple of times we had to cross over to the left side to find passage. Sometimes we had to hike along a shelf, find a spot to drop down and then traverse that lower shelf until we could get all the way back down to the bottom of the wash. There were probably a half dozen spots along the way we had to negotiate but none of them were super hard.

After about one and a half miles, the wash opened up and we came to the mighty Colorado River just a little way southwest from Lee’s Ferry. It was a nice warm sunny day so we had a relaxing lunch break there before making our way back. The entire hike was only 3.2 miles round trip so it was an easy final day before moving on to the next adventure.

Our five days based in Page were highly successful. We had great weather, we hiked every day and still had enough down time to relax and just enjoy being in the sunny southwest.