Dark Canyon Wilderness on the Manti La Sal National Forest

The Dark Canyon Wilderness is a unique forested pocket tucked into the heart of southeast Utah's wild canyon country. The Dark Canyon Wilderness, designated by Congress in 1984, is a spectacular and remote desert canyon wilderness covering over 47,000 acres in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The only designated Wilderness in southeastern Utah, the greater area of the Dark Canyon complex is rich in biological, geological, archaeological, and historical significance, and is also one of the most colorful canyon systems on the Colorado Plateau. Dark Canyon begins on Elk Ridge at an elevation of 8,800 feet then cuts through Cedar Mesa sandstone formations dramatically framed amidst a forest of ponderosa pine on its 5,000-foot descent to the Colorado River. Steep, sculpted and terraced sandstone walls shade the canyon in morning and late afternoon -- hence the name. Dark Canyon was the ancestral home of Puebloan peoples for 5,000 years. Ancestral Puebloan structures and rock art are tucked among the cliffs. (Please leave these treasures undisturbed for others to experience.) WARNING: Water is scarce -- check with Forest Service offices for current availability. Forest Service video by Charity Parks.