About this place
Beartrap Canyon Wilderness is only 40 acres. It shares a boundary with designated wilderness in the Kolob Canyons part of Zion National Park.
The ground is rugged and steeply sloped. It holds the headwaters of many streams that flow down Bear Trap Canyon on Kolob Terrace.
A very short length of the stream in Bear Trap Canyon is designated wild under the National Wild and Scenic River System.
The Bureau of Land Management looks after this isolated parcel. Its western edge runs along Zion National Park. The northern, southern and eastern edges all border private land.
Inside those 40 acres there is a sandstone finger of a mesa, and the upper reach of Beartrap Canyon.
The top elevation is 7,500 feet. Utah juniper, ponderosa and pinyon pine grow on the mesa top and in the canyon bottom alike.
It is small. But it sits next to other wilderness and other undisturbed land, so a lot of wildlife lives here.
Hawks, falcons and eagles soar above the canyons. Ringtailed cats, mountain lion and black bear hunt the uplands and the canyon bottoms.
The remote, dissected canyons also make good nesting habitat for the Mexican spotted owl. That bird is threatened.
The facts
- Cost
- Camping fee not confirmed
- Type
- Open area. Camp anywhere within it
- Managed by
- Bureau of Land Management
Getting there
You get into the canyon from the LaVerkin Creek Trail, in Zion National Park.
Coordinates 37.42564361, -113.0889694
Open in Google Maps Agency page
What is near here
A few more of our own spots are within reach of this one, along with some better-known places.
- Spring Creek Canyon Wilderness Study Area Directions
- Kolob Arch Directions
- Zion National Park Directions
- Cedar Breaks National Monument Directions
- Canaan Mountain Wilderness Directions
Every distance on this page is the driving distance. A short distance can still take a long time. The road may be closed for the season, covered in snow, or washed out. Many of these roads are dirt. Plan your route before you leave home. Out here there is often no phone signal to look it up on the way.
Nearest town and supplies
- Kanarraville, UT Directions
- Toquerville, UT Directions
Toquerville is big enough that you’d normally expect fuel and somewhere to buy food. Nobody from here has been to check, so don’t count on it if you’re running low.
Have you been here?
Fees and access change, and the records do not always keep up. If you have been, tell us what you found.
Thank you, that is recorded. It helps the next person.
Add road notes for this site
The thing we cannot get from any government record is what the drive in is actually like. If you have done it, this is the most useful thing you can leave behind. We read everything before it appears, and we print a first name with it if you give one.
Thank you. A person will read it before it goes on the page.
Where this information comes from
The description on this page is ours. The facts in it, and the fee and facility details below it, come from the Bureau of Land Management’s own records, read in August 2026.