Overview

Boy Scout Canyon makes for a nice, close-to-town, 4-mile hike down a sandy wash in a beautiful desert canyon until passage is blocked by a 330-foot-high pour-over. The first 2.2 miles of the sandy wash can be driven in a 4WD vehicle, but the remaining 1.8 miles is hike in the Black Canyon Wilderness Area Until the end of the route, the canyon is always fairly open with little shade, although there are some narrower parts and pour-overs to pass. At the end of the route, the wash enters a deep, narrow canyon that cuts through a ridge with wild pyroclastic and ash-fall rocks. The route ends atop a 20-foot pour-over that overlooks a 330-foot pour-over with a great view down the canyon. An alternate ending is to climb over the ridge that the wash cuts through and hike out to an overlook where there are great views of the wilderness area, the Colorado River, and water and green vegetation in the bottom of Boy Scout Canyon far below.

Boy Scout Hot Spring is in the bottom of Boy Scout Canyon, but there is no easy hiking route to the hot spring. From the overlook at the alternate ending, the route to the hot springs heads over the cliffs and drops back into the canyon. The route is not for the faint of heart: it starts over the cliffs with an airy bit of 4th-class climbing and about 500 feet of exposure, and it never really eases up. If you want a nice hike to a hot spring, go to Goldstrike (great spring pools) or Arizona Hot Springs (great hike).

Link to access road map, hiking route map, or route profile.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this is a safe hike down a sandy wash, but sandy washes are harder to walk in than they look. The first 2.2 miles follows a jeep trail, so watch for vehicles. Tires loosen and stir up the sand, so look for better footing along the sides of the canyon. There is one, 3rd-class pour-over to climb, but it is easy and fairly safe.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, even though this hike is short, rescues from narrow canyons are difficult, so be sure to just bring what you need of the 10 Essentials. This hike goes into the Black Canyon Wilderness Area, so pay particular attention to respecting the land.

Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, just southeast of Boulder City.

From downtown Boulder City, drive southeast on Utah Street out past the cemetery on the edge of town. Utah Street ends at a garbage transfer station. Just outside the transfer station fence (Table 1, Site 1), a wide, graded dirt road forks off to the right (south). Watch for and follow signs towards the Boulder Rifle Pistol Club Courtesy Range.

Link to access road map.

Turn right onto the dirt road and drive southeast for about 0.85 miles to an intersection of dirt roads under the last set of high-tension power lines (Site 2). At this intersection, the road to the gun club turns left, but the road to Boy Scout Canyon continues straight. Continue east for another 0.45 miles (along a ridgetop overlooking the gun range) to a turnoff to the left (Site 3). Turn left on the curve and drive down a fairly steep road through a gap in the ridge to the valley below. The road follows the gun club fence for 0.7 miles to the Lake Mead boundary (Site 4), which is marked with large signs and fencing on both sides of the road to discourage off-road driving.

The boundary is out in the middle of a broad valley, and this is the official trailhead for the Boy Scout Canyon hike. However, in a 2WD vehicle, you can safely drive another 0.3 miles down the road, however, I would not take a 2WD vehicle beyond the end of the fence on the right (southeast) side of the road. With a 4WD vehicle, you can drive another 2.2 miles down the sandy wash to the end of the legal road (Site 5), but that might defeat the idea of taking a nice hike in the desert.

The Hike

From the trailhead at the Lake Mead boundary (Table 2, Site 4), the route follows the wash down the canyon, generally trending to the north. Parts of the canyon are narrower and more cliffy than others, but the hills above are fairly low and set back away from the wash, so the feeling generally is fairly open. The hills on both sides of the canyon are in the Black Canyon Wilderness Area, and the road runs down a narrow corridor of non-wilderness. The road ends 2.2 miles down the canyon (Wpt. 5) where the canyon curves 90-degrees to the east and another canyon comes in from the west.

From the end of the road (Wpt. 5), the route follows the wash downhill to the east and enters the wilderness area. The route down the wash starts by passing through a narrow gap between low the cliffs. Unfortunately, the gap is wide enough to drive a truck down the wash and into the wilderness area.

The gravel wash runs east down an open canyon. The surrounding mountains are formed of reddish brown and black volcanic and metamorphic rocks that are polished to a gray-green color along the edge of the wash. The sparse vegetation is dominated by creosote bush on the hillsides and catclaw acacia along the edges of the wash. There are many other species scattered about, including desert fir, chuckwalla delight, Encelia, and Mormon tea, plus wildflowers in the springtime.

About 0.34 miles past the end of the road (Wpt. 6), the wash jogs north at a rocky spot that is narrow enough to block trucks, but the ATV and motorcycle tracks continue down the wash.

After another 0.44 miles, the route arrives at a 15-ft pour-over (Wpt. 7) that is easily passed by an easy 3rd-class scramble. Unfortunately, the ATVers constructed a road to get around the pour-over, so even the cliff doesn't stop them.

The route continues down the wash for another 0.71 miles to a place where the wide canyon abruptly turns north and runs over flat, water-polished rocks (Wpt. 8) that finally seem to have stopped the ATVs, although the motorcycles continue. This wide spot in the canyon is where the route down the narrows to the pour-over and the route to the Colorado River overlook diverge.

Just below the water-polished rocks (Wpt 8), the wash curves to the north and goes into the narrows, a deep narrow canyon that is 20-25 ft wide at the bottom and 200-300 ft deep. The rock in the canyon is a wild mix of pyroclastic conglomerate rock and ash fall volcanic rock mixed with dark metamorphic rocks.

On the way out, take a short hike over to a grand view of the Colorado River. Just above the narrow canyon (Wpt. 8), cut out of the wash to the east to pick up a use-trail (Wpt. 10) that leads out to an overlook atop a 500-ft cliff with a view of the Colorado River (Wpt. 11).

This overlook (Wpt. 11) is the end of the official trail. To get to the hot springs, the route goes over the edge and winds down among the cliffs. If you can get over the edge, you can find your way to the bottom of the canyon, but be very careful (especially on the first step off the edge).

Pour-over at the end of the route (view east down Lower Boy Scout Canyon).

Colorado River and Lower Boy Scout Canyon (view northeast from the Overlook).

If you want to hike to the hot spring, the route starts by down-climbing this cliff (view northwest).