Red Reef Trailhead — Attraction in Four Corners States

This place is amazing! We did the red reef trail. Started at 3:40 and went very leisurely through the trail and ended at 5.

When you get to the campground stay to the left of the road. At the end of the road you will see a mile marker that says red reef Trail. There was maybe only five people in the park at the time we got there as it was a Tuesday and they were camping we only encountered two groups on our hike one on the way there and one on the way back. Seemed like the whole canyon was ours. you can use your America the Beautiful Pass.

To get to the rope where there is the pool (dried up during first week of December) was about 30mins max. The rope seems intimidating and I as someone who doesn’t like heights was concerned at first but was fairly easy. Just follow the steps along the rock and use the rope, there are spots to put your hands on the rock as well.

The hike was absolutely incredible, lots of places to jump on rocks and do a bit of climbing without any gear. The rocks are not super slick so if you have a decent pair of shoes on you should get good grip.

I would highly suggest not missing this it is leisurely and it is not very strenuous there are not too many hills and the ones that are there are very tiny. You can make it as strenuous or easy by climbing the rocks along the trail or staying on the well marked trail. It is hard to get lost, not sure you can unless you climb up and go way off trail.

Once you go past the ropes there are more areas where you can climb up the rocks and get to some small peaks, many of them have trails leading up to it. It could make sense to keep the rope on the other side of the rocks after you climb up for your way back down but that’s only if no one else is on the trail because others will need it to get up as well. You can almost do it without too much rope but it really helps when you’re at the beginning and end of the short climb( takes maybe 2mins max).

This is also a great place to picnic anywhere along the trail. In the future we would definitely plan more time here to...

Beautiful, wild place. Highly recommend but with multiple words of caution (read below). I have only gone 1.5mi and retreated to take Quail creek for another mile or so before returning. The first 0.6 mi is easy and can be done by most able bodied folks. The first obstacle after that is a small dry waterfall - 60 degree, 10ft wall. That needs to be negotiated using cut steps and handholds in the stone side. That probably filters out 90+% of visitors, but is very doable if one does not have irrational fear of heights. It gets more difficult 1/4mi from there, both in terms of rough terrain (watch where you step because it is never a flat surface), the skill and fitness needed to scramble up and down obstacles and the mental part of having to leave the trail (er. creek bed) by scrambling up rock chimneys or shoots.

I would not recommend proceeding past the second waterfall if you are visiting the first time and your hiking typically does not include class 3 scrambling or you are not in a group. This kind of hiking is best eased into.

Once the trail forks into Red Reef on the left and Quail Creek on the right, then hiking turns into climbing. I have tacled the first obstacle, but decided to quit while I was ahead.

Make sure to have an offline map with you and keep markers (Cairns, pics, etc.) of significant direction changes if going off piste. Very easy to get lost in the mountains - you can see where you need to go and the trail is less than 200ft away, but unreachable due to terrain. Always check/test that you can go back as the way up is usually...

Great spot to hike and see red rocks, petroglyphs, a couple mini slot canyons, flowers and more. We hiked in mid-April, so there was still a bit of water in most of the pools. The rope and foothold traverse at the main falls was in reality fairly simply, though a little nerve-wracking during the transit, especially on the return going down backward. We took a right at the canyon fork a bit after the rope, and continued until the step up was too high to climb. We backtracked and scrambled up the rocks, but could never get back down to the canyon. The higher rocks did provide an amazing viewpoint looking up the canyon. Of the petroglyphs, only a couple looked authentic, while several others seemed to be recent additions by kids with chalk. Beware it is tick season...I picked up a tick on my left side at some point along the trail, even with trying to avoid a lot of brush. Our total hike was 2.4 miles, and we spent 1 hour 40 minutes. Despite it being almost 5pm on a Monday, there were only a few available parking spots when we arrived, though the lot was nearly empty...