Beartrap Canyon Wilderness

Beartrap Canyon Wilderness is only 40 acres, but shares a common boundary with designated wilderness in the Kolob Canyons portion of Zion National Park. Largely a rugged, steeply sloped area, this Wilderness contains the headwater areas for many tributaries that flow through Bear Trap Canyon on Kolob Terrace. A very short segment of stream in Bear Trap Canyon is designated as wild in the National Wild and Scenic River System. Beartrap Wilderness is an isolated parcel of land managed by the BLM. While its western boundary is contiguous with Zion National Park, its northern, southern, and eastern boundary borders private land. The terrain within its 40 acres consists of a sandstone finger of a mesa and the upper reach of the Beartrap Canyon. At a top elevation of 7,500 feet, both the mesa top and canyon bottom sustains Utah juniper and ponderosa and pinyon pine trees. Despite its small size, but because of its proximity to adjacent wilderness and other relatively undisturbed lands, a wide variety of wildlife lives here. Hawks, falcons, and eagles soar above the canyons, while ringtailed cats, mountain lion, and black bear hunt in the uplands and along the canyon bottoms. The dissected remote canyons also offer suitable nesting habitat for the Mexican spotted owl, a threatened species.