Canyon walls up to 2,000 feet high expose layers of sandstone, shales, and limestone laid down up to 300 million years ago. This miniature Grand Canyon is a damp wonderland of hanging gardens, cottonwoods, and other riparian vegetation, adding color below the sandstone of the soaring cliffs. From floor to rim, the Dark Canyon region progresses from these riparian gardens to sparse desert shrub and pinyon-juniper patches, to ponderosa pine on the high plateau in the national forest. More than 60 mammals make their home in this varied habitat that provides both summer and winter range. From the charismatic megafauna to rodents, they include mountain lions, black bears, mule deer, bighorn sheep, porcupines, and shrews.
Abundant water makes Dark Canyon unique.
Canyon bottoms start in the higher plateau country as wide swales harboring ponderosa pine. They descend and rapidly change to narrow, dark, cliff-walled gorges. Sandy and gravel bottoms make attractive hiking routes, but periodic pouroffs will challenge hikers. In the national forest wilderness area, hiking trails wind down from Elk Ridge Road into the fingers of the canyon system. Woodenshoe, Peavine, and Kigalia canyons in the south have trails that will take you down to the main Dark Canyon.