Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon Moab Hike Guide
Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon trail follows Professor Creek for 4-5 miles until you reach your final destination, a 20-30 ft tall waterfall. The hike offers beautiful scenery: snow capped mountains, surrounding bluffs, tall red rock canyons and a stunning waterfall at the end. During our short trip to Moab, Utah this was by far my favorite hike. In addition to offer beautiful views, it had a bit less traffic than most of the other hikes located closer to town. Bring waterproof shoes or sandals to make the hike of Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon much more enjoyable. This is a family friendly hike and one suitable for all hiking levels.
Juno:
Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon Quick Facts
Virtual Trail Guide: Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon
Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon Trail: ★★★★★ (5/5 Stars)
Distance: 9 Miles RT (distance can vary slightly based on exact path)
Elevation Start: 4,680 ft
Highest Point: 5,200 ft
Total Elevation Gain: 570 ft
Estimated Time to Complete: 4-5 Hours RT
Difficulty: Moderate What does this mean?
Class: Class 1 – What does this mean?
Season: Year-Round (Expect occasional snow/ice December – March)
Directions to Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon
Trailhead: Professor Creek
Getting Here: From downtown Moab, travel on highway 191 for about 1.5 miles until you reach Utah highway 128. Follow this for 18.5 miles until you reach a signed turnoff for Ranch Road (Professor Valley Road). This is a dirt road, but is passable for most vehicles. Follow this road for about 2 miles until you reach the end. To start the trail, follow the well established dirt trail on the left side of the parking lot. When you are ready to start your hike, do not head towards the signed trailhead.
Fees: None
Parking: Parking at Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon is free and can fit about 10-15 cars. There are no bathrooms at the trailhead and the parking area can get full during busy weekends, so get there early.
Dogs: Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon is a dog friendly hike but does not require dogs to be on leash. Your dog will get muddy and wet on this hike. Note, if your dog does not do well around others, I would avoid bringing them on this hike as there are often many dogs off leash. Note to dog owners: this hike can get busy and there are patches of poison ivy along the trail. If your dog has problems staying near you or on the trail, please leash them on this hike to avoid problems with other dogs or spreading poison ivy to humans. Poison ivy does not affect dogs, but the oils can easily be spread to dog owners through their fur.
Summary
Camping: Camping is not allowed at Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon, but there are numerous areas to camp near the trailhead. Please note, camping in Moab, Utah can be extremely competitive, especially in busy seasons. Plan ahead and get your campsite early in the day to avoid driving around for hours at dusk praying you find an open spot.
Make it a Loop: Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon is an out and back hike.
Trail X Factors: Water Level & Poison Ivy
Like any hike in a canyon, the water level of Professor Creek will have a huge effect on your experience in this canyon. If the water is low, the creek will be easier to pass, stay dry and enjoy. On the other hand, if the weather looks bad, avoid this hike. Flash flooding in canyons can happen in an instant and be extremely dangerous if you get caught off guard.
Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon trail has patches of poison ivy along the hike, especially towards the waterfall. Educate yourself on poison ivy before you visit this hike and be aware of how to handle it if you do get the oils on your clothes or skin. PSA this is what Poison Ivy looks like.
Hike Tip: Waterproof Footwear
The hike to Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon will be much more enjoyable if you have waterproof shoes or hiking sandals that can get wet. When you reach the waterfall, it’s hard to get a good view of it without wading into cold water that is about 8-10 inches deep. I highly recommend bringing a pair of sandals to go into the water and take in the falls. On our hike up Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon, I used hiking boots, but switched to sandals and bare feet for the entire hike back. In addition to the waterfall viewing, the trail will have about 200 creek crossings, which are much more enjoyable in waterproof shoes.
Best Views: In my opinion, the best views on the trail through Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon are at the waterfall and in the portions of the canyon where the canyon walls are extremely high and narrow.
Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon
Has some extra distance since GPS doesn’t work great in canyons.
Gear Needed
- Mickey’s Mountain Kit
- Water: for yourself and dog
- Waterproof or water resistant footwear
- Protection from sun
- Sunscreen
- Optional: Hand sanitizer to avoid spread of poison ivy
- Optional: Water filter
- Optional: Camera
- Optional: Tripod
- Optional: Camera Filters for long exposure
Our Trip to Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon: April 2018
Our hike up Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon was the last hike we had planned during our trip to Moab, UT in April 2018. We were on our way out of town and had a long drive ahead of us, so we arrived to the trailhead around 7AM to start the hike. We were the only car in the parking area (perfect) and hit the trail shortly after arriving. I knew that the signed trailhead in this area was not where the hike started and we were easily able to locate the trail up the canyon from the parking lot. It only took us about 10 minutes of hiking until our first crossing of Professor Creek. Its funny, for the first few creek crossings, we tried to keep our feet dry and by about an hour in, we had totally given up on that.
The trail started in the desert and slowly worked its way into the canyon. At first, the sides of the canyon were only about 20-25 feet high, but as we hiked deeper and deeper into Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon, the red rock walls rose to 80+ feet. The well established trail was easy to follow, but there were numerous times were the trail split into 2-3 different options, eventually all leading back to the same “main” trail. Juno, for the second day in a row, was in water heaven. At first, we tried keeping her dry, but by mile 2 or 3, we had completely given up on that. She was a wild animal and couldn’t be tamed. From splashing in the cold canyon waters to hunting lizards, she was having a blast.
After a while, the Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon trail was now completely surrounded by tall red rock walls. It was stunning. I had very little experience with canyon hiking and the novelty of it blew my mind with each turn. There were a few points where you could see how high the river got during a flood, which was a scary scenario to think about. After about 2 hours of hiking, we knew that we were getting close to the waterfall, but every section of rapids got our hopes up due to the unique way sound carried in the canyon. Right around 4.5 miles of hiking, we finally reached a narrow section of canyon and spotted the waterfall. It was beautiful!
The waterfall was about 30-40 feet high and hard to see unless we waded into the cold creek. Jackie and I took turns taking off our shoes to get a good view of the falls. We tried bringing Juno with us, but she wanted nothing to do with the thousands of gallons of water falling from the creek above. I set up my tripod, took some pictures of both us and the falls, while Jackie took Juno and herself out into the sun to eat a snack. I honestly could have stayed there for an hour, but knew we had a long hike out and drive ahead of us.
On the way out of Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon, I decided to hike in my sandals. The creek water was cold, but refreshing and not having to worry about crossing the creek 4 million times was very nice. After a while, I decided to take off my sandals and hike barefoot which was very refreshing. Since a lot of the trail was sand, it was actually a very seamless transition from shoes to sandals to skin. Near the end of our hike, we ran into 5-6 other groups of people/dogs but compared to other hikes in Moab, the trail through Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon was relatively secluded.
We reached the car with wet feet/fur, sand all over us and were tired from the heat. However, I couldn’t stop saying “wow that was a cool hike”. I felt like a doll with a string in my back repeating the same phrase over and over again. But honestly, it was a cool hike! Sure, there were some minor patches of poison. Yes, my car needed a complete cleaning from Juno’s paws but I was so happy we decided to tackle Professor Creek & Mary Jane Canyon before leaving Moab. I highly recommend this hike to all levels of hikers and anyone visiting the western border of Utah.
