Hike the Ladder Canyon Trail and Painted Canyon (2024 Guide)

Hiking Trails

Sep 14

I bet you didn’t realize there would be slot canyons in Southern California just as good as Utah.

The Ladder Canyon Trail is a fun, intermediate hike that you have to do when near Palm Springs or Joshua Tree!

The trail winds through naturally marble-painted canyons, climbs up to 360° desert views, and back down into towering slot canyons via ladders.

Ladder Canyon Trail
Distance | 4.4 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain | 820 ft
Best Time to Visit | Oct. to May
Dog-friendly | No

- Directions to Ladder Canyon Trail
- Trail Details
- Ladder Canyon Trail Map
- Guide: Hiking Ladder Canyon

Directions to Ladder Canyon Trail

(also the Painted Canyon Trailhead)

The Ladder Hike is located in the Mecca Hills Wilderness and is 35 minutes from Coachella or 1 hour from Palm Springs.

It is advised a 4x4 vehicle is needed to drive the last 5 miles of gravel to the trailhead, but depending on recent rainfall and road conditions we’ve seen smaller cars make it down the road. Take caution as you’re always at your own risk!

Ladder Canyon Trail Parking: 33.61918, -115.99938

About the Ladder Canyon Trail

The Ladder Canyon Trail is also referred to as the Painted Canyon Trail. While they aren’t technically the same, both start at the same trailhead and most people hike the Painted Canyon portion of the trail and Ladder Canyon portion as one continuous hike.

There are a total of 6 ladders in the Ladder Canyon that you will need to climb up (or down if you go counter-clockwise). These ladders range in height from 6 feet to 20 feet tall.

I wouldn’t advise bringing small children or dogs as you’ll need to carry them on the ladders, making the situation more dangerous for everyone involved.

Important Trail Info

Cell signal is non-existent
Following the trail is tricky. Download a GPS app like All Trails to help you stay on trail and show you where the ropes and ladders are located.
Start Early: Afternoons April to October get over 100°F
Bring 2L of water per person
Avoid Flash floods. Check current conditions and the chance of rain before going

Painted Canyon Trail Map

There are a few routes when hiking in Mecca Hills. The main routes are to see:

Painted Canyon
Ladder Canyon
Ropes Trail (outlined in purple on the map)

The blog post is giving you details to hike the red route shown on the map below.

The red route will take you through the wash to see the colorful Painted Canyon and then either up or down the ladders depending on if you clockwise or counter-clockwise.

painted canyon map — *You can view and download this map on* *All Trails*.

If you want to also hike along the Ropes Trail (purple trail on map), I recommend hiking up the ladder section of the trail and down the ropes so you can confirm how secure the ropes are tied to the canyon walls.

There is a 20 foot rope to repel down on this trail.

Hiking the Ladder Canyon Trail & Painted Canyon

There are many trail options from the parking area. If you aren’t careful, you will end up trekking through miles of deep sand without getting to experience the ladders, ropes, and slot canyons that everyone talks about.

After you park, start walking right from the trailhead sign through the wash.

Towards the left is an OHV trail that is not ideal for hikers. There is a big sign that says “END”. Do not go this way.

About 0.4 miles into your hike, you will see a trail sign on the right side of the wash. It has graffiti written “BEWARE” on it.

This “beware” sign points to the left at your first ladder.

There is also a big arrow made out of rocks in the middle of the wash.

We somehow missed both of these and ended up doing the hike counter-clockwise. It was still fun, but probably would have been easier to go up the ladders instead of down.

The entire trail has rock arrows every couple hundred yards.

If you don’t see an arrow for a while and you think you might be off-track, you probably lost the main trail.

As we said above, we hiked the trail backward compared to most who start up the ladders and finish walking down through the Painted Canyon.

After missing the sign for the left turn, we continued straight to the Painted Canyon.

The Painted Canyon section of the hike is through a wash with deep sand.

This was tiring, so make sure you wear shoes that you are comfortable hiking in.

If you are looking for new hiking shoes, we love our matching Altra Lone Peaks for day hikes.

After almost 1 mile of walking in the wash, you will reach 2 ladders that you can take up to the picturesque Painted Canyon.

Painted Canyon Hike — *Hiking up the ladders in the Painted Canyon*

The Painted Canyon is unlike anything that we have seen in any park in the southwest.

The green, white, black, and pink rocks are so boldly colored that it looks like someone painted them. The multicolored marbling throughout the canyon is so captivating that we forgot about our tired calves.

You might see a tall ladder off to the right as you walk through the Painted Canyon. Don’t take it.

Ladder Hike Palm Springs — *This is the* ***WRONG*** *ladder*

The ladder looks tempting, but the trail will lead you way off track. We went up there to explore but quickly realized that we were going the wrong way.

After winding through the colorful canyon, we headed up a ridge to the canyon rim.

If you are doing the hike backward as we did, you will need to look for a sharp left turn soon after leaving the Painted Canyon.

Someone spray-painted 3 red dots on a boulder at the turn. If you miss this turn, you will end up missing the best parts of the hike.

The middle section of the hike is up on the ridge overlooking the canyons.

This spot is a beautiful place to soak in the entirety of the Mecca Hills Wilderness and the Salton Sea in the distance.

The ridge is also a good spot to get your bearings as it was the only place where we had Verizon signal.

After walking along the ridge for just under 1 mile, we followed a rock arrow down into Ladder Canyon. The Ladder Canyon section was the highlight of our hike.

You get to hike through an amazing slot canyon that narrows to shoulder-width at points. We have been to a few slot canyons in the southwest, and this one makes it into our top five!

Ladder Canyon is a winding maze of textured sandstone offering countless photo ops. There are a few ladders throughout the canyon.

Because we were going backward, we had to climb down the tallest ladders.

Being able to climb up these ladders is the main benefit of doing the hike in the “normal” direction.