Spectrum Canyon is a short canyon located along Cottonwood Canyon Road which has a series of minor dry falls and a colorful corridor made of solid rock near the end.  Difficulties encountered on the hike include route finding to access the canyon and climbing some small to medium difficulty dry falls in order to progress up canyon.  A Google Earth map of the hiking route can be found by clicking on the button above.  GPS coordinates for the mouth of Spectrum Canyon are 36° 37.492'N, 117° 16.253'W.  GPS coordinates for the colorful spectrum section are 36° 37.636'N, 117° 16.712'W.

The Cottonwood Road Canyons (or Ten Canyons Region) is an informal name that I have assigned to ten small canyons which are located in between Cottonwood Canyon wash and Lemoigne Canyon.  I have numbered the canyons from north to south, meaning that Canyon 1 is the next canyon south of Cottonwood Canyon, while Canyon 10 is the next canyon north of Lemoigne Canyon.  Depending on someone's point of view, there could be more or less canyons than the ones I have numbered.  That is because the topographical map does not show all of the canyons, and some of the canyons that it does show I am not listing due to their small size.  Using satellite imagery, I have targeted ten canyons that I think are worth exploring and those are the ones shown on my two topographical maps of the area.  Canyons 1-7 are shown on this map and Canyons 8-10 are shown on this map.  Both topo maps have been turned to the west for better viewing.  I have noted that canyoneers are choosing different names for these canyons and this part of the Cottonwood Mountain Range.  However, in representing a number of hikers, we are choosing names for these canyons which are more fitting to what is found within the canyons.  We noticed that canyoneers are naming these areas after Hollywood movies rather than natural features, which we feel would be much more appropriate for a National Park.  Some of these canyons do not appear to go very far as there are confirmed dry falls right at the beginning of a few canyons.  So in order to see some of these, it would be necessary to find a bypass above the dry falls and explore from there (if it is possible).  Some other canyons could be grouped together on one hike, since the mouths of some are located next to one another.  It just depends how much time someone wanted to spend out there during a day of hiking.  To reach Canyons 1-6, it might be easiest to find a parking spot along Cottonwood Canyon Road.  To reach Canyons 7-10, it might be easiest to drive a 4WD vehicle out Lemoigne Canyon Road and park near the mouth of Lemoigne Canyon.  Most of these ten small canyons are undocumented, so there is a lot to explore and discover out in this area.  The first two canyons that I explored and documented were Canyon 1 and Canyon 3.

Canyon 1 was not a planned hike for our late Winter 2013 trip, but it ended up being included at the last second.  What happened was that we were headed for Marble Canyon to do a family hike there.  But as we headed toward the Marble Canyon Road, we found that the large Yukon rental that we were driving was having trouble navigating the boulders on the Cottonwood Canyon Road past the 1st Narrows of Cottonwood Canyon.  Due to this, we had to turn back and find an alternative hike for the day.  In view of our location where we were driving, we went with Canyon 1 of the Cottonwood Road Canyons.  Canyon 1 proved to be more interesting than expected.  There was a gorge section with a series of dry falls that we had to climb.  This led into a fantastic colorful section where rocks had patterns of various colors on them.  In view of this interesting colorful area, we assigned the informal name Spectrum Canyon to this place.  It was a short hike of only about 1 1/2 miles each way, but our group enjoyed being the first to ever document this small canyon.  Our hike took place on February 10, 2013.

Many more photographs taken during our visit are available for viewing for this destination.  To see all of them, choose one of the two options presented below.  The two options are Slideshow viewing and Trip Report viewing.  The Slideshow option allows for viewing larger images with an autoplay option and a full screen option (available on most browsers).  This option works very well for large computer screens and tablets.  The Trip Report option allows for viewing smaller pictures in a standard scroll-down format and enlarging of any panoramic photos taken during our visit.  Click on the option of your choice to view all of our photos from this destination.  The Slideshow format opens in a new browser window and the Trip Report format uses the same browser window for viewing.