Canaan Mountain is the namesake of the wilderness. It is a large promontory surrounded on three sides by the 2,000-foot (610 m) high White Cliffs composed of Navajo Sandstone. The 500-foot (150 m) Vermilion Cliffs, composed of the Moenave Formation, lie at the base of the White Cliffs. The two formations are separated by a wide bench of the Kayenta Formation's soft mudstones. The Navajo Sandstone surface of Canaan Mountain has been carved into ridges, hummocks, hollows, and passageways.
Most of the area is dominated by ponderosa pine and Douglas fir scattered among large areas of slickrock. Pinyon pine, manzanita, Gambel oak, and Indian ricegrass are found on the pockets of soil amid the slickrock. The lower slopes on the eastern side of the wilderness and at the base of the White Cliffs support pinyon-juniper with serviceberry, manzanita, and various grasses. Riparian areas are found along South Creek, Water Canyon Creek, Squirrel Creek and several other drainages; maidenhair fern, shooting star, scarlet monkeyflower, and columbine grow in hanging gardens by cliff-side springs and seeps.[3]
Hunting camps of the Virgin River Ancestral Puebloans and Southern Paiutes are likely to be present, but are as yet unidentified. A pulley system and collapsed buildings are remnants of logging on Canaan Mountain between 1915 and 1928.[3]
Access
Trailheads into Canaan Mountain Wilderness are found south of Rockville and at Squirrel and Water canyons north of Colorado City, Arizona.[3]
