Zeno Canyon and Waterfall
To reach Zeno Canyon you have to travel along the typically rough and mostly unmarked desert roads south of Big Jacks Creek. After hours of driving you get to the Duncan Creek Wilderness Study area and the rim of Zeno Canyon. To explore further you’ll have to hike.
There’s a rough trail in the upper canyon along a substantial creek flowing from a nearby springs. It’s lined with aspens and other lush growth which is unusual for the desert. Traveling further down the canyon the walls get higher and the hiking more difficult. The final approach to the waterfall is a scramble down a steep slope of loose rocks.
At the bottom of the slope and behind a tangle of bushes and trees is Zeno Falls . . . a thirty-foot waterfall that is a rare find in the Owyhee Desert.
"Going around the corner and finding that waterfall is like a treasure at the end of the trail in the desert. And little areas like that are just such surprises at times. And finding little things like that out in nature, it’s an experience everybody should go through at least once, and if you go through it once you’re going to do it again — you’re going to keep going out there and looking for more." --Jeanne Pepalis, Desert Traveler