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Gear I Wish I Had Before Hiking Colored Canyon in Sinai
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items So you booked that Nuweiba trip and now you're staring at your suitcase wondering what to pack for a canyon hike in the desert. I showed up my first time in cotton shorts and regular sneakers. By hour two I was sunburned, dehydrated, and sliding down...
Sections
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Footwear That Won't Betray You on Sandstone
Sun Protection for Desert UV That Hits Different
Hydration Gear Because the Desert Will Drain You
Clothing That Works in Hot Desert Canyons
Gear for Navigating the Canyon Safely
Camera Gear for Those Insane Canyon Colors
Footwear That Won't Betray You on Sandstone
The rocks in Colored Canyon look smooth but they're slippery in weird spots and sharp in others. I watched someone in flip-flops turn back after ten minutes. Your shoe choice will make or break this hike.
Grab these if you want grip on smooth sandstone without feeling like you're wearing bricks. I scrambled through narrow canyon sections and never slipped once. They dry fast too, which matters when you wade through occasional puddles.
SALOMON X ULTRA 4 MID WIDE Gore-Tex GTX Men
Wear these under your hiking shoes and forget about blisters. I hiked six hours in Sinai heat and pulled off my shoes expecting disaster. Not a single hot spot. They're worth every penny for desert terrain.
Darn Tough Hiker Micro Crew Cushion Socks - Men's
Swap out the factory insoles in whatever boots you own. My arches were screaming on my first canyon hike until a guide told me about these. Night and day difference on rocky uneven ground.
Superfeet Green All-Purpose Support High Arch Insoles
Keep sand and tiny pebbles out of your shoes without looking ridiculous. Colored Canyon has stretches of loose gravel that somehow finds its way into every opening. These saved me from stopping every five minutes to dump sand.
Shoe Gaiter Murah & Terbaik
Use this on your hiking shoes a week before you fly out. The canyon has some wet spots depending on the season, and treated boots handle them without soaking through. Learned this after ruining a pair of Merrells.
Gear Aid Revivex Murah & Terbaik
Pack these for the drive to and from the canyon. After a full hike, your feet need to breathe. I switch into these the second I get back to the car and it feels like a reward. Also great for walking around Nuweiba town.
Women’s Teva Hurricane XLT3
Toss these in your pack for the steeper sections if you're hiking after rain. A Dutch couple I met had them on and practically jogged up a slope I was crawling up. Lightweight enough that you won't notice them in your bag.
Run Traction Device
Sun Protection for Desert UV That Hits Different
I thought I knew sunburn. Then I spent four hours in a Sinai canyon where the walls reflect UV from every angle. My neck, ears, and the tops of my hands got cooked in places I'd never burned before.
Slather this everywhere before you start walking, including spots you'd never think of like your ears and the backs of your hands. Desert sun at altitude is no joke. I reapply every 90 minutes and still come home a shade darker.
Original SPF 50 Sunscreen Lotion
Wear this instead of a baseball cap. The full brim covers your neck and ears, which are the first things to fry in the canyon. I looked silly until everyone else started asking where I got it.
Sunday Afternoons Adventure Hat - Sand - Kab. Sleman
Pull this over your neck when the sun is directly overhead. Colored Canyon's walls block some light but there are open stretches where you're completely exposed. Weighs nothing, dries in minutes, saves your neck literally.
Adults' Buff Coolnet UV Plus Multifunctional Headwear
Get a pair with side coverage. The sandstone walls throw light at weird angles and I was squinting for the first hour before I switched to wraparound lenses. They also survived being dropped on rocks twice.
Shady Rays
Keep this in your pocket, not your bag. Your lips will crack faster than you expect in dry desert air. I forgot lip protection on my second trip and spent the rest of the vacation looking like I'd been chewing sandpaper.
Sun Bum Mineral Spf 30 Sunscreen Lip Balm
Try these if you burn easily on your hands. Sounds excessive until you realize you're gripping sunbaked rock for hours. A friend with fair skin wore these and was the only one in our group without lobster hands afterward.
Ouray Fingerless Gloves | Charcoal UPF 50+
Bring a travel size for the evening after your hike. Even with perfect sun protection, the dry desert air pulls moisture out of your skin. I put this on after a shower in Nuweiba and it took the tight feeling away immediately.
Healing Hydrating Body Lotion & Cream
Hydration Gear Because the Desert Will Drain You
I brought one regular water bottle on my first Colored Canyon hike. By the halfway point I was rationing sips and feeling dizzy. The canyon walls trap heat and there's zero shade for long stretches.
Carry at least 3 liters for the full canyon hike. Sipping from a hose while walking means you actually drink enough instead of waiting until you're already dehydrated. This pack sits close to your body so it doesn't snag on narrow canyon walls.
Women's M.U.L.E.® 12 Hydration Pack 100 oz
Drop two of these in your water before you start. Plain water isn't enough when you're sweating in dry heat because you lose salt fast. I felt the difference immediately compared to trips where I drank water alone.
Nuun Sport Electrolyte Tablets
Pack this as backup water storage. It folds flat when empty so there's no reason not to bring it. On my last hike the group ran low and I was the hero pulling out an extra liter from a pocket.
Stow™ 1L
Toss this in your bag as insurance. There are occasional water pools in the canyon and while I've never needed to drink from them, knowing I could takes the anxiety out of a long hike. Weighs practically nothing.
LifeStraw Personal Water Filter Review
Use one packet for every liter if you're a heavy sweater. The salty taste reminds you to keep drinking. My hiking partner swears these stopped his headaches that he used to get every single time in dry climates.
How to make LMNT's electrolyte drink mix at home
Keep this frozen overnight before the hike if your accommodation has a freezer. It melts slowly and you'll have cold water for the first two hours. Nothing in the world tastes better than ice water in a hot canyon.
Nalgene Tritan Wide Mouth BPA-Free Water Bottle
Grab this if you're doing multi-day desert trips beyond just Colored Canyon. Filters fast, lasts forever, and I've used mine across three countries. For a single canyon hike it's overkill, but serious hikers will appreciate having it.
Sawyer SP129 Squeeze Water Filtration System
Clothing That Works in Hot Desert Canyons
Cotton feels great for about twenty minutes. Then you sweat, it sticks, it chafes, and you spend the rest of the hike miserable. Colored Canyon requires squeezing through narrow gaps and climbing over boulders, so what you wear matters more than you'...
Wear this as your base layer. It wicks sweat, dries in minutes, and doesn't smell terrible after four hours. I wore the same one for two consecutive hikes and my travel partner didn't notice, which is the real test.
Women's Capilene® Cool Daily Shirt
Get these in a straight leg cut. The stretch lets you climb over boulders without ripping, and the quick-dry fabric handles sweat and the occasional wet canyon floor. I squeezed through a gap that would have destroyed jeans.
Prana Stretch Zion II Pants Review | Tested & Rated
Switch to these for any desert hike. Chafing in heat is real and these are the only underwear that got me through a full day without issues. Pack at least two pairs for your trip.
Men's Give-N-Go® 2.0 Boxer Brief
Pull these on when the sun is brutal and push them down when you're in shade. Way more flexible than choosing between short and long sleeves. They cool down when wet, so splash some water on them in the canyon.
Outdoor Research ActiveIce Spectrum Sun Long Sleeve Tee
Zip the legs off when you're in shaded canyon sections and zip them back on when you hit open terrain. Sounds gimmicky but it actually works. I went back and forth three times during one hike.
Women's Silver Ridge Utility Convertible Pants
Try this if you're hiking early morning when the desert is surprisingly cold. Colored Canyon before 8am can be chilly, then by 10am you're roasting. Merino regulates temperature better than anything synthetic I've tried.
Men's Classic Thermal Merino Base Layer Bottom
Pack this windbreaker for the drive through the desert and early morning starts. It balls up to the size of an apple so there's zero excuse not to bring it. Saved me from shivering on the jeep ride to the trailhead.
Arc'teryx Squamish Hoody - Women's | REI Co-op
Gear for Navigating the Canyon Safely
Colored Canyon isn't technically difficult but people get lost, get stuck, or get hurt every season. There's limited cell service and the canyon walls mess with GPS. A few small items can prevent a bad situation from getting worse.
Carry this if you're hiking without a guide. Cell service disappears inside the canyon walls. I sent a check-in message to my partner from 200 feet below the rim and it went through in seconds. Peace of mind you can't put a price on.
Garmin inReach Mini 2 Satellite Communicator
Bring this even for daytime hikes. Some canyon sections are deeply shaded and if you start late or move slowly, you could be finishing in low light. Weighs almost nothing and clips right onto your hat.
BLACK DIAMOND Spot 400 Headlamp
Keep this as a backup light in your pack. Batteries die at the worst times and having a second light source is basic safety. I lent mine to a stranger in a dark canyon section once and he looked genuinely relieved.
**How do you open a Petzl tikka to change the batt
Download the Colored Canyon trail map offline before you go. The app works without cell service and shows your GPS position on the trail. I would have taken a wrong turn at a fork without it.
How to cancel your AllTrails subscription
Toss this in the bottom of your pack and hope you never use it. If something goes wrong and you're stuck overnight, desert temperatures drop fast. Weighs four ounces and could save your life.
Thermal Emergency Blanket XL - SOL
Pack this for the scrapes and blisters that always happen on rocky hikes. I needed a bandage for a hand scrape after grabbing a rough rock wall. Having antiseptic wipes right there kept a small cut from becoming a bigger problem.
Ultralight/Watertight .3 First Aid Kit
Bring a basic compass as backup navigation. When your phone dies and the canyon all looks the same, knowing which direction is north matters. A guide taught me to use canyon wall shadows and compass together to stay oriented.
TruArc3 Compass | Baseplate Compasses
Camera Gear for Those Insane Canyon Colors
The layered sandstone in Colored Canyon shifts from deep red to orange to white to purple depending on the light. I took photos on my phone my first trip and they looked flat and boring. The colors in person are wild, but capturing them takes a littl...
Bring this if you want photos that actually match what your eyes see. Phone cameras struggle with the extreme contrast between bright sky and dark canyon floor. This camera handled both without blowing out the highlights.
Sony ZV-E10 II Mirrorless Camera with E PZ 16-50mm
Clip your camera to your pack strap so it's always ready. Digging through a bag every time the light changes means you'll miss the best shots. I caught a moment where sunlight hit a red wall for maybe thirty seconds because my camera was right there.
Peak Design Capture Camera Clip v3 (Black)
Use this to cut the glare off canyon walls and make the colors pop. The difference between photos with and without a polarizer in a sandstone canyon is honestly shocking. I compared side by side and the filtered shots looked like a different place.
Tiffen Circular Polarizer review: handy accessory for big
Strap this to your chest for the narrow squeeze-through sections. You can't hold a regular camera when you're sideways between two rock walls. The footage I got from inside those gaps is the stuff people actually want to see.
GoPro HERO12 Black Action Camera
Pack this because your phone and camera will both drain fast from constant photo-taking. I burned through 80% of my phone battery in two hours just shooting video. This bank charged everything back up during our lunch break.
Anker 737 Power Bank, 140W 24000mAh 3-Port Laptop
Wrap this around a rock for stable long-exposure shots in the darker canyon sections. Regular tripods are too bulky for narrow passages. I wedged this between two boulders and got a shot I literally framed and hung on my wall.
Joby GorillaPod 1K Flexible Mini-Tripod with Ball Head Kit
Swap in a fresh fast card before the hike. Nothing worse than your camera freezing because the card can't write fast enough. I shoot RAW files and this card never hiccuped once through 400 photos in the canyon.
SanDisk 128GB Extreme microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card
Snacks and Food That Survive Desert Heat
Chocolate melts. Cheese melts. Anything with mayo becomes a science experiment. I learned all of this the hard way while unwrapping a granola bar that had fused into one solid brown lump. Pack smart or go hungry.
Toss a few of these in your pack because they hold up in heat way better than chocolate-coated bars. The texture stays firm and they actually fill you up. I ate one at the halfway point and had energy for the entire climb back out.
RXBAR Protein Bars
Bring a bag for quick handfuls between sections. The salt and sugar hit exactly right when you've been sweating for hours. They don't crumble or melt, which sounds basic but matters when your pack is 40 degrees celsius inside.
Sahale Snacks Cashews Glazed Mix
Squeeze one of these onto flatbread for a meal that travels well in heat. Nut butter doesn't spoil in warm temperatures and the protein keeps you going. I pair this with local Egyptian bread from Nuweiba and it's a perfect canyon lunch.
Justin's Gluten-Free Classic Almond Butter Squeeze Packs
Grab a bag from any market in Nuweiba before your hike. Dates are the original desert fuel. Natural sugars, potassium, and they taste incredible when you're tired and hungry. Locals have been eating these on desert treks for centuries and there's a r...
Medjool Dates: Nutrition, Benefits, and Uses
Pack one of these for serious protein without worrying about it going bad. Meat bars sound weird until you're four hours into a hike and starving. This one doesn't taste like jerky, it's more like a real snack.
EPIC Venison Sea Salt & Pepper Bars 12 count
Bring this trail mix for a reliable handful-at-a-time snack. No chocolate chips to melt, just nuts and dried fruit. I portion mine into small zip bags so I can grab one without stopping to dig through my pack.
We Try All 18 Kinds of Trader Joe's Trail Mix
Pop a couple of these when you feel your energy dipping on a steep section. They're not as sticky as gummy bears in the heat and they dissolve fast. I keep a few in my pocket for the final push out of the canyon.
Anyone switched from gels to energy chews for long runs