Navigating the Narrows of Little Wild Horse Canyon

Admittedly, we have very little experience canyoneering. It’s a totally different skill set and often involves ropes, knowledge, and technical expertise that we are sadly lacking. That said, I LOVE slot canyons! When the ranger suggested a 9-mile loop trail that took us through two slot canyons and did not involve ropes, I was all over that.

Happy Canyoneers. :)

If you are ever in this area, do NOT miss hiking Little Wild Horse Canyon. For a fairly easy hike – only a few sketchy spots where we had to scramble over obstacles – the payoff is amazing. Water has eroded deep, narrow clefts through the canyon. The course curves sinuously through beautifully patterned sandstone. Some areas the path widens out and in others it is so narrow you have to put one foot on each of the walls and scuttle along. Some places the path is straight and in others every other step zig-zags around another curve. All of it is just so freaking cool.

The trail winds through ...

... under ...

... up, and ...

... over.

Love the sinuous path curving between the sandstone walls.

The path is fairly wide here...

... and only a size 8 wide here. Lol. 

Weird erosion patterns are so cool!

The first half mile was a walk up a large wash to the entrance of Little Wild Horse Canyon. Huge cottonwood trees line the banks and you see evidence of flash floods. Even we knew to never, ever attempt a slot canyon hike if there is any chance of significant rain. Given the recent thunderstorms we were mindful of the weather and checked the forecast before setting out. Little Wild Horse Canyon is 3.6 miles long – the last bit widens out into a wash with great views of the tall walls layered in different colors and types of stone each representing a distinct geological era.

Here the trail exits the canyon and goes down a wide wash.

Look! Trail sign even I can read. Lol.

Then we had about a two mile slog along a 4x4 road to get to the entrance of Bell Canyon which would return us to our starting point. I thought this portion of the hike might be boring, but there were some nice viewpoints and a cool dragon skull. At least that's what it looked like to me! Lol.

The 4x4 road winds around the butte.

Check out how tilted the earth is - evidence of tectonic uplift millions of years ago.

Dragon skull! No denying it. :)

Bell Canyon was a little under 2 miles long and didn’t have as many super narrow slots, but the colors were beautiful. I loved the multi-colored natural amphitheater done up in purple, gold, green, red, and yellow. The pictures just don’t do it justice.  

Having too much fun!

Slot canyon bonsai.

It just looks otherworldly.

The colors were just amazing, wish I could have captured it better.

There isn’t much wildlife in the slots, lizards and a few chipmunks. On the way out we did see a large non-venomous Gopher Snake. These guys don’t get a lot of points for survival instinct. We had to chase one off the road at Klondike Bluffs. He was sunning himself and refused to move. Rog had to get out of the car and literally herd him off the road. Lol.

Yep, these guys look related. Apparently they also kill rattlesnakes. Brave, but not very bright. Lol.

Little Wild Horse Butte.

We leave in the morning for Capitol Reef National Park, but have added this area to our list of places we’d like to return to. There are several more slot canyon loop trails just waiting to be explored!