I finally got to explore my first slot canyon yesterday. It was Little Wild Horse Canyon and it was spectacular! Little Wild Horse Canyon is around 200 miles southeast of where I live in Sandy, Utah. The canyon is near Goblin Valley State Park, around an hour south of Green River and around 2 hours west of Moab. CLICK on any image to enlarge it!
I woke very early and hit the road for my 200 mile drive so I could start hiking the canyon at sunrise. I was the first one in the canyon and had it all to myself. My goal was to get through Little Wild Horse and then continue the loop to Bell Canyon. That should have been less than a 9 mile hike, but I took did some exploring and my hike turned out to be more like 11 miles, with almost 1900 feet of vertical gain.
The actual slot part of Little Wild Horse Canyon I’m guessing is around 3 miles long. I had my satellite tracker on, but didn’t really pay that much attention to the distance. There were places that opened up quite a bit, but sections of Little Wild Horse Canyon were very narrow, curvy and had very high canyon walls on both sides.
The landscape going to and around Little Wild Horse Canyon is pretty spectacular. It is incredibly dry and not much of anything grows except in shaded areas and places that collect the little rain and snow that falls. There were some really interesting things to see in Little Wild Horse Canyon and on the trail to Bell Canyon.
As I said, there were fairly open sections in between slot sections and the area between Little Wild Horse Canyon and Bell Canyon was very wide with very tall cliffs on both sides
Bell Canyon is the canyon that took me back to the trailhead. Bell was very wide in sections, but did have some slot sections and some pretty good areas to explore on either side of it.
Of course, this Old Hiking Dude had to take a bunch of selfies – so here they come!
Oh, I almost forgot something – although the temperature started out a little chilly, it warmed up quite a bit and the sun got pretty hot in many areas. I took lots of water and snacks. AND as I sort of expected, I came across a rattlesnake!
If you want to check out the Little Wild Horse Canyon and Bell Canyon Loop or just one or the other, do your homework. There is no cell signal. My feeling is that it is best to do in cooler weather because of potential extreme heat, sunburn and snakes. Flash floods in slot canyons can also be extremely bad. This isn’t intended to be advice or guidance. I’m just suggesting that you do your research and plan your trip carefully.
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