Travelogue

Little Wild Horse Slot CanyonWhen we arrived at the Goblin Valley Visitor Center we looked at the weather forecast and saw the possibility of thunderstorms tomorrow, but no threat of rain today. Hmmm…That might change our plans a bit.

Knowing that a slot canyon was not a good place to be in a thunderstorm, we immediately switched our plans from hiking Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon from tomorrow to today - in fact, pretty much to right now.

We really didn’t want to miss out on this hike, as it is the most popular in the entire San Rafael Swell, and that’s saying a lot.

Little Wild Horse Slot CanyonNormally, I wouldn’t want to start a desert hike at high noon, but a little light in a slot canyon isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Plus, we would probably find lots of shade as well.

Little Wild Horse Canyon is not officially part of Goblin Valley State Park, but the dirt road to the trailhead is right by the Park entrance. So, rather than even enter Goblin Valley now, we drove the 5 miles down the Little Wild Horse Canyon dirt road to the trailhead. There were several cars in the parking lot, but most people were exiting the canyon, as they had started their hike in the morning, as we normally would.

Little Wild Horse Slot CanyonAfter parking our car, we took the trail leading to the dry wash bed and followed it for a few hundred yards. After about 10 minutes, the riverbed narrowed and we came to a dry waterfall, which we got around by ascending an inclined plane to the left of it.

Continuing along the wash, I almost missed the right turn at the fork into Little Wild Horse Canyon. In fact, I didn’t even see the fork, until Herb called me back. It’s easy to miss because the entrance is a concealed slit at the right side of the canyon. There is a sign though.

The other way went to Bell Canyon. You can do an 8-mile loop around both Little Wild Horse and Bell Canyons, but that wasn’t our plan for today. We still had lots to do in Goblin Valley.

Textured walls of Little Wild Horse Slot CanyonA few hundred yards further, things got really interesting, both in terms of color and texture of the rock walls. The soft light reflecting off the canyon walls painted the rocks a vibrant red, and interesting holes, niches, and swirls were carved out by millions of years of water action on the walls. It was stunning.

After about a mile and a half, we came to a very narrow and wet section, which would have required us getting our boots wet, so we turned around and went back from whence we came.

The hike was a little over 3-miles with very little elevation gain.