Half a Day in Little Wild Horse Canyon

Little Wild Horse Canyon

(1/2 a day)

This was our 5th stop of our Mighty 5 Roadtrip. While not a National Park, it was not a park to miss!  It was our first ever slot canyon!

Little Wild Horse Canyon is right down the road from Goblin Valley, so if you wanted to, you could make a full day by combining both of these 1/2 day adventures. However, we utilized the other half of the day after Little Wild Horse, to make the 1 hr 40 min drive to Torrey, so we could get an early start at Capital Reef the following morning.

We got up early, so we could get a head start. Gorgeous sunrise on the drive in.

I LOVE an early start, because we were the ONLY people there for the hike out, and passed maybe 3 groups on the 2nd half of the trail coming back. I always love when the trail isn't crowded, but it's nice in a slot canyon so you don't have to pause, and squish to the side to let ppl pass.

Little Wild Horse Canyon has "tight passageways, curving, scalloped walls, and short sections of easy rock scrambling.

Getting there: Enter “Little Wild Horse Canyon and Bell Canyon Trailhead” into Google Maps for directions. There are bathrooms before you hike, but the one was NASTY. Not as well maintained as other parks.

Parking: lot can only hold about 20 cars. We were the first ones there, arriving shortly after sunrise.

There are warnings posted: do not enter a slot canyon if there is risk of rain. They are known for flash-flooding and can be very dangerous.

Thank you to Earth Trekkers for helping us plan our trip. Their blogs are amazing and have so much helpful info. Highly rec!

The full loop (combining Little Wild Horse Canyon with Bell Canyon) is 8 miles and takes 3-6 hrs. We shortened it, by hiking Little Wild Horse Canyon out-and-back. I'm not a fan of out and back trails, but we read that Little Wild Horse is more exciting than Bell Canyon. It allowed us to see the cool views, but still have the rest of the day to travel, grocery shop, laundry, get dinner, etc. 

From the trailhead we walked up the wash until we hit the fork. Canyon Bell is on the L, so we took Little Wild Horse on the R. 

About 2.5 miles into Little Wild Horse, the canyon begins to open up. We came to a small dry fall (maybe 6 feet tall?) that we had to climb up onto to continue the route. You will need a boost to get up it. Thankfully someone placed a rock at the bottom, almost like a stepping stool. After this, the hike lacks the "wow factor." So we yelled into the canyon a bit playing with our echo, and then turned around and headed back. You can always start with Little Wild Horse, hike to this point, and THEN decide to come back the way you came as we did, or keep going and return via Bell Canyon. 

Can you spot Matt's outline?

This slot canyon is a natural beauty, as we often stopped to admire the various carvings in the rock. These are some of my fav shots of the canyon walls.

 

Next up: Capitol Reef National Park (coming soon)

Half a Day in Goblin Valley State Park

 Goblin Valley State Park

Address: 18630 Goblin Valley Rd, Green River, UT 84525

State Park Website

This was our 4th stop of our Mighty 5 Roadtrip. 

We stopped here after we did a half day at Dead Horse Point State Park. It was a 1hr 45 min drive from Dead Horse, but it was on our way to our next 2 stops, 

Little Wild Horse & Bell Canyon & Capitol Reef National Park.

Hours of Operation: 6 am to 10 pm daily

Fee: $20; and no, the interagency pass (if you bought it) covers National Parks, but not State Parks.

Since we did Dead Horse first, we didn't get here until mid-day, so the line to get in is LONG. Once they reach capacity, its 1 car in = 1 car out.

Once you get past the entrance, keep to the L when the road forks, and park in the main parking lot.

Parking lot was CROWDED, but there really weren't a lot of ppl. So small parking, but lots of land to spread out.

Thank you to Earth Trekkers for helping us plan our trip. Their blogs are amazing and have so much helpful info. Highly rec!

After we parked, we took a glimpse down into the valley, via Observation Point.

 Hoodoos fill the area! Hoodoos, referred to locally as goblins, are "formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles, some as tall as several yards." Kids were running around playing hide and seek-tag among the massive figures. It honestly did look like we were on a different planet. You can climb on them, making it lit the perfect playground for kids, but to be careful not to damage any of them.

We read there are 5 hiking trails in Goblin Valley State Park. The plan was to just explore the valleys, bc of what I read on Earth Trekkers, but Matt found a hike with an underground cave, so we HAD to do it! So very glad we did, as this was a big highlight of our trip.

The Goblin's Lair

Distance: 1.5 miles one way

Basically, instead of going down into the valleys, you stay on top and wrap around to the L, that leads you BEHIND the cliffs that create a back wall to the valleys. 

This is the Carmel Canyon loop that then splits off after 1/2 mile to cont on to the Goblin's Lair. We enjoyed our hike, as the scenery was so different from what we had seen so far on our trip.

 We had fun with some pics, until we arrived at the talllll rock scramble. 

The cave is not actually a "lair" but is a slot canyon that the entrance has been sealed by a rockfall years ago. We had to scramble up the steep slope over boulders, to get to the top entrance, and then repeat, scrambling down into the cave. 

The holes in the "ceiling" allowed light beams into the cave. 

We saw a guided tour of 4-5 people rappelling down into the cavern, which was something I would have loved to do, if I knew it was a thing. 

You can pay $4 at the visitors center for a permit to rappel, but if you aren't experienced, you can book a guided canyoneering tour at Get in the Wild Adventures.

On our hike in, we passed some kids that had just rappelled, and were hiking back. They told us that there is a small passageway inside the cave, that you can go into and explore even further. It leads you completely THROUGH the rock scramble, to get back out of the cave, instead of going OVER it. 

I was hype about this; I could get out of climbing the rock scramble up and down for a 2nd time? I'm game. But then they told us, the small passageway gets smaller and smaller. To the point where you have to take your backpack off, put it in front of you, and PUSH it through, as you army crawl behind it, in the TOTAL PITCH BLACK DARKNESS. No thank you. We left our headlamps in the car. But even with them, idk if I could do it. 

When we got back to the parking lot, we headed over to explore the Valleys.

The Three Valleys

When you descend the steps from Observation Point, you are in Valley 1. 

We trekked out to Valley 2.

and tried for so a longggg to get to Valley 3, bc we heard the hoodoos out here were the best. If I could do it again, I would skip trying to get to Valley 3. It was just a long time of the same landmarks, and no shade. We kept checking the map but weren't really making progress. With no other people in sight, and starting to get late, we headed back before we officially made it to Valley 3.

Next up: Little Wild Horse & Bell Canyon

Half a day in Dead Horse Point State Park

 Dead Horse Point State Park

This was our 3rd stop of our Mighty 5 Roadtrip. While not a National Park, it was not a park to miss!  

To get here from Moab, it is a 45-minute drive (33 miles). 25 min from where we stayed at Sun Outdoors.

Cost: $20 per vehicle for up to 8 people, valid for 2 days;  $10 if you bike-in or walk-in

Thank you to Earth Trekkers for helping us plan our trip. Their blogs are amazing and have so much helpful info. Highly rec!

According to Earth Trekkers, the only difference between a half day and a full day in Dead Horse Point State Park, is adding in some mountain biking or hiking on the Bighorn Overlook Trail. Because of this, we decided to only do a half day, and pair it with Goblin Valley State Park.

With our half day, we hiked the West Rim trail loop. We thought about doing the East Rim Trail, which is 2 miles long, but heard the views from the West Rim are better. 

West Rim Trail:

West Rim Trail is 3.5 miles long. We started at Dead Horse Point Overlook, which is incredible; gorgeous landscapes with the Colorado River twisting below. 

We took the trail to Meander Overlook, then Rim Overlook, and turned back. We didn't want to push on to Big Horn Overlook bc the hike becomes 2.5 miles round trip, and the views become redundant. 

On the way back, we decided to skip Shafer Canyon Overlook, bc we already saw this in Canyonlands. 

The trail is "primitive" as you have to look for cairns to stay on the trail, but it's very well trodden and we didn't have any issues.

My fav spot was Rim Overlook. The trail kind of "ended" so you could explore the narrowing of rock overlooking the the canyons. You really felt like you were right on the edge, on the "rim."

Can you spot Matt??

Next up: Goblin Valley State Park