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Little Wildhorse Canyon/Bell Canyon Loop

My friend Ivan has always wanted to go to visit Delicate Arch, which is in Arches National Park. Several times during the years that we worked together at U of I we tried to arrange a trip together to go hiking in Arches. We were never able to make it work. This year was so busy that it never came up so we hadn't talked about it for a long time. That's why I was surprised the first time that I had lunch with him after I returned from my trip to Nepal this fall when he asked if I wanted to go. He told me that he had a lot of vacation days that he had to use before the end of the year. I am always up for a trip to canyon country but I told him that I had a lot of stuff already planned. Sandy and I had arranged a trip with our friend Mary Beth to the Grand Canyon. When we got back it would be Thanksgiving week and Shannon and her boyfriend Jimmy would be coming to visit us for the holiday. I told him that if the weather held, I would be happy to go after that. Usually by that time though winter weather has moved in and the hiking season is over.

As the time approached I monitored the weather forecast. Surprisingly it looked like Moab would have nice weather the week after Thanksgiving, sunny or partly sunny skies every day with highs in the low sixties. It sounded like excellent hiking weather. When I told Ivan it looked like we would be able to go, he said that in the meantime he had already planned a trip at Christmas to go back to Mexico with his mom to visit their family. They would be gone for quite a while so now he didn't have any vacation days left to spend on a hiking trip. I had been thinking about it ever since Ivan first mentioned it so by now I was psyched to go. Since Ivan couldn't make it I figured that I would just go by myself but when I mentioned it to Sandy she said that she would be interested in going. We checked and were lucky enough that one of our friends would be able to stay with Abby on such short notice. We made our hotel reservations and were set to go.

I had a specific hike in mind that I really wanted to do on this trip. There are two slot canyons in the San Rafael Swell that can be combined to make a loop trip. I went there once before and tried to do the hike a few years ago. When the two canyons split I went up Little Wildhorse Canyon, but after a short distance a narrow section was filled with water. It was only ankle deep but went as far as I could see. A real canyon hiker would have just walked right through the water but I wimped out. I went back to the junction and just hiked up Bell Canyon to the end and then hiked back. It was a great hike but I had only done half of what I had set out to do. The guidebook said that Little Wildhorse was the longer and more interesting of the two canyons. I was determined to go back sometime and do the complete loop. This seemed like the perfect time to do it. Since it was so late in the season, it was unlikely that there would be any water in the canyons.

The San Rafael Swell is one of the more remote parts of Utah. If you don't want to camp (and Sandy didn't) the closest town where you can stay is Hanksville. Sandy and I spent a night there on a hiking trip a few years ago. We weren't favorably impressed and did not want to stay there again. The next closest alternative was Green River. It's a small town and there isn't much there so we only planned to be there for one night. After we did our hike we would move on to Moab where there were more hotels, restaurants and shops.

We left the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Not long after hitting the road Sandy asked if we could stop at a Walmart sometime because she needed to get some lotion that she had forgotten to bring along. Since the interstate goes right past the Walmart in Mountain Home, we made a quick stop there. Later, while I was driving, Sandy was knitting and realized that she needed some markers for what she was doing. She didn't have any with her. She checked Google Maps and saw that we would go right by the Walmart in Spanish Fork. We made a quick stop there too and she found what she needed. Not what we expected but our hiking trip started out with a tour of Walmarts in Idaho and Utah. It didn't matter because the drive to Green River is less than eight hours so we had plenty of time for stops.

When we reached Green River we checked in at our hotel and then went to the Tamerisk Restaurant. We had a good dinner and enjoyed a nice view overlooking the Green River, watching the sunset.

After breakfast the next morning it took us about an hour to drive to the trailhead. We were doing a popular hike, probably the most famous in the San Rafael Swell, so even though it was late in the season there were already eight cars in the parking area by the time we got there. A lot of people seemed to be just hanging around their cars. I'm not sure what they were doing or why they were waiting. We didn't waste any time. We got ready and hit the trail. It was about ten in the morning when we started hiking. It had warmed up and it was already a nice day. We didn't even bother with jackets. Long sleeve shirts were enough. I was a little nervous because I thought that it might be cold in the canyons where we would be out of the sun. I needn't have worried because within an hour it was tshirt weather.

Little Wildhorse Canyon and Bell Canyon are slot canyons, so called because sections of them are extremely narrow. When traveling through a slot canyon you can encounter obstacles, such as rocks blocking the way or steep pouroffs (cliffs). Because the canyons are so narrow you can't just walk around something that's in your way. You often have to climb around it, over it or down it. Some slot canyons require technical canyoneering, using ropes and helmets and involving climbing and/or rapelling. Our guidebook said Little Wildhorse and Bell Canyons were beginner slot canyons, which is one reason that they are so popular. They require some scrambling but are not technical. The guidebook called them "Slot Canyons for Dummies".

The hike started in in an inauspicious way, in open desert heading up a dry wash. In about ten minutes cliffs began to rise on the sides of the wash. Then the sandy floor of the wash was replaced by slickrock. A dark opening led into a cave-like area that ended at a six foot pouroff with a large hole below it. A way forward wasn't obvious. This would have made for a short hike except that I knew from my last time here that not far back we had passed an alternate route that climbed around the cave on the left. We backtracked to a cairn and (carefully) followed a light track up and along the top of a short cliff. It was only twenty or thirty feet high but it would not be good to fall here. After passing the obstacle the track dropped back to the bottom of the canyon next to a sign. We were already at the point where the two canyons split. We followed the right fork into Little Wildhorse Canyon.

The canyon was narrow, maybe only four or five feet wide at spots. But after passing through a wider spot in the canyon we could see a dark slot ahead. It was the start of the section known as the narrows of Little Wildhorse. Sandy looked at me and asked "Do we go in there?" Yes, we do. And we did.

The canyon walls narrowed. In places they were only two or three feet apart. We could barely go through without turning sideways. It would not be a good hike for a fat person. It looked like there was no place to go because the canyon wove back and forth so you could only see a few feet ahead. It looked like it didn't go through but you could always wind your way further along. Sometimes large rocks would block the canyon but it was always possible to climb around or over them. One in particular was tricky but we managed to get past it.

The narrows went on for a long time. At one point two hikers with a dog caught up with us from behind. We were impressed that the dog was able to get through the canyon. We were more impressed later when we reached some of the obstacles farther up the canyon.

Eventually the canyon widened and just when I thought that we were past any difficulties we reached what looked like a dead end. The canyon descended slightly into a section where progress ahead was blocked by a sheer wall. It didn't look like there was anywhere to go. We had to walk right up to the end before we could see a pouroff and what looked like it might be a continutation of the canyon on the left side, out of sight around a corner until we came right up to it. But there was a steep wall about eight feet high that we had to climb. It looked hard enough that I went back to see if there was a way around while Sandy waited. Going back I passed a young couple who were coming up behind us. I went back several hundred yards but did not see a good way to climb out of the bottom of the canyon so that we could avoid the obstacle. I went back to see if we could figure out a way to get through.

When I reached Sandy she said that the other hikers had managed to climb up. She said they came back and offered to help her but she said that she would wait for me. They were young and athletic though, not a couple of old farts like us. The hardest part of getting up was getting started. The lowest part of the rock was slightly overhanging and didn't have any good holds. I gave Sandy a boost, giving her a first step up and from there she could reach where the rock sloped back again. She still only managed to get a knee up and had to wiggle and squirm to finally make it. Then it was my turn. Fortunately there were some good handholds up high and I was able to do a combination of jumping, lunging and pulling myself up enough to get off the ground. Unfortunately that left me in an awkward position and I had to wiggle and squirm a lot myself. What made it worse was that my pack caught on a rock hanging down from above, so every time I tried to move higher my pack pulled me backwards. I finally got up but had two scraped elbows to show for it. Pretty embarassing. It wasn't very good form but at least we made it through. Good thing no one was taking videos.

That turned out to be the crux of the route. There was one more point further on where we had to do some serious scrambling to climb up and around an obstacle but it wasn't nearly as bad as what we had already done. At least I managed it without hurting myself. Now when the canyon widened again we really were past the hard part.

Eventually we came out of Little Wildhorse Canyon and were on the other side of the swell. According to my GPS app we had gone about four miles. Now we had to hike another two miles "behind the reef" to get to Bell Canyon, which we could follow to get back to our car. This part was easy hiking but was very scenic, with impressive cliffs close by that extended far off into the distance.

When we reached Bell Canyon we turned off of the 4WD road we were following and headed into the canyon. It was the better of the two for the return leg since it was shorter and easier. At least that was my recollection from the last time that I had hiked here. It turned out that it was indeed shorter, only about half as long as Little Wildhorse. It was easier too, but there were a couple of spots that required some real scrambling. It was scenic as well and had a shorter but still impressive narrows section. It was enjoyable but by now we were starting to get tired. We were glad when we finally reached the juncion where the two canyons rejoined which meant that we were getting close to the trailhead.

We took the path up, out and around the pothole at the entrance to the canyon and walked the short distance down the wash back to the car. My GPS read 9.3 miles total and we finished in exactly four hours. It was a good time for doing both slot canyons. The hike was scenic. We had a good workout hiking and scrambling over obstacles. Both of the slot canyons were amazing, truely a unique experience.

It took us an hour and a half to drive to Moab where we would stay the next two nights at the new Homewood Suites. After cleaning up we went to Eddie McStiffs where we both had burgers for dinner. They tasted good, maybe because we had only eaten one shared candy bar since breakfast. That night we looked at our pictures (there were lots of good ones) and watched the Packers lose to the Steelers 31-28 on the last play of the game on Sunday Night Football (not so good).