It was chilly this morning with temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s. I waited until about 8:30 for the sun to rise over the rock cove to evaporate the dew that had formed on the tent during the night. While I was waiting, I fired up the stove to boil water for hot tea to have with my blueberry pop-tarts.After I was all packed up and ready to go, I drove the approximate 3 miles back to Little Wild Horse Canyon.
I wasn't able to do this hike yesterday due to the lack of time. Little Wild Horse Canyon is a slot canyon and a place recommended to see by my friend Chris in Aspen. Slot canyons are narrow canyons formed by water rushing through rock. They are significantly deeper than they are wide and they are predominantly found in areas with low rainfall amounts. The state of Utah has the largest concentrations of slot canyons in the world and Little Wild Horse is most popular slot canyon in the San Rafael Swell, the northwest corner of the Colorado Plataeu.
I arrived at the trailhead around 9:30 and struck up a conversation with Mark, a Moab local who was out for a hike with his Whippet, Hope. The total length of this hike is eight miles. The initial ½ mile leads from the parking lot into the beginning of the canyon. I hiked with Mark and his dog and he told me a story about this guy who was hiking in one of the nearby canyons. Apparently, his arm became wedged between the canyon wall and a big boulder that had shifted, pinning him in place. After several days without food, water or help, he decided his only option was to cut off his own arm to free himself. I had heard this story before, I just didn’t know it happened somewhere local to Utah. The real danger behind slot canyons are actually from flash flooding but there was no chance of rain today.Upon completion of the first ½ mile, we came to a “T” in the path.
From here, the trail is basically a 7.5 mile loop, which eventually leads right back to the "T". Since Mark had his dog with him, he decided to go straight while I turned right to go into the slot canyon. The canyon started out fairly wide and then slowly narrowed and narrowed until some sections were just wide enough to go in sideways. I came to a section, only about 15 feet long, that the floor was covered with reddish, silty water. I had waterproof boots on but I took them off to walk barefoot, just in case. 
It only looked a few inches deep but once I got in the water was about 3 inches over my knees, and it was COLD! I squeegeed off my wet feet with my hands and put my socks and boots back on. I made it maybe another 100 yards and came across a boulder as big as me that had fallen from above and lodged itself between the walls of the canyon. I probably could have made it over the boulder, but after hearing the one-armed climber story, being rather attached to all of my appendages and being alone, I decided to turn back and go the way Mark and his dog went. I was kind of bummed because the slot canyon section was the part I had really wanted to see, and I had only seen about 1/10 of it.After about 2 miles or so, I caught up with Mark. We ended up walking together again and were going to continue the last 2 miles along the trail to where it connected with the other side of the slot canyon. When we got to the slot canyon section, we decided to finish the loop together. The last 3.5 miles through the slot canyon were pretty amazing. Thousands of years of fast flowing water carved out smooth canyon walls that zig-zagged left, then right and back left again.
There were human sized rocks to boulder over, steep drops to navigate down, narrow gaps to squeeze through and deep water sections to either walk through or attempt to “wall walk” over them. We took turns passing the baton (dog) back and forth once one of us passed a difficult section.We finished the eight mile hike and were back to the car in about 4.5 hours. I’m glad to have seen the entire slot canyon. Without it, it would’ve been just another hike. There are many other slot canyons in Utah, Arizona and southern California as well as other parts of the world. If you are ever near one, go and have a look for yourself. It’s worth it.
My next planned stop is going to be Canyonlands National Park, back in the direction of Moab, about 110 miles from where I just came from yesterday. I heard there is not much out near Canyonlands as far as gas and food are concerned, so I decided that I would just stay another night in Moab. Moab has turned out to be a nice little, centrally located town from which to venture off from.
Tomorrow is Canyonlands and then I plan on heading further south in the direction of the Grand Canyon. I may detour along the way if something looks interesting.
More Pictures of Little Wild Horse Canyon
Mileage update: 4,184.3 miles
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