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.