Canyoneering at Little Wild Horse Canyon, Utah
After spending the afternoon at Goblin Valley State Park, we headed over to the  trailhead for Little Wild Canyon. Most of the crowds were gone and we found a quiet spot at the end of the overflow parking lot and set up camp for the night. With about an hour of sunshine left we enjoyed sitting outside in our chairs reading in the setting sun while Hunter played lego in the trailer. It was close to a full moon that evening and the skies were amazing to see – so clear with no lights around.
Our original plan had been to have a slight sleep in and then hit the trails by around 10 am, thinking that it would be a 4 hour hike. Just past 9am, Tim announced that cars were starting to stream into the parking lot and that we needed to move up our timeline to avoid hiking with the masses. Turns out this was the equivalent of a “PD day” so all the kids were out of school for a long weekend…We managed to hit the trailhead by 9:30 and unfortunately this was about the same time as a group of 13 year old boyscouts, whom we leapfrogged the entire day.
Little Wild Horse Canyon is an in/out canyon that can be turned into an 8 mile loop when you match it up with a BLM trail section and then return on Bell Canyon. We boldly chose to do that, knowing we were pushing our limits with Hunter… with no where to go, and no time limit we thought “why not”???
Both Little Wild Horse and Bell Canyon are family friendly slot canyons, which means that you don’t need ropes to get around features and with a little creativity, you can make it up (or down) all the features on the trails. Hunter enjoyed putting his new “climbing” skills to good use and could often be convinced to not take the easy path.
The BLM connector section was the hardest part of the trail as it was pure hiking with not alot of distractions. We played a number of games of 20 questions and then moved onto verbal games related to school work, managing to cover off Geography (Canadian Provinces & Capitals) AND the Human Body (bones & digestive system). It made the time go faster and we had lots of laughs 🙂
After all was said and done, we made it the full 8 miles. It took us 5 1/2 hours and Hunter was very tired by the end. We were so proud of him as there was little to no moaning or complaining and he kept his feet moving most of the time. Definitely the longest he has ever hiked – woo hoo! (the $100 we spent on hiking boots at MEC is sure paying off!).
The rock formations are incredible. I do wish I had been there with you. Glad to hear Hunter is working on his conditioning. It will pay off later.Have fun enjoy the sun. See you for Christmas love grandpa.