Little Death Hollow/Horse Canyon/Wolverine Canyon Photo Trip Report

Introduction

The original plan was for all of us (Kim, Kessler, Shaylee and me) to go and do the Little Death Hollow Loop, but Kim had to stay home since one of our guinea pigs needed some medicine. I had been through much of Little Death Hollow several years ago, but it was full of water and we stopped short of much of the best parts, so it was time to complete the loop.

Rather than doing the entire loop in one day, which is what most people do, we were to take two days in order to explore all the side canyons and to hike all the way down to the Escalante River.

This is a beautiful area and the photographs will tell most of the story.

April 13

From the trailhead, we hiked down Little Death Hollow. In the Hollow, we met SP member gjagiels who was running the canyon. He recognized my name in the summit register. We chatted for a bit until we reached a side canyon, but the kids and I set off to explore the side canyon.















We explored another technical side canyon farther down Little Death Hollow as well. This one had some technical scrambling up the slot and around potholes.





Once the side canyons were explored, we continued down Little Death Hollow. Little Death Hollow certainly lived up to its name as there were many bones scattered throughout the canyon, one dead cow and a fresh dead deer.



The rumored obstacles in the canyon have either changed or have been highly exaggerated because it was more or less a stroll through. There were several chockstones to scramble over and under, but it was easy as slot canyons go. We could keep our feet dry as well. We found ourselves out of the canyon faster than expected and we kept expecting it to get more difficult.



























We made it through Little Death Hollow in four hours, even with exploring all the side canyons. From there we dropped our packs and headed down Horse Canyon to the Escalante River. It was a pretty walk and the kids like to play in the cold river, which was running clear (rather unusual for this time of year).

After enjoying the river, we headed back up to the confluence of Little Death Hollow/Horse Canyon, but there was a group camped there with six big dogs. We decided to hike farther up Horse Canyon to camp and camped near the line camp.

After camp was set up we hiked up to the spring high on the canyon wall for good water. We thought about sleeping in the Line Cabin (it was windy), but some ranchers came down and were going to sleep in the cabin. They were looking for a lost cow and we told them we only saw a herd of cows farther down canyon. When we described the herd, they quickly went down canyon with their horses because it was a cow herd that was lost for quite a while now.

The evening was quite windy, but later that night the stars came out and it became calmer. We had hiked 12.5 miles (~20 kms) today.

April 14

Today we hiked up Horse Canyon and out Wolverine. It was a pretty walk, but quite easy although there were some boulders to pass. At the upper end of Wolverine, there are some huge petrified logs and we spent some time observing and exploring them. After that it was a walk across the colorful hills to the vehicle. It was a good trip, but since it was a long drive, I wished that we could have stayed longer.

Images

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