Kristi Cartwright: Little Wildhorse - Bell Canyon Loop and Goblin Valley

I love the outdoors, however due to several surgeries and a spine injury I haven’t been hiking since high school. That all changed a couple of weeks ago. One Tuesday evening instead of going to our typical gym workout Britney and I decided to make the short trek up to Ensign Peak. It was a simple stroll up the mountain/hillside for a quick outlook over the city. Even though it’s probably one of the easiest hikes around I was still super excited to say that I hiked again!!

Wednesday we decided to take a walk from my house in the downtown area up to the State Capital building. Britney hadn’t ever explored the inside so we got some history mixed in with a nice little walk.

Then Saturday morning came along…. I picked up my good friend Kristen about 7am and we drove and drove down to the San Rafael Swell. We arrived in the parking area about 10:30am. After a brief stretch and a quick bite to eat we loaded up our back packs and set off on an 8 mile hike through Little Wildhorse and Bell Canyons.

I had done a little research about the hike prior to making the trip and all the books and websites kept saying it’s a simple hike, there’s one spot about ½ mile into it that takes some athletic ability. If you can make it over that you’ll be in good shape for the rest of the hike. I could see why people struggle with it but thanks to my research I found an extremely simple way to go up the side rock wall about 10 feet and then back down. It took us about 30 seconds to beat the so called hardest part of the trail.

The next 3 miles were amazing. Words cannot describe the beauty of winding in and out of the slot canyon. The way the light hits the rocks is just stunning. I think we were both smiling from ear to ear the whole way. There were some points where we were trekking through water, up and over rocks even under rocks at times. I felt like I was in a maze that doesn’t allow you to get lost. The next thing I knew we were exiting the slots. I was so sad and excited at the same time.

That’s when the worst part of the hike started. Walking through a desert in loose sand. The sun was beating down on us and there weren’t very many places that offered any shade. It seemed to drag on and on. We definitely started to lose our momentum. So we stopped to have a quick sandwich and some water. After what seemed like forever we reached a sign that showed us we were at the half way point. WOO HOO! We basically started skipping and all of our energy came right back for the next 1.6 miles until we reached Bell Canyon.

Bell was not nearly as cool as LWH, but it was still really fun. I’m glad we decided to do LWH first. As some of the boulders we had to climb down were too smooth and large, I’m not sure we could have easily climbed up them.

I actually had a 127 hours moment…. We were scaling down some large boulders and my little legs couldn’t reach. There was nothing to hold on too or to push myself off of I knew I was about to slip. I prepared myself for the 6ish foot drop between the rocks and hoped I wouldn’t be too injured. I let out a gasp and fell. Landing on a bunch of smaller rocks I jammed my toe and had a few scrapes and bumps. I considered myself lucky as I could have easily twisted my ankle.

Soon enough we were back to the beginning. We were so proud of ourselves! I loved all of the hikers we met along the way.