Week 25 Feb. 20 - San Rafael Swell and Valley of the Goblins

More to come later, but a quick update from my phone.

I had an amazing hike through Little Wild Horse canyon and Bell Canyon. Came back to camp and my best friend from work, who is my co-leader, and I took a little hike to the valley of the goblins.

Great times, tomorrow I descend into dark canyon for 7 days.

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And here is more...

Total Distance: Approximately 11 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 1000 ft. 

Time: Forgot to check.
Weather: Brilliantly sunny and a bit cool.

This week's and the next week's hike were hikes I did with twelve students and two other teachers at the school I work at.  We have an awesome program that gives teachers a maximum of 12 days to plan unique course offerings.  The minimum is at least a 5-day classroom time experience.  Some kids do class blowing, local community service work, or building an Adirondack Chair.  Other teachers use the mid-winter break before the program starts to design trips ranging from Japan, Italy, China, The U.A.E, and backpacking trips to Southeast Utah.

We started the day at the Hanksville Inn, run by Ed, an awesome dude. If you are ever in the area of Hanksville, UT I recommend staying here.  We drove into Goblin Valley State Park and set up camp in the campgrounds there.  We spent one night car camping and taking day hikes in the area.  After getting camp all squared away, we drove about 15~20 minutes out of the park on dirt roads to the west to a the trailhead in the San Rafael Swell area that would take us into Little Wild Horse Canyon and Bell Canyon.

The hike was a little lolli-pop loop.  We walked out and hit a junction and took off to the right through the Little Wild Horse Canyon.  This was a fun walk through a slot canyon.  It was straight out of 127 Hours.  The sun in the mid morning was rarely shinning directly through the canyon, so it was a bit cold.  The water that rushes through to cut these slots has revealed layered colors in the rock that were simply beautiful.  There had been rain in the area a few days before, so some parts of the trail through the canyon were totlly submerged in two areas almost thigh deep some of the kids discovered. I did my best to climb up the sides and push against the both sides of the canyon walls with my feet and hands to move over the water.  It was totally sweet.

After a few fun slots, we did come out into more wide open parts of the canyon.  After a lengthy lunch break, we walked about another hour before we hit a dirt road and followed it back to the west. Shortly, we hit the trailhead for Bell Canyon.  At this point, I found myself in the back which became my customary position this trip.  Yes, with all the hiking I have done, I still hike like a slow old man.  The hike was good, it hit back to the junction where we went left into Little Wild Horse Canyon.  We started to see more traffic on the trail at this point.  Some older couples, then a group of about 5 young men, college aged to early 30s.

We got back in the cars and drove back to our camp.  It was about 3:30 pm, my best friend and I took off on a walk to the Valley of the Goblins.  This was great.  Just me and my best friend from work.  When we got to the valley, I was left almost speechless at the beauty of the hoodoos.  I could see how late in the night, it could look like Goblins.

Orchid: Walk to Goblin Valley.

Onion: The kid who argued about why iPods should be allowed in the backcountry.

Picture:

Google Map