Bell Canyon

After photographing the goblins in Goblin Valley State Park first thing this morning, I hiked the Little Wild Horse and Bell Canyon loop. Little Wild Horse is a real slot canyon, so this ominous looking sky is not reassuring when hiking through it. However, this time of year, the thunderstorms which bring the really heavy rain are uncommon. They normally build in late summer and autumn. Bell Canyon is not steep sided, so it would not be too hard to climb out of it. However, I did motor on regardless, as it is difficult to see what the weather is doing from inside a canyon. Just as I was getting back to the car there was some sleety hail. It didn't last long, and other hikers seemed totally unfazed.

Rowan and I hiked this loop more than 20 years ago, when the access road was gravel and there was only a small pullout at the beginning of the trail. We saw no one else that day. Now the road is sealed and on a Sunday morning the official car park was full, with overflow parking on both sides of the road and in a large gravel area just past the trailhead. Heaps of people! There is a rest room here now and a picnic table. I read the plaque on the table. At one end, hikers are warned of flash floods and urged to check for thunderstorms over a 50 mile radius. The catchments of these narrow canyons are huge, and the water rises an unbelievable amount. In the Visitor Centre at Goblin Valley there are photos of huge waterfalls flowing down previously dry canyons and hikers 'swimming' through heaps of debris that has been caught in the narrow slots. These accumulations of tree trunks, branches and miscellaneous vegetation can make the canyons virtually impassible.

On the other end of the picnic table is a plaque in memory of two hikers who were swept away in a flood in 2020. I was rather surprised that there were only two.

I've included a shot of the goblins (hoodoos) from earlier in the morning in extras.