The best family-friendly hikes and walks in Middle Wild Horse Mesa Wilderness

From now on, we can see the sky again, and the sun if it's there. This is an easy section of the canyon, and also beautiful.

It's a living corridor, a ribbon of winding sandstone, a succession of walls that meander and undulate. The sandstone, polished by wind and tide, has almost human curves, hips, waves, draperies, and folds of fabric frozen in the colors of the surroundings. At this point, we exchanged our water shoes for our hiking boots. After that, the paths remained dry.

You feel like you are on another planet, Mother Nature often looks beautiful.

Seen from the parking lot. When we were here (November 21, 2025), the water was about 20cm deep. Afterward, we encountered several wading areas that you have to wade through; there's no other option. We brought water shoes, which are easy to pick up.

Little Wild Horse and Bell Slot Canyons, unfortunately the unfinished ones for us 😥🙁😥 Today the Little Wild Horse Canyon and possibly the Bell Canyon should be visited. The two canyons can be explored in an approximately 13 km long circular tour. Here you can find my planned complete tour: komoot.de/tour/822561321 We left Goblin Campground very early because it was the weekend and all hell is supposed to break loose in the canyons on the weekend. The road to the trailhead is now paved, so it wasn't a problem even for our motorhome. When we arrived at the trailhead we were the very first ones 😃 So much for my phobia the previous days: we're pretty sure we won't get a parking space 😱 After a good breakfast we went to the Little wild horse canyon. At the beginning you go up the common wash to the junction and turn right there to Little Wild Horse Canyon. A signpost shows the way. My recommendation: Be sure to go through Little wild horse Canyon first, as most people do that. Because at the bottlenecks there is no way to get past each other in oncoming traffic!!! Now it became wonderfully nice to fight your way through the sometimes narrow and then wider places. However, after about a kilometer we were forced to make a decision in a narrow area with a boulder. Either climb over the boulder and not know whether we can overcome it again on the way back or continue walking the entire 13 km circular route or turn back here. We decided to turn back, especially since I had also pre-booked a slot canyon “Cardiac Canyon” with Page. In 2012 I was nearby in the world-famous Lower Antelope Canyon: flickr.com/photos/pharoahsax/albums/72157641505310913 On the way back we wanted to walk at least a little bit into Bell Canyon. But unfortunately a smooth rock barrier blocked the way for us old men, so we surrendered here too and ended the tour. In conclusion: Despite the cancellation, it was worth going on this tour😊 For younger people it is certainly no problem to overcome the rock and complete the circular tour, especially since you come from above at the rock barrier and you can always get down 😉

Trails are impossible to find since there are no markers

The "goblins" are sandstone hoodoos, which are mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles formed by erosion. There are thousands of these goblins making it a surreal Mars-like landscape.

Little Wild Horse is a classic Utah slot canyon with a long stretch of "narrows", or tight, high canyon walls. It is a great introduction to exploring slot canyons.