Little Death Canyon - Wolverine Canyon Loop

26 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain • 1 night

We were dispersed car camping on BLM land about a mile from the Little Death Canyon trailhead, so we did this backpacking loop from there. It's all cross-country travel, down the Little Death Canyon drainage to Horse Canyon, up Horse Canyon to Wolverine Canyon, up Wolverine Canyon (and its various drainages) back to camp. The geology in this area is stunning! We were camped on/in the Wolverine Petrified Forest area, and saw numerous petrified "stumps". Some of the largest logs and sections were in the southern/easternmost drainage of Wolverine Canyon.

The slots of Little death Hollow were amazing. The narrows themselves were about 5 miles long, but the slots (about 2 feet wide) ran on for about 2 miles. Incredibly fun hiking! There were quite a few cow skeletons in the canyon from where cattle had been caught in flash floods and washed into the narrows.

We camped under a ledge in Horse Canyon, where there was a tickle of clear water for filtering. After setting up camp and resting a bit, we walked down Horse Canyon to the Escalante River, which was full and running quickly. From here, you can hike up or down canyon to some other amazing canyons, some requiring technical skills to navigate.

The following day we hiked up Horse Canyon a few miles to the mouth of Wolverine Canyon and then back to our camp. Wolverine Canyon had a short section of narrows, but no slots. We wandered around our camp area after unpacking from the backpacking trip and found the most unusual sandstone lumps, like Gooseberry Mesa near Zion. We wandered around on the lumps for a while, where I found an arrowhead! Incredible find!