Wild Horse Canyon

The kids won’t complain about hiking Wild Horse Canyon in the San Rafael Swell

This family-friendly hike up Wild Horse Canyon follows the canyon floor through two mini slots, exiting into a wash.

Start walking south down the wash, passing a chimney stack hoodoo on your left. The juniper and tamarisk trees scattered throughout the area provide great campsites, and the number of tire tracks in the wash suggests its popularity.

The mouth of Wild Horse Canyon is wide, and for the first half mile the wash meanders through Chinle shale hills. When you reach a Wilderness Study Area boundary (no vehicles beyond this point), the growing Wingate Sandstone cliffs funnel you into the narrows.

Through the reef

As the canyon pinches off, the wall’s honeycombed and varnished surface steals your attention. You pass a small window arch on the right canyon wall around 1 mile, where the canyon turns northeast.

A half mile farther, the wash drops into a low slot. Walk along the slickrock ramp on the left until it rejoins the canyon floor, past several pools carved into the bedrock.

The canyon proceeds to cut through the San Rafael Reef, the sharply upturned eastern edge of the San Rafael Swell. The Swell, a geologic feature called an anticline, formed 40 to 60 million years ago when pressure compressed the rocks into a convex, uplifted dome. If you enjoy hiking through the Reef on this trail, consider exploring Chute and Crack canyons to the west.

Around 2.5 miles the canyon swings southeast and you reach another narrows section. Past this, the walls diminish and you weave past domes of Navajo Sandstone. The canyon ends at a wide wash. Turn around, hiking back upcanyon to return to the trailhead.

Note: If you would rather go one way only and set up a shuttle, leave one vehicle at the Temple Mountain Group Site Campground. When you exit Wild Horse Canyon and reach the wash, turn left and head east until you find your vehicle.

Directions to the trailhead

From Hanksville, Utah, drive north on UT 24 for 19.5 miles. Pass mile marker 136, and turn left onto Temple Mountain Road. Drive 5 miles to an intersection with Goblin Valley State Park road. Continue straight into the San Rafael Reef, with pavement ending in another 1.5 miles. At 26.9 miles, turn left on the unsigned dirt road known as Behind the Reef Road. Follow its meanders around sandstone cliffs and shale hills. The first drainage on your left is Wild Horse Canyon. Turn left and follow the wash past several campsites to the trailhead. Park on the side of the wash near the trail board.