Little Death Hollow

This is an incredible place that I live. Every venture into the great outdoors, you think can not possibly be as spectacular as the last, and that is the surprise. Yesterday's forecast was for "warm before the storm" so we decided to go on a hike that the dogs could also go on. We went to Little Death Hollow. The worst part of the hike is that the trailhead is out by a corral instead of down further, closer to the canyon. The dogs also didn't appreciate the lack of water, but we kept them fairly well hydrated with Steve's water bottle, although Maggie wasn't sure she wanted to give up any of the water to the other dogs and Lucky didn't think drinking water out of Steve's hands was a good idea, but they all survived.

The walk to the canyon is littered with petrified wood. There are also petroglyphs on one big rock before entering the canyon. We even found an unnamed arch (it has a name now). The canyon is beautiful but it narrows to an amazing slot canyon and then goes on forever. It narrows to about car size and then continues to narrow until it is one person size. I tend to get claustrophobic in these slot canyons, but this one feels very open even at the narrowest points. There were a few choke stones to climb around and one place where we were on our hands and knees crawling under a log that had wedged in the slot during a storm. The walls are rubbed smooth by the water but also has interesting holes carved along the ways. We were trying to get to the exit at Horse Canyon but came to a place that dropped into a mud hole. It would have been passable either through the mud or over the top of the sandstone but it wouldn't have been a great way to take dogs so were turned back at that point. We figured we were very close to Horse Canyon. Steve probably would have gone on down to find the exit while I started back with the dogs, but the dogs will not leave him while hiking. They even get a little freaked when the alpha female decides to walk in front of the alpha male. So now we need to go back and come up from the Horse Canyon side. This is such a perfect time to hike. It's cool, you don't have to worry about a flash flood, and there are no snakes. It was a lot longer coming back to the truck. Steve likes to underestimate the distance while we are hiking but my hips and feet can still tell when he has taken us over my hiking limit. But this was such a beautiful hike, I will gladly nurse stiff joints for a few days and the dogs I'm sure will be very well behaved for a few days as well.