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Fine in 09
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According to my guidebook, we were now very close to the narrows. We therefore stopped for one final food break, and prepped for narrow canyon travel. I had brought a short length of rope along: the description of Little Death Hollow says that it is 'semi-technical', and there may be one or two spots where a hand-line might be useful. Also, there was a decent chance of encountering some shallow, unavoidable pools, and so I had told everyone to bring their water shoes. Brian's brain (hm, those two words are close, aren't they?) decided to ignore that directive, and he was water shoe-less. Too late now, we'd just have to manage!
courtesy BConnell
Jenn in a Pocket
Big Walls, too
A chunk o' petro-wood
Just before heading off, two hikers caught up to us. They were friendly friendly, and introduced themselves to us as Dave and Allan. We conversed briefly, and then they hurried off. They were on the same itinerary as us, save for only having one car, so they had a litle extra distance to cover.
Jaunty Pu
Side Canyon View
Massive Boulder
Shortly thereafter, we headed off ourselves, and soon came to a huge house-sized boulder that had wedged securely into the canyon bottom. A narrow passage on one side allowed us through. After this, it wasn't long before Little Death Hollow constricted into a very nice slot. It wasn't any sort of a claustrophic slot; it was still a few feet wide, and the nature of it was such that the walls angled outwards as they rose on either side. As we walked along, the walls had a sort of wave-like undulation to them. Very pretty. Ahead of us, we could see Dave and Allan forging on ahead. We didn't want to catch up to them and crowd their wilderness experience, so we occasionally held up a bit.
Bob checks a log
Start of LDH slot section
Down the slot
Soon we came to the first of the promised pools, with a long narrow strip of chocolately milkish-looking water stretching ahead. We all got our water shoes on (save for Brian, who would have to endure punishment for his mental lapse by having to carefully wade through the opaque water barefoot). I was afraid that the temperature of the water might be similar to last year's bone-chilling water in Buckskin Gulch, but actually, it was quite tolerable. Lots of slippery clay underneath the water, though, and I was glad for the narrow confines of the slot for support!
The major obstacle
The next major obstacle was the crux of Little Death Hollow's difficulties: a chocksone boulder, perhaps three or four feet around, with a drop of perhaps eight feet behind it. Below the drop was another pool, and again, we could not determine the depth. This is the spot that the guidebook says may require a handline. We caught up with Dave and Allen here, who were themselves musing about the way forward. There was the possibility of a up-and-around ledge, but we didn't know how sketchy the descent would be on the far end. Dave and/or Allen (I can't remember which) offered to go and scout it out, so we waited while he scrambled upwards and along the ledge.

He soon returned, having determined that as long as one was ok with a short hop across a 20-foot deep section of narrows at one point, it looked pretty doable. Not wanting to deal with a muddy rap, we decided to follow. Dave and Allen once again lent a helpful hand, spotting some of us as we scrambled up and down the bypass. Many thanks.
courtesy PChen
Completing the bypass
Completing the bypass
Chocolate milk wading
A section between pools
Another muddy pool
Beautiful narrows
Now past the crux, we started to look forward to the end of Little Death Hollow and the beginning of the trek up Horse Canyon to the mouth of Wolverine Canyon. But not before one more tiny pool section -- well, actually, a gooey mud-pot section -- before finishing with the wetness. I managed to get myself thoroughly splashed up with mud on that one. Even as I write this, there is still some encrusted Little Death Hollow mud on my light hiking shoes!
Beautiful narrows
Dry section
Cave-like narrows
Soon after this, the canyon widens out, and we soon reach the wide and Cottonwood-dotted mouth of Little Death Hollow at Horse Canyon. There should be some flowing water here, and we have planned a water-filtering session to top up here. We again catch up to and meet Dave and Allen at the edge of the clear, little stream that is flowing through the canyon. They are having their lunch break, and they are in a very giving mood. They state that they have far too much food, and if we were interested, we were more than welcome to their unopened tube of salt and vinegar Pringles. You don't have to offer salt and vinegar Pringles to me twice, if you know what I mean!
courtesy BConnell
Back out in the open
Brian's out in the sun
A bit of ledge walking
Dessication cracks
Arriving at Horse Canyon
Dave and Alan
After filling our water bottles and enjoying the unexpected boon of free Pringles, and having a nice chat with Dave and Allan (Dave was showing Allan -- who is from Maine -- the beauty of southern Utah for the first time), we headed off up Horse Canyon. Shortly we came upon a rancher's line shack. There was actually a couple of people there in a truck, which I didn't expect -- there is actually a primitive road that reaches this far down into Horse Canyon. We then met a Park Ranger pickup truck along said road, and we stopped (well, mostly Dave and Allen, actually) to chat. The ranger seemed particularly interested in the status of the cattle in the canyons of this region, asking us several questions about how many we'd seen, if we'd seen any carcasses and such.
Ranger chat
Speeding off
Hiking up Horse Canyon
We hoofed it on along the sandy vehicle track, trying to pick it up from the slow pace we achived in Little Death Hollow. They day was getting on, and we still had a fair bit of distance yet to go. Plus, we wanted to get a good look at the Petrified forest while it was light. As a result, we managed to cover the entire distance (about 3km / 2mi) up Horse Canyon to the mouth of Wolverine in well under an hour.
Horse Canyon
Entrance to Wolverine
Entrance to Wolverine
The mouth of Wolverine is an impressive-looking rounded maw of Wingate Sandstone. Inside, it quickly turns into a hundred-plus-foot-high defile, mostly around 30 to 40 feet wide, and with more neat, melted-looking solution-dissolved formations all over the walls. Little pockets, big pockets, rows of pockets. That's what the lower part of Wolverine is all about. As we continued upstream, it became more of a traditional Escalante-style deep, high-walled meandering canyon, with sheer, high walls of desert varnish-darkened sandstone, often overhanging.
Millions o' Pockets
Lower Wolverine
Lower Wolverine
courtesy PChen
Graceful arcs shot
Capturing the Graceful arcs shot
Honeycomb of pockets
We noticed more and more chunks of petrified wood as we ascended up Wolverine Canyon -- a sign that we were indeed approaching their source. After perhaps an hour and a half of brisk walking, the canyon started to open up. We were approaching the Circle Cliffs again. Soon we had large expansive views of buttes rising into the sky and Wingate cliffs receding into the distance.
Grand Walls of Wolverine
Out in the open again
Hiking beneath butte
Several side canyons opened up on either side, and with a bit of careful navigation (and making sure that Pu, who was far ahead, saw where I was going), we headed towards the Wolverine trailhead. I knew that there should be a section of Petrified Wood forest somewhere at the top of the clayey-looking Chinle Formation, and I slowed my pace and wandered off here and there, looking for what I felt were promising spots for the location of the forest. Pretty much everyone else kept marching off into the distance ahead of me.
Rounded Chinle Formation
Finally, on rise to the left, I came across a good section of petrified forest. Huge black chunks of petrified wood were scattered everywhere. Many were seemingly randomly scattered about, but some were clearly in positions not far from where the original trunks and branches fell. Long logs lay as if they had been chopped up into foot-long sections. Several others were positioned in stump-like fashion, their growth-ring structures very clearly visible. Still others very clearly showed side-stumps where branches had been attached.

I had to wave and yell at the rest of the group, who were way ahead. I managed to gesticulate convincingly enough to get them to return and have a look. This was not to be missed!
Caprocks everywhere
Petrified Wood Forest
Forest beneath Circle Cliffs
We wandered around the spot for quite some time, marvelling at the forest and the journey through time these trees (well, the structure of the trees, since the wood itself is long gone) had taken. The petrified wood had a strange almost sulfery smell, which came and went with the breeze (A cursory bit of subsequent investigation has not revealed the exact source or nature of it).
Petrified Wood closeup
Log chunks galore
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