Little Death Hollow 2024

Back in March, I was trying to think of fun places to go when I realized that I hadn't hiked Little Death Hollow in Escalante since 1991. I looked into it and found that there is a nice (but long) loop hike down Little Death Hollow and back up Wolverine Canyon. I had never been in Wolverine Canyon and it sounded fun, plus I discovered that there is a Wolverine Petrified Wood Natural Area near the Wolverine trailhead that we could check out on the day after the big hike. I put the trip on the WMC calendar for May 11-12.

Getting down to Escalante on Friday May 10th was quite an adventure. I picked up Hong in SLC, and we drove I-15 south to Scipio. The weather had been threatening on our way there, and the skies opened up just as we reached the freeway exit. Sleet came down so hard and fast that my wipers had a hard time keeping up at full speed. The streets were covered in inches of slush. I put my 4Runner in 4WD.

The sleet and rain gradually petered out as we continued south to the Sevier Valley, but we hit it again as we went up into the mountains. We had showers from Koosharem Reservoir up to the Fish Lake area, and it was apparent that we'd just missed a big hail or sleet storm. (Christa and Leslie got caught in that event.) There was also moderate snow when we drove over Boulder Mountain. Altogether it was a very stormy day.

None of this was very encouraging for our trip, but the skies cleared as we headed out of Boulder on the Burr Trail, and when we met the other participants at the Wolverine trailhead, conditions were dry and we could see some blue sky. I hoped fervently that a storm had not sent a flash flood through Little Death Hollow or Wolverine earlier, but there was nothing I could do about it.

I had worked out that we could save a bit of distance on the loop hike by shuttling from the Wolverine trailhead to the Little Death Hollow trailhead. The route is still 16.5 mi, so I told folks that we needed to leave camp at 7 AM to do the shuttle. The morning was cool and pleasant, with sun and some scattered clouds — very good conditions for a long day hike. We managed to fit everyone and their gear into my 4Runner and Stanley's big pickup, and we were soon on the trail in Little Death Hollow.

The cow trails that I vaguely remembered have been improved by human traffic, but we still managed to get off track somehow; we almost missed the petroglyph panel that various guidebooks had mentioned. The panel is pecked into the side of a huge boulder, and it's somewhat buried in sediment — easy to miss. It's a good landmark if you spot it, because that's when the walls start closing in.

The Wingate Sandstone walls are distinctively and consistently orange, with elegant patterns of staining. The canyon makes bold twists and turns, almost doubling back at times. The cliffrose was in bloom, and I couldn't get enough of its spicy aroma. The next landmark is a large arch, and it was much further downstream than I expected, on the south side.

Below the arch, the canyon very gradually gets narrower. The walls are pockmarked with tafoni. There are chunks of petrified wood in the streambed. Eventually the canyon becomes a true slot. We had to wade through some puddles in the slot; none were more than knee deep, and it was possible to stem across some of them. One awkward spot involved squeezing between the wall and a big chockstone, then wading across an opaque pool on slippery mud.

The narrows at this point were really fine, but I was a bit worried that we would reach deeper water and be forced to swim or turn around. Somewhat magically, though, the most difficult section was dry. I had remembered a huge chockstone that was best passed by wriggling underneath it. The hole under it was pretty much exactly as small as I remembered it from 1991. This time I made a mistake, though — I decided to go through the hole feet first and I found that I couldn't push off hard enough with my hands to make progress. Stanley had to grab my feet and haul me the rest of the way through. I was jealous of Hong and Leslie!

We took a break for lunch at a wide spot. Both Greg and I had Gore-Tex / waterproof footwear; we found that this feature isn't great for wading, because your shoes / boots fill up with water and stay filled up for quite a while. I wrung out my socks, and found that the foam lining in my shoes needed wringing too. I hoped that my wet feet wouldn't lead to blisters (they didn't).

There was flowing water at the junction with Horse Canyon, but fortunately I didn't see any poison ivy. (I've had some interesting experiences with PI in other parts of the Escalante.) We could see faint evidence of a road in the canyon bottom as we headed upstream to the old cabin; at the cabin, we could see recent use of the road, and a bit further up we passed a vehicle on its way down. I was a bit surprised that folks would (or could) drive that far.

The junction with Wolverine Canyon was pretty obvious. The canyon is quite lovely, and the afternoon light really made the orange walls glow. There was lots of tafoni and lots of staining. The canyon is shorter than Little Death Hollow and not as narrow, but the scenery is striking. I was especially taken with some huge alcoves that appeared just before the canyon opened up.

There was even more petrified wood in Wolverine than in Little Death Hollow. We saw some really nice examples as we got closer to the Wolverine trailhead. We spotted a big log off to the south of the trail and strolled over to check it out. Not only was the fossil wood gorgeous, with black and red patterns, but we also saw some beautiful golden mariposa lilies scattered around the site. Further up the trail we saw some great hedgehog cactus in bloom too.

We got back to the trailhead a little bit after 4, so we made excellent time. After fetching the shuttle vehicles, we kicked back and relaxed in the shade of a juniper tree.

go to the Little Death Hollow photo gallery

On Sunday, everyone was game for a short hike to check out the petrified wood. I'd read about the fine petrified wood on the north side of Wolverine Canyon just below the trailhead; a little investigation with Google satellite view turned up some obvious big logs in the next drainage to the north. I realized that we could make a loop out of it, going down Wolverine and coming back up the other drainage, circling a craggy butte.

We walked down the Wolverine trail and then down the main drainage. We could see chunks of petrified wood on the slope to the north, and we went over to check them out. There were some huge logs here. I took a photo of one, but then I realized that you wouldn't really be able to tell how big it was in a photo, so I had Greg and Leslie stand next to it for scale. I was intrigued by the pockets of crystals inside some of the logs — had they formed in actual hollows of the original tree?

As we went around the west end of the butte, the landscape was especially bizarre. There were several sandstone blocks balanced on top of pillars, looking like toadstools. We walked into a draw where multiple logs crossed the wash, including one that bridged the wash. It was pretty solid — three of us stood on it and it didn't shake. Some of the logs were quite long, well over 50 ft.

The loop around the east end of the butte was pretty straightforward; we picked up a fenceline that took us right back to the trailhead. We continued to see lots of wood chunks and cool hoodoos.

Thanks to Greg, Leslie, Jim, Christa, Hong and Stanley for making it a great trip!

go to the Wolverine Petrified Wood photo gallery