Photo Tips USA – The slotcanyons in the San Rafael Reef

San Rafael Reef extends as an elongated semicircle between Rt-24 and I-70 northeast of the Waterpocket Fold. In its southeastern part, facing Goblin Valley SP, there are four slot canyons worth seeing: Crack Canyon, Chute Canyon, Little Wild Horse Canyon, and Bell Canyon. Crack and Little Wild Horse Canyon are the two most spectacular.

The area can be reached via Temple Mountain Road, which branches west off Rt-24, 24 mi south of the junction with I-70 or 20 mi north of Hanksville. Follow the paved road for 5 mi and then turn left onto the well-maintained Goblin Valley Road. After another 5 miles, a sign on the right side of the road indicates the dusty Wild Horse Road. Travelers with regular cars or RVs would do well to check with the rangers in Goblin Valley beforehand about road conditions, as the sections with deep sand can be difficult to pass after both long dry spells and thunderstorms. After about 2 miles, you will reach a parking area that acts as a trailhead for Crack and Chute Canyon. To get to Crack Canyon, with its three scenic narrows, keep to the right and follow the dry bed of Wild Horse Creek. After 2.5 mi (4 km), you will reach the mouth of Crack Canyon, which extends a good 2.2 mi (3.5 km) deep into San Rafael Reef. The photogenic sections are about halfway down. If you’re ambitious enough, you can climb it to Chute Canyon Road at its end, head west on the dust road for 1.5 mi (2.5 km) to the Chute Canyon trailhead, and return to your vehicle through 2.2 mi (3.5 km) of Chute Canyon. However, this will take you at least half a day.

To reach the trailhead parking area for Little Wild Horse Canyon and Bell Canyon, follow Wild Horse Road west for another 3 miles. From there, follow the trail through the dry riverbed until, after a few hundred yards, you reach a drop-off a good 6 feet high. Another 650 ft (200 m) beyond that, the canyon forks. Little Wild Horse Canyon is on the right and Bell Canyon is on the left. This place can be easily overlooked.

Little Wild Horse spans a good 2.2 mi (3.5 km), with 1.2 mi (2 km) classified as photogenic narrows. This section begins just ahead. Half a mile (1 km) of it narrows to 3 or 6 feet (1-2 m) in some places. 330 yards (300 m) behind the entrance, you will reach a passage where the water has washed away very respectable depressions. If you shoot them directly from the front and illuminate them from above, you will later notice in the prints a peculiarity of our visual system: held upside down, the niches become small elevations that resemble polished cement stones. This is because our visual apparatus infers spatial depth from the distribution of light and shadow, assuming that the light always comes in from above. But on closer inspection, shadows are much less distinct than they appear to us in our everyday perception. Elevations and depressions both produce characteristic shadow images on the side facing away from the light (elevations) or facing towards the light (depressions). Knowing the illumination conditions, we can deduce from them whether we have an elevation or a depression in front of us. Many times, we don’t know where the light comes from. In such situations, nevertheless, a perception with spatial extension always arises, based on the educated guess of our visual intelligence. As long as we do not have any other definite clues, this guess is apparently based on the assumption of a light source above our head. This makes perfect sense against the background of our evolutionary history, since we have spent by far the longest time with the sun as our only source of light. Directional light from artificial sources, on the other hand, has only existed for such a short time that it can hardly have found expression in our visual system. For this reason, we have probably learned to take the direction of light „from above“ when in doubt and to base our decisions about elevation or depression on it.

Once you have climbed Little Wild Horse Canyon to its end, you can connect it to Bell Canyon via the trail at the end on a 8 mile (13 km) loop. However, since this is nowhere near as beautiful as Little Wild Horse, it is more appropriate to spend the time (at least half a day) on this one.

Due to the easy accessibility of these slot canyons, you will always have plenty of company here on holidays, during the peak holiday season, and on many weekends. Therefore, if you want to capture photos in solitude, consider scheduling your visit during a weekday.

Because the water has carved these canyons into the dark brown Kayenta Sandstone, the lighting conditions inside are rather dim. To get good shots, plan the trip for midday, when the sun is high and shining well into the canyons.

As with all slot canyons, the warning of sudden floods from thunderstorms further north in San Rafael Reef is especially true here. Therefore, be sure to check with the rangers at Goblin Valley SP for the weather forecast.

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