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| Wildhorse Canyon Pictograph Panel |
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| Wildhorse Window |
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| Temple Mountain Wash Pictograph Panel |
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| Henry Mountains from the Trailhead |
Turning west onto the Goblin Valley / Temple Mountain Road from Utah SR 24, we turned left again to stay on the Goblin Valley Road. After 1/3 of a mile, there is a dirt road that veers off to the right. This road has trailheads for Wildhorse Canyon and Wildhorse Window but I did not see signs indicating that. We stopped at the Wildhorse Window Trailhead (you can see the trail heading straight up to the sandstone below) but turned to the left when we got down to the wash at the base of the cliff. Circling around to the right, we headed into Wildhorse Canyon at a landmark cottonwood tree on the right of the wash.
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| View back to the Landmark Cottonwood Tree |
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| Up through the Wildhorse Canyon Small Narrows |
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| Opening out and Nearing the Alcove Above |
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| Alcove up to Right |
The canyon begins with somewhat of a narrows in the sandstone. When the slickrock begins to open out, we could see an alcove sitting up the embankment on the right. It required a climb on steep slickrock to reach the alcove and it was there that we found the Wildhorse Canyon pictograph panel as seen in the first photo above. After we took our photos, we descended the steep incline and hiked back down the wash a short way to where there is an inlet and slickrock leading up to a saddle area. The climb up to the saddle was steep but short. We all got on top of the ridge and looked around. This was the shortcut over to the Wildhorse Window Trail.
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| Hiking to the Alcove |
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| Climbing up to the Saddle |
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| Dropping down into the Canyon on the Other Side |
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| Wildhorse Window Alcove Ahead |
We found a way down into the wash below thinking this was the best way to go. As it turned out, Lettie said she thought that if we had gone up to the left, the shortcut would have eliminated a lot of elevation gain. ... Next time! ... Down in the wash, we found a few cairns and began to climb up to our left when we saw another group of hikers making their way up. We asked them if they were on the window trail and in their Holland accent, they said they were. We followed them until we got the gist of the cairns and trail. When the Hollanders took a break, we passed them and continued on up through the wash below the window alcove. The Wildhorse Window alcove was a double alcove with the window in the ceiling of only the right side. On arrival, we climbed up onto a shelf on the right side of the window alcove and inspected the large display of pictographs on the wall. After photos, we sat down below for our break. There were several hikers milling about. When it was time to go, we dropped down through the wash below and returned to the cars via the window trail. This is a nice short loop that takes in both the pictographs and the window but you have to be ready for that steep climb up to the saddle between the two.
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| Rita climbs up through the Window Wash |
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| Wildhorse Window Pictograph Panel |
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| Wildhorse Window Pictograph Panel |
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| Double Alcove |
After this hike, Rita and I started back to Las Vegas by taking the Temple Mountain Road up to I-70. This is a good dirt road of 21 miles with beautiful scenery right and left! We stopped at the pictograph panel for a look see before getting on our way. Fun day!
Stats: 3.5 miles; 625' gain; 2.75 hours
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| Wildhorse Window Wash |
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| Primrose in Window Wash |
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| Window Trail leading back to Trailhead |
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