Spring 2025 Utah, 4.16.25 - 5.14.25, Part 10, Hanksville, Leprechaun Canyon, Little Egypt
After a morning that saw a failed attempt at a Long Dong Silver sunrise, a failed attempt at a Moonscape Overlook sunrise and a drive up to Goblin Valley and back, it was still not yet noon and the sun was shining. I had checked NOOA for the latest forecast and it appeared we had made it past the rain event. Now we just had to let things dry out. Since it was still early, we thought we might try driving down 95 to the Irish slots and give Leprechaun Canyon a try. If it was still too muddy we could just try again the next day.
The trailhead for Leprechaun Canyon is twenty-eight miles south of Hanksville down 95. We found only one car in the small pullout. Thankfully the ground here was dry and made for easy walking. Right from the start, beautiful slickrock hills and domes flanked the wash we were hiking up. Multiple paths wound through a thick forest of tamarisk but they all basically led straight up the canyon.
Near the trailhead for Leprechaun Canyon
Starting up the wash in Leprechaun Canyon
After about a half mile we came to a super narrow slot. We had to take our packs off and squeeze sideways to get around the turns. We came to a chockstone that we had to climb over to continue but just beyond that was another impassable chockstone. We backtracked to the mouth of the slot looking for a possible bypass. I should have re-read the notes on this hike I was carrying that Gary had sent me but I didn’t. We found what looked to be a bypass on the right. It involved climbing a smooth, sandy steep rock and then it looked like we could hike past the obstacle. But the rock was so sandy and slippery we struggled to figure out how to get up it. Just then some guy and his daughter were coming back along that route. They said we could also try the left side. We scrambled up the slickrock on the left, went around a corner and then traversed along the slot above it on a steep downsloping section of slickrock that would drop you right into the top of the slot if you slipped. After maybe twenty yards of this the top of the slot was so narrow we jumped over the top of the canyon to the other side and from there it was clear sailing to get back in the wash beyond the narrows section. Yay! We were now past the obstacle and after saying thanks and goodbye to the guy and his daughter, we were now the only ones in Leprechaun Canyon.
The entrance to the ill-fated narrows section. To the right is the rock we couldn’t climb. To the left was our route above the slot.
The entrance to the impassable slot
Bridgit on the bypass. Just beyond the little bush we had to jump over the slot to the other side.
Just beyond the narrow slot we had to bypass, we dropped back into the floor of the wash. Soon the canyon deepened with high cavernous walls on either side. Absolutely beautiful! The rest of the hikeable part of the canyon was only about another half mile long but it was all extremely lovely. In one spot the high walls narrowed to only about three feet wide. The walls were so high there it was quite dark deep down in the canyon and we came upon a pool of water. Luckily it wasn’t very deep and there were enough stones sticking out of the water that we never got our feet wet. At 1.3 miles from the trailhead the walls closed up to where we could go no further. On the way back down through Leprechaun Canyon the sun was now overhead and some of the canyon walls were glowing orange. We took a break before finishing up the hike. It was nice being the only ones in the canyon and we didn’t want it to end! Back at the Jeep we both agreed that this was a really fun canyon and we both enjoyed it immensely.
Beyond the narrow slot the canyon got more cavernous
Incredible high walls of Leprechaun Canyon
Glowing walls in Leprechaun Canyon
Leprechaun Canyon
Bridgit fording the deep pool
Absolutely lovely, and the canyon is pretty nice too!
Looking down into the narrow slot near where we jumped across
On our way back we pulled off of 95 on a side road that took us to another spot called Little Egypt. This area reminded me very much of Blue Canyon in Arizona only smaller in size and much less variety. But the rock formations looked alot like the ones we saw when we were in Blue Canyon last year.
Little Egypt
Little Egypt
Little Egypt
Little Egypt
Little Egypt
Little Egypt
We had one more full day in Hanksville and we were back on track with getting all the things on my itinerary checked off. I still had a few things left and hoped the next day would be a success.