Horse Thief Canyon Trail in Utah's San Rafael Swell

           In the silence we can still hear hoofbeats pounding and see dust clouds swirling from herds of stolen horses thundering their way through this desert canyon.

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          Once a staging area for horse thieves and cattle rustlers, the Old Smith Homestead in Utah's San Rafael Swell is now used to stage a more benign activity—hiking Horse Thief Canyon.  
          The 1880's Smith Cabin is also rumored to have been one of the many hideouts of Butch Cassidy and his gang.  Does a locale exist in the intermountain west that hasn't laid claim to hosting the Wild Bunch during their criminal careers?

Smith Cabin—Home to Nefarious 1800's Activities.
 To view another Butch Cassidy haunt—mentioned in a previous post—click here.

            Unlawful activities far from our minds, two friends and I begin our Horse Thief Canyon hike in a sandy wash through a desert bursting with color.  Cactus and desert wildflowers bloom in reds, oranges, yellows, pinks and purples, their hues complemented by the cream and coral sandstone rock walls surrounding the canyon. 

The brilliant red blooms of the Claret Cup Cactus—considered

one of the desert's most beautiful plants.

Plains Prickly Pear Cactus.

Plains Prickly Pear Cactus plants take root in cryptobiotic soil.

To learn more about the fragile ecosystem of cryptobiotic soil, 
click here.

Orange Globemallow.

Scalloped Phacelia, Scorpionweed.

          We hike for a couple hours and then climb out from the wash to find table-top rocks perfect for a lunch stop.  The setting affords panoramic views of our surroundings—from the Book Cliffs area of eastern Utah to the Henry Mountains of south-central Utah.

          After lunch we turn to retrace our steps and peer across the vast expanse of rock and sky.  Everything looks familiar and nothing does.  With a sense of dread we realize we've lost the trail.  Where did we exit the wash?  We follow a series of rock cairns leading to steep drop-offs over cliff edges.  After more climbing up, over and around groups of rocks we find a cairn we'd seen on the way to our lunch spot. Descending from this cairn delivers us into the correct canyon and back onto our trail.

Rita and Robin begin the return to the trailhead.
But wait?  Where is the route back into the canyon?

Cairns—(a mound of rough stones built as a landmark)—
such as these guide hikers across slickrock.

Returning to the trailhead we re-live the tense moments before finding the trail; we've learned a sobering lesson today: It’s easy to become disoriented when hiking the San Rafael Swell and we were ill-prepared to spend the night in the desert.   

Relieved now, we enjoy a little laugh.  After all—if cattle rustlers and Butch Cassidy could navigate and survive in this harsh environment, well, maybe we could have done it too.  
       

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           Shade is non-existent on the Horse Thief Canyon Trail so it’s wise to hike this trail on a cool spring day.  The best time of year for wildflower viewing and photography in this area is (typically) the middle of May.  HIking the canyons, washes and slickrock of the San Rafael Swell can be fun—just don’t get lost.

The San Rafael Swell is a remote desert region in southeastern Utah.  You can learn more by visiting these websites:  http://www.sanrafaelswell.org/indexnew.html

http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/price/recreation/SanRafaelDesert.html

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            Enjoy these flower photos from a subsequent visit to Horse Thief Canyon:

Hedgehog Cactus.

Lavender Evening Primrose—so named because the yellow flowers
fade to shades of orange or lavender upon drying.

Dwarf Evening Primrose.

Yellow Plains Prickly Pear.