NOVEMBER 2018
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| BULL VALLEY GORGE |
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| JEEP WRECK IN BULL VALLEY GORGE |
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| BULL VALLEY GORGE |
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| BULL VALLEY GORGE |
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| BULL VALLEY GORGE |
Bull Valley Gorge is a cool slot canyon located just outside of Cannonville near Kodachrome Basin State Park. To reach it, you will take Kodachrome Road south from Cannonville, and turn right onto the Skumptah Road. You will then follow this pretty well-maintained dirt road approximately nine miles to where the road crosses a bridge, just 1.8 miles past Willis Creek. After parking, you will find a well-used trail heading north along the east side of the canyon. After walking a short distance, you can look back at the bottom of the bridge, to see where a jeep famously crashed into the gorge and became wedged. Keep following the trail for a mile or so until the gorge becomes shallow enough to climb into. Once inside, just follow it up as far as you would like.
There are some minor obstacles that you will need to climb down, but nothing too tricky. The hardest part for me was climbing back out of the canyon at the initial entry point. I ended up finding a ledge to climb up on the side of the canyon a little past where I had dropped in. There is also the potential for some deep wading. When I visited in November of 2018, I had to wade through some thigh-high ice water to make it to the bridge. I actually broke through the ice covering some of the pools, and sunk at least a foot deep into the mud in one of them. A little after passing under the bridge and seeing the jeep, the canyon began to widen slightly, and I encountered another deep pool. Figuring I had seen the most scenic parts of the canyon already, I decided to turn back. If I were here on a warm day, I would have kept going up the canyon. It's possible to follow Bull Valley Gorge to Sheeps Creek and follow it to Willis Creek, making one long loop hike through two really cool slot canyons. I've heard its possible to see some petroglyphs along this route.
I had Bull Valley Gorge to myself when I hiked it, though I did hear a couple groups of people talking up around the bridge. Apparently a lot of people just stop at Bull Valley Gorge to look at the jeep wreck from above. This is one canyon that was much more impressive than I was expecting. For some reason, the pictures I had seen of it on-line didn't really impress me so I never had it on my to-do list until recently. But it is definitely worth your time and makes a great add-on to the Willis Creek hike.
