SAND, LLAMAS, AND SLOT CANYONS: A Five-day Llama-supported Backpack Trip in Utah
BY SANDI BIANCHI
Hiking through Little Death Hollow canyon. Photo by Barbara Munson
The world awaits you with Colorado Mountain Club’s Adventure Travel—Mount Blanc, Iceland, Kilimanjaro, Switzerland, Italy, France, and Utah. Yes, Utah. Sometimes it’s nice not getting on an airplane! Last May eight CMC members journeyed to Boulder, Utah, to participate in the Wolverine and Little Death Hollow llama-supported backpack trip. All eight of us should have questioned our sanity in choosing to go into a canyon named Little Death Hollow, but none of us did. Maybe we thought the word “Little” meant that we’d only mildly suffer our demise as compared to hiking in (Big) Death Hollow, a canyon in the upper Escalante on the west side of Boulder, where we would spend torturous days in pain and misery before perishing. Fortunately, the title of the trip held two misnomers: First, Little Death Hollow is not death defying, and second, only the llamas backpacked. We carried our daypacks; they carried our food and gear. Aspen group member and CMC leader Carol Kurt organized the trip in conjunction with llama2boot, LLC, out of Boulder, Utah. We had three highly educated, articulate, and area-knowledgeable guides: llama2boot owner B.J. Orozco and his two 32
Trail & Timberline
cohorts, Laurel Holding and Nicole Tomlin, plus eight adorable llamas and one loveable sheep dog. It was soon evident that B.J. had more invested in his llamas than just money and a business venture. He truly loved those big fellows, but more on that later… The LDH trailhead is an hour’s drive east of Boulder on the Burr Trail Road. Starting the hike from the canyon of ghostly aspirations, we soon found no real horrors
lay ahead to snag our souls into heaven or hell. Some canyoneers think Little Death Hollow is one of the best non-technical slot canyons in Utah. Most slot canyons are Navajo sandstone. But LDH is Wingate sandstone, which makes it a rarity. Its soaring 50- to 75-foot sandstone cliffs encase the dry, narrow canyon and shade the sandy floor for up to five miles. In some spots the canyon is so narrow that hikers must remove their packs and turn side-
