Behind the Reef Road

Dogs No Dogs

The Behind the Reef Road is a jeep road that is mostly fairly easy. It runs through magnificent desert scenery. And aside from its serious remoteness and some up and down, it's a non-threatening hike. Maybe that's what you are looking for.

The best reason to hike here, however, is not for the hiking. It's for the access it provides to incredible slot canyons slicing through the San Rafael Reef.

The first canyons--down to and including Little Wild Horse and Bell--can more easily be accessed from the Goblin Valley side of the Reef.

So why not just drive out the Behind the Reef Road? Because while it is generally easy, there is a very difficult jeep section at Chute Canyon that prevents most vehicle access. This is a good place to park and start your hike, saving several miles and a lot of time, versus beginning at the start of the route where it leaves the Temple Mountain Road.

So, this route is seemingly designed for slot canyon commuting! Hike as far as you like and then hike down one slot canyon, across the reef and up the next canyon, then retrace your route. Good canyons to pair are Crack/Chute, Little Wild Horse/Bell, and Ding/Dang.

Little Wild Horse/Bell are the busiest of all the canyons, the easiest to access, perhaps the most scenic, and completely non-technical: you can take your (active) grandparents through these.

If you intend to go further out the road than this, you may want to camp at the start, and you'll still have to seriously beat feet to have enough daylight to finish before dark. The canyons also get more technical the further you go: there are some keeper potholes in some of these further slots, so don't do anything tricky unless you really know what you are about--people have died here.