Round Trip Distance: 2.3 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
MTB Skill level:
Elevation: 4507 - 4870 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: Arth's Corner
Fee: none
Attractions: Scenic singletrack
The Little Canyon trail is located in the Gemini Bridges Trails Area near Moab, Utah. The trail is the third leg of the Magnificent 7 trails that begins at the Gemini Bridges/Mag 7 trailhead and ends at Utah Highway 279 west of Moab. The Little Canyon trail picks up at the end of the Arth's Corner trail and stretches for 2.3 miles to the Lower Gold Bar Singletrack trail. About 8 tenths of a mile before it ends the Little Canyon trail is connected to by the Great Escape trail.
The top of the Little Canyon trail is near the junction of the Metal Masher and Gemini Bridges roads. For this post we made our way from the Arth's Corner trailhead via the Arth's Corner trail to the Little Canyon trail.
The trail starts out at the same intermediate technical level as the Arth's Corner trail was.
It also has about the same mix of slickrock and dirt track as Arth's Corner.
Little Canyon has a steady drop in elevation until it reaches a primitive campground area near the end of the trail.
With a downhill trend and only minor bumps and ledges the upper portion of the Little Canyon trail goes by pretty fast.
At the 0.87 mile point the trail crosses the Bull Canyon Road.
Near the 1.5 mile point the Great Escape trail connects on the right.
A sign near the 2 mile point mentions an escape route at the bottom of the next hill that leads eventually to the Gemini Bridges Road and down to Highway 191. The point of the sign is that from here on the Magnificent 7 route is going to get much more technical and physically demanding. We're guessing that the sign might be in response to a number of search and rescue missions.
The drop down the hill to the campground is much more technically challenging than the trail has been up to this point due mostly to steep grade, sharp corners and loose rocks.
The campground is primitive in nature with no designated camping spots and no tables, fire pits or facilities. Follow the painted lines to the left toward an outcrop.
The trail climbs the outcrop to get back out of the shallow canyon. Several trail markers point out the way.
