My goal at Little Sahara was to hike the Rockwell Wilderness Study Area, a 6,000 acre area set aside for non motorized use. I wanted a wilderness experience and due to the heavy snowfall in Utah this year I felt Rockwell WSA was the closest option for a snow-free wilderness experience.
Little Sahara is a well known off highway vehicle area, attracting 300,000 visitors a year and up to 20,000 on busy weekends. I hoped Rockwell WSA would have far fewer visitors; the only challenge was accessing it. I emailed BLM and obtained pretty good directions to a kiosk 1.5 miles from the WSA. From there things became confusing. The BLM ranger advised that the road is not maintained so becomes really rough. After a short distance driving I realized that it's hard to distinguish between an unmaintained road and an ATV trail, so despite having rented a Jeep, I soon decided to turn around, park at the kiosk and hike in rather than risk getting stuck and missing the wedding later in the day.
I was in the more remote northwest corner of Little Sahara, which appears to get significantly less use than the main section of the park. I enjoyed the first half of my four mile hike, not seeing anyone and enjoying the barren landscape. A large group of OHV riders appeared, breaking the silence. At that point, having already hiked two miles in sand, I decided to call it and hike back to the car.
Overall I enjoyed the hike and slogging four miles through sand was a good workout, but Little Sahara charges an $18 entrance fee, so unless you are visiting the park for other reasons I wouldn't recommend it for hiking.
A short distance from Little Sahara is the Paul Bunyan's Woodpile trail. The BLM trail is a moderate two mile trail leading to the "Woodpile," a cluster of lava logs formed about 30 million years ago when lava cooled into columns measuring about a foot in diameter and up to 15 feet in length. This was a fun hike and I wish it was the only hike I did so I would have had more time and energy to explore the formation and surrounding area.
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