My wife, 8 month old son, and I recently completed a ~40 mile loop in southeast Utah. The Honaker trail is a steep, 2.5 mile descent to the San Juan river, and originally built by miners. ~20 miles of packrafting on the San Juan river, which is mostly class 1, leads to the mouth of Slickhorn Canyon, which we then hiked to the head of its northernmost branch (“Slickhorn 1”). A 27 mile bike ride closes the loop and allows for the trip to be done with one car.
Trip report part one is here. Part two is here.
We heard about this route from a few friends, and in my book they undersold both the difficulty and the scenic value. Granted, the rougher sections in Slickhorn would have been easier without my 40+ pound load of gear and kid, but it’s still full-on canyon hiking with plenty of boulder hopping. Slickhorn, especially the lower part, was very Grand Canyonesque.
We took two half days and two full days, camping on the river a few miles below the Honaker on night one, 2-3 miles up Slickhorn on night two, and just above Slickhorn 2 on night three. The San Juan was running at 1100 cfs the day we hiked in, and rose what I’d guess was another 300 cfs the first night. At this flow it was easy to make 4 mph the second day floating. Slickhorn had water everywhere; we were never further than 300 yards from it until the final mile to the trailhead. Flat camps were never common, either in Slickhorn or on the river, but when found they were excellent. The bike shuttle took me 2 hours and 15 minutes on tired legs and with a headwind most of the way south. Both trailheads were accessible via 2wd and moderate clearance.
This is a great trip for fairly new packrafters who have a decent background in canyon hiking.
