Box-Death Hollow Wilderness

Vertical gray-orange walls of Navajo sandstone stand above two canyon tributaries of the Escalante River in Box-Death Hollow Wilderness. This is canyon country, home to numerous monoclines — places where fault lines have made layers of earth rise and fall sharply, exposing the colorful strata of sediment. The name Death Hollow refers to a number of livestock that plunged to their death trying to cross the steep canyon. Running north-south through a steeply dipping monocline, Pine Creek forms the area known as The Box. Death Hollow Creek, east of The Box, has carved its way through a gently dipping monocline. Raging waters often flood these canyon narrows after a rain. Pinion and juniper cover many of the plateaus above the canyons. Brown and rainbow trout are plentiful in Pine Creek and in portions of Sand Creek, and along the creek banks you may see mule deer, an occasional cougar, or even elk in winter. The BLM's Phipps-Death Hollow Outstanding Natural Area lies adjacent to the Wilderness. Nine miles of trail run the distance of The Box; hiking in the remainder of this Wilderness requires following drainages or undesignated routes. Designated in 1984 and managed by the U.S. Forest Service.