Hiking Furniture Draw Canyon

The hike through Furniture Draw in a narrow canyon, short and easy, great for families with small children

A view toward the end of the Furniture Draw canyon hike

Walking through the narrower parts of Furniture Draw Canyon

Is Furniture Draw A Slot Canyon?

This hike is not through what I would consider a true slot canyon, but Furniture Draw does have some fun narrower sections where the walls do get close.

The hike is easy and short with just a couple of small areas to scramble over. This is a great introductory hike for the area, it is not challenging, it is relatively short but offers some interesting narrow sections, and is quite picturesque.

The canyon sort of ‘ends’ at a rocky flat dry fall, but if you want you can easily scramble on top and keep exploring for awhile, but most people will turn around at this dry fall.

There is a small rock art panel about halfway up the canyon that is easy to walk right by and miss, so keep your eye out for it.

Getting to Furniture Draw

Green River take I-70 west about 30 miles, to exit 131. Take the exit, turning right. This road goes east, paralleling the freeway for a couple of miles before turning north.
Follow this road 19 miles to the San Rafael campground, and cross the bridge over the San Rafael River.
Note the cattle guard at ( 39.083056, -110.663889 ) you immediately cross after the bridge, this marks the lower end of Buckhorn Wash.
From the cattle guard set your odometer to zero and continue 8.2 miles to the parking area on your right.

Parking ( 39.163907, -110.729248 )

Dirt parking area at the mouth of the canyon

Distance

2 miles total out and back

Notes

Dogs allowed

Route

The canyon entrance is obvious and behind the staked rope fence. Head into the canyon and either follow the sandy wash or look for the easy-to-see trail, either one works as they parallel each other or cross each other numerous times in the wider beginning section of the canyon. The canyon will begin to narrow a bit shortly and get more interesting.

About halfway up the canyon at (39.168583, -110.727333 ), a small rock art panel will be on the wall on your right-hand side at about eye level.

It is easy to miss unless you keep your eyes open, I’m sure 99% of people walk within 10 feet of this and never see it. It appears to be a coiled snake and three big horn sheep

The canyon walls now get more interesting as they close in around and you will soon be in the narrowest section of the canyon

The canyon widens again but will soon get narrower again

Soon you will come to a large flat boulder laying across the canyon, this dryfall marks basically the end of the canyon for most people, if you climb over the boulder you will see above this point the canyon widens out quite a bit. This is the one-mile mark where most will turn around

The turnaround point