Box-Death Hollow Wilderness, Wilderness area in Garfield County, Utah, US.
Box-Death Hollow Wilderness covers 25,751 acres on the Dixie National Forest, where vertical gray-orange walls of Navajo sandstone rise above two canyon tributaries of the Escalante River. Pine Creek runs north-south through a steeply dipping monocline to form "The Box", a canyon accessible only at its lower end, while Death Hollow Creek to the east has cut through a gently dipping monocline. Pinyon and juniper cover the plateaus above the canyons.
The Utah Wilderness Act of 1984 gave Box-Death Hollow its protected status, but the debate around it centred on a company that wanted to drill exploration wells for carbon dioxide. Ridge-top well sites and their access routes were cherry-stemmed out of the north side of the legislated boundary, and the project never went into production. The adjacent Phipps-Death Hollow wilderness study area, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, lies south of the boundary and forms part of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument.
The name Death Hollow recalls livestock that plunged to their deaths trying to cross the steep canyon. The area lies on the Dixie National Forest, and its southern neighbour, the larger Phipps-Death Hollow wilderness study area, belongs to Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument.
The nine-mile trail runs the length of "The Box", the box canyon of Pine Creek that can only be entered at its lower end. Elsewhere in the wilderness there is no marked route: hikers follow drainages or undesignated routes. Flash floods often surge through the narrows after rain, so check conditions before entering.
The 1984 Utah Wilderness Act debate drew a company that wanted to drill carbon dioxide exploration wells here. The ridge-top well sites and access routes were cherry-stemmed out of the north side of the legislated boundary, but the project never went into production.
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