Trip Report- Spring Break 2013 in Southeast Utah

We have just returned from another exciting Spring break trip to southeast Utah. We made the usual rounds, from Cisco down to Bluff and Mexican Hat, across Cedar Mesa, back up through Hanksville to Price, and on to Green River and Moab for a day. The weather was varied as it always is this time of year- from freezing cold and strong winds, to sunny, warm, summer-like days. You just never know what you’ll get in Spring in southeast Utah and it is important to be prepared for everything from sitting out snowstorms in the tent for a few days, to having plenty of sunblock and your shorts and river sandals on hand.

Comb Ridge
One of the highlights of our trip included five days of camping near the San Juan River outside Bluff, and hiking there and in Comb Ridge. We also hiked along the river, including a look at the panels around Sand Island, and up some small side canyons right from camp. But most of our time was spent in the middle part of Comb Ridge.  We managed to see five of the canyons there with ruins and rock art around every corner. We did our best to hike up one canyon then down another, but as anyone who has been along Comb Ridge knows, there are plenty of pour offs to send you back the way you came or at least send you looking for another route.  The good thing about Comb Ridge is that the canyons are all short, and backtracking is never a big deal. Comb Ridge was a busy place, with lots of hikers and people camping at nearly every site along Butler Wash. Keep this in mind if you plan a visit over Spring break.

A kiva in one of the Comb Ridge canyons.

Tracking Practice
We did take advantage of having to backtrack from a couple of the canyons, using it as a chance to work on our tracking skills and to see a different part of the lives of the ancient inhabitants along the canyon mouths- including ancient campsites, lithic scatters, and storage cysts. Some of the approaches were long for us (we didn’t drive to a different “trailhead” for each canyon, but worked our way along the ridge from one). The walks back along these routes allowed us to find our tracks coming in, examine them for changes based on the weather and other hikers, and follow them back to our start point.  Again, being Spring break, there were plenty of other hikers out- because of this we were forced to use the lost track drill a number of times, casting about for our tracks among others, and doing the same out on the flat where we made it a point to use anti-tracking measures on our way in. By anti-tracking, or counter-tracking, I mean simply trying to walk as carefully as possible so as to hide our tracks- walking close to brush in shadows, through heavy, well-traveled brush, and across slickrock patches wherever we could.  In doing so we benefited going out and coming back.

A grooved stone we found on our approach to one of the canyons. Grooves are on both sides, running parallel. Pictured side is the more pronounced. Scale is in centimeters.

The Dirty Devil River
After our stay in the Comb Ridge area we headed west and spent a night near Hite on the rim of the Dirty Devil River canyon.  The river was flowing at about 150 CFS then, but the mud chutes at the end of the river and directly flowing into the Colorado at this point were not promising for a float. It looked like a muddy mess ready to capture anyone who stepped into it.  The lake was so low that the Dirty Devil actually flowed into the Colorado River, and together they flowed off into the distance, a thin stream of a river in the middle of a vast horizon of mud.

Dirty Devil River as it flows toward the Colorado at Hite Crossing. A murky thread of water through dried mud.

We stopped for a day in the Irish Canyons in North Wash, and then spent a night at Angel Point and had a walk down to the Dirty Devil River the next day. The river looked much more floatable from this point, really looking like it was flowing at 150 CFS and without a sandbar snag in sight. We recently had some comments and questions on putting in there. Aside from the walk down to the river- across slickrock, rocky with exposure in a few places, and bushy in others, the river looked good. The party mentioned was using 5 pound pack rafts- we are still waiting to hear the outcome.

Nine Mile Canyon
Next was a visit to Price and the College of Eastern Utah Museum. The museum houses a collection of artifacts from the surrounding region highlighting, among other things, the Fremont culture.  There is also an impressive paleontology collection. If you visit Price, or even find yourself driving through, the museum can be found right in the center of town and is worth the stop. From Price it is just a 15 minute drive south to Wellington and the turn off into Nine Mile Canyon.

A well known pictograph in Nine Mile Canyon. You may have seen this one featured in National Geographic.  The damage happened long ago before the state intervened on behalf of the preservation of pre-history here.

The name of the canyon is deceiving, being some 70 miles long in total.  The road through the canyon has been recently paved, and is in perfect shape. The is a short section mid-way that remains unpaved, but any vehicle can make it all the way up to the Big Buffalo and Great Hunt petroglyph panels, some of the highlights of the canyon. We turned around there and backtracked, but you can continue north from about mile 37 to Myton. In my opinion, the canyon has more than can be seen in a long day, especially if you plan to do any of the hikes-there are countless rock art site, ruins, and many points of historic interest.  Note that camping is not allowed anywhere in the canyon, other than at the Nine Mile Ranch private campground. So plan accordingly and start your trip into the canyon early, allowing at least a full day.

One of the more well-known panels in Nine Mile Canyon- called the Great Hunt panel.

Gear Reviews
I always try to highlight a piece of gear in each blog, and for this post I have chosen Rite in the Rain notebooks and Fisher Pens.  It is hard to imagine one without the other. Rite in the Rain notebooks come in many different sizes and page formats, but I tend to use one of the originals- the 3 by 5 inch, spiral top notebook.  It fits easily into any pocket and with its plastic cover, it is virtually indestructible. But the key feature that makes Rite in the Rain products so important to someone who spends a lot of time outdoors is that the pages are waterproof.  I have swam with my notebooks, used them in monsoon rains where I have been soaked through, taken notes during archaeological fieldwork sessions in dripping Central American jungles, and used them for years while in the military. I cannot say enough about the quality and functionality of their products. You can see the spiral bound notebooks and Fisher pens at TwoHandsPaperie.com.

Rite in the Rain spiral notebooks- a collection from over the years, including one of Nicolai’s. Archaeological fieldwork, river trips, bikepacking trips, and backpacks are all recorded here.

Fisher pens are the perfect companion writing instrument for the waterproof notebooks. Fisher pen refills are pressurized, and will write upside down, in any temperature you might normally encounter, and on wet Rite in the Rain notebook pages. The Stowaway Pen with a clip is the perfect pen for the 3 by 5 spiral top notebook- the pen slides right into the spiral and clips into place. This pen is also about the most lightweight pen imaginable. The only thing lighter might be just a pen refill by itself! The refills last an incredibly long time as well, and perform perfectly in the desert, mountains, or jungle.

Rite in the Rain 3 by 5 inch spiral notebook with Fisher Stowaway pen securely fastened in spiral binding.

For more on our desert adventures, tracking, and rock art, visit the Desert Explorer website.

September Trip Report, Part Two- Chinle, Comb Ridge, and San Juan Rock Art

In my most recent post I wrote about the first part of my September trip to Southeast Utah. This post completes my trip report.

My next stop after Grand Gulch was Chinle, Arizona. I made the trip south in order to attend the KTNN radio Drums of Summer celebration. It was the second to last gathering of the summer and being only a couple of hours away I made it a point to take the drive. KTNN radio, the Navajo Nation’s radio station, hosts the Drums of Summer celebrations throughout the summer every year. They are held around the reservation, often in local school auditoriums. They consist of Navajo singers and drummers performing for the audience, along with space for attendees to dance. There are countless raffles and giveaways, and at this particular event there was a pinion fire burning outside with fresh frybread cooking on it. The gathering was in honor of seniors, many of them as I understood it, from the local Chinle senior center. Most of the dancers were older Navajos, and really seemed to be enjoying the event. I spoke to one of the directors from the center for a while, and he told me of the importance of seniors in Navajo culture. I had given this some thought already upon realising that there was in fact a senior center for aging Navajos, people who traditionally would have been cared for in the home by family members, rather than in a western, institutional setting. I sensed that the director was concerned himself with this fact but resigned to it, that it was in the present day unavoidable. He also expressed his dismay with some younger Navajos, telling me how so many seemed to be abandoning their own culture and language in favor of the western world, something I have heard many times from older, more traditional Navajos.

After a night in Chinle I headed north again to Comb Ridge. I was joined on one day of hiking there by two Army medics who were visiting the Chinle area. It was a great opportunity for me to introduce them to the prehistory of the region, and for all of us to make some discoveries in the canyons. I had been along Comb Ridge on both east and west sides many times. I had examined various rock art panels along the way, camped there a number of times, used it to access the eastern drainages of Cedar Mesa, but never really done much hiking there. It has always been my understanding that parts of Comb Ridge were as densely populated as Grand Gulch in prehistoric times, although on a  much smaller scale.  Anyone who has visited the Edge of Cedars Museum in Blanding will note that many recent additions to the museum, and some very important ones,  have come from the Comb Ridge area.

A ruin in one of the many short canyons along Comb Ridge.

There was also the recent discovery of skeletal remains along Comb Ridge thought to be those of the long-lost traveler Everett Ruess (in the end it was not Ruess). I have to admit that I always found the amount of archaeology from Comb Ridge hard to believe, considering that the canyons are so short. The distance from Butler Wash on the east to the crest of Comb Ridge is not more than a couple of kilometers on the average- very short in terms of resource availability, both food and water. But then I must consider Butler Wash itself, and the fact that Comb Ridge consists of many, many of these short canyons side by side, running east to west, for miles and miles. Also, the tilted Navajo sandstone of Comb Ridge creates perfect building locations, although not as defensible as the shelves and benches of nearby Grand Gulch and its associated drainages, and provides for some canyon-bottom farming locations.

View west from top of Comb Ridge. The drop to the west at this location is about 700 feet down to the road at Comb Wash below. Taken with iPhone panorama application by a fellow hiker.

Those who have read my blogs in the past know that I do not like to give too much away, that my intentions are to leave the discovery to the individual by not providing grid coordinates, maps, or even trail directions. With that said, Comb Ridge is a place that seems to me to allow for endless discovery. Not only that, but the hiking, in my opinion is fairly easy- my 8-year-old son and I will be there visiting the canyons together on our next trip to Utah. You can expect to see cultural and geologic wonders, and an unmatched view if you hike up to the ridge at just about any point along the way.

Detail shot of eastern end of a very large and distinct petroglyph panel along Comb Ridge.

After Comb Ridge I spent a couple of days around Bluff, and took a look around Sand Island, the primary launching point for floating the San Juan river. Besides the boat ramp, you will find rangers in residence, campsites, picnic areas, toilets, water, and petroglyphs. The main, Lower Sand Island petroglyph panel is easily accessible from the road leading into the campground. You can in fact view the panel from your car window if you so desire. It is an extensive and busy panel that covers more than 2000 years of prehistory. 

One of the many panels near Sand Island, showing animated, possibly dancing figures.

There are many other panels up and down the San Juan from the same time period and possibly much, much earlier. And by much earlier I mean much earlier, with probable representations of Pleistocene megafauna- between 11,000 and 13,000 years ago. The panel I am specifically referring to is known locally as the “Bluff mastodon panel”, but likely represents Columbian Mammoths, two of them, and a possibly coeval, superimposed bison. See the paper in the journal Rock Art Research from 2011 for extensive background on the panel. The paper offers a very clear description and analysis of the panel and supporting arguments for the date that are very convincing. As the paper also points out, there are likely a panel or two from the same period still waiting to be found, and plenty of discoveries within the panels along the San Juan river waiting to be made.

For more on our desert adventures, the San Juan river, and rock art, visit the Desert Explorer website.

September Trip Report, Part One- Fish Creek Canyon and Grand Gulch

I was lucky enough to have the last two weeks of September to myself in the Grand Gulch area of southeast Utah this year. I managed to spend about a week in Grand Gulch and on Cedar Mesa, and a few days hiking Comb Ridge. During my hikes I found countless rock art panels- a few that I revisited, but many new ones, and ruins all along the way. I also made a side trip down to Chinle, Arizona for an evening of Navajo singing and dancing sponsored by KTNN, the Navajo Nation’s radio station. The weather was perfect, not too cold, and warm during the day. There was one night and morning of sustained rain while I was down in Grand Gulch. There was enough rain to send water cascading off canyon rims and to turn the previously dry canyon bottom into a fast-moving stream.

My hikes started out with a few days in upper Fish Creek Canyon- 3 days and 2 nights to be exact. I entered from the Fish and Owl trailhead and then walked up the Main Fork and came back down the South Fork. This was a section of canyon I had wanted to visit for at least the last ten years, ever since my first trip into lower Fish and Owl Creek Canyons. The head of the canyon seems very inviting as you drive across it on Highway 95. Looking down canyon, it appears that it would be a gradual, even descent on slickrock canyon bottoms. This is not really the case, especially up high.

Entrance to Fish Creek Canyon, view north from canyon rim after walking across mesa. The walk is rough in the canyon bottom down below.

Since I was traveling alone and not carrying any technical canyoneering gear (no ropes, harness, slings) I started from below and worked my way up. It always feels safer to me to work this way- if I can climb up something I can usually climb right back down it. Coming in from above and following the canyon bottom in an unknown canyon often requires a lot of climbing out- around- back in. This adds the potential for becoming “rimrocked” while trying to find a way back in. Then there is the possibility of downclimbing and coming to impassable pouroffs requiring backtracking and climbing back out. Of course the same will then be true for traveling up canyon, but the potential for getting into trouble is minimised, in my opinion, by traveling up canyon.

Upper Fish Creek Canyon is not lower Fish Creek Canyon, not that lower Fish is that easy of a walk. The canyon started out with water everywhere, and associated brush, requiring lots of skirting of pools, and some climbs around bigger pools at pouroffs. I found pools of hundreds and even thousands of gallons of water on my hikes in Fish Creek, Grand Gulch and side canyons.  I should mention that just a couple of weeks before my arrival there was a tremendous downpour lasting some 10 hours at certain locations. This filled the canyons with water, scouring them out and depositing debris, and creating problems for navigation both in the canyons and on the mesa top. I was told by the rangers at Kane Gulch that “the narrows” of Grand Gulch had become a swimming hole at the bottom, and was jammed with debris at the top. There was a group of volunteers clearing out brush and rebuilding trails in that area while I was there.

Large pothole holding thousands of gallons of water, upper Dripping Canyon.

Back to Fish- canyon bottom walking was rough at times. Besides water and brush, there was plenty of climbing over, under, and around boulders higher up in the canyon. Slots were a problem higher up, requiring climbing out, skirting on a bench, and climbing back in. The vegetation changes as I gained elevation traveling up canyon occurred in conjunction with the slots- once I started seeing Ponderosa and other pines, the canyon narrowed and started to slot. I encountered more slots coming back down the South Fork than moving up the Main Fork. A rope, harness, and some slings would have made for an interesting experience in these upper sections.  I spent a few hours on benches skirting slots on  the way back down.

Slot in upper Fish Creek Canyon, South Fork. Don’t be deceived by the photo- it is about 40 feet or so down to the water. This would have been fun with rope and harness.

After I finished up with Fish Creek Canyon I headed across the mesa into Grand Gulch proper. I entered via Dripping Canyon, which is passable. That is about all I will say on the subject; it is a fun one, and can be done. I spent the afternoon in Grand Gulch and headed out via Step Canyon, where I stayed the night. Along the way I passed by some of the well-know panels and ruins in the canyon bottom. If you are new to Grand Gulch, it was at one time very populated. This is evident as you walk along the canyon bottom; all you have to do is look up every now and then to see ruins and rock art.

Large, well-preserved, and defensible ruin in Grand Gulch.

Part two of my September Trip Report will cover hikes in Comb Ridge, rock art along the San Juan River, and my visit to Chinle, Arizona. I will also include an update on my tracking book bibliography. Look for that in about a week. In the meantime, for more on visiting southeast Utah, see the Desert Explorer website.

Spiders and Beetles, Dalton Wells, Great Horned Owls, and Escalante Photos

The summer is a busy time for us- busy and fun- and this summer has been one of the busiest in recent years. We have been travelling since March, barely home at all. We’ve seen and done so much that it is hard to keep up with it. This will be a quick post- a follow-up on a couple of earlier posts, and few words about our most recent trip. And as soon as I finish this one, we are off again- we have a permit for the San Juan River next week. Look for a post from that trip in a few weeks time.

Spiders and Tamarisk Beetles
As luck would have it, Nicolai and I found ourselves with some free time a couple of weeks back, and we weren’t too far from Green River Town. We stopped in town for a cup of coffee and some ice for the cooler. Then we made a visit to Crystal Geyser where we had a swim in the still-swift Green River and spent a couple of hours waiting for the geyser to blow. The geyser wasn’t too active, but we did get to talk to a researcher from Grand County who was checking the condition of tamarisk trees and the resident beetle populations. He happened to be checking a group of trees that were covered with those big spiders that we have encountered on our floats down the Green, so we asked for more information about them. He couldn’t tell us specifically about the spiders, but he did say that they seem to be following the beetle populations. It seems that they are feeding on the beetle larvae. He said that in that area in particular he had noted a couple of groves that were covered with the spiders. It seems that the beetles do have a natural, local enemy, a question I am sure that researchers asked when they were deciding whether to allow the beetles to be released.

Unidentified species of spider at our camp at Crystal Geyser. This photo was taken on our float of the Green River in 2009.

Moab and Dalton Wells
On that same trip we made a visit to Moab, as we usually do. This time we did some driving around on roads and trails in the Sovereign area  north of town. One of the entrances to the Sovereign trail is through Dalton Wells, a historic site located just off the highway. It is on the National Register and there is an interpretive plaque explaining the history of the site. Dalton Wells began as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp and was in use for that purpose from 1935 to 1942. It was one of four camps located in the Moab area. The CCC members were responsible for countless projects in the Moab Valley and surrounding area during the years the camp was in operation. These projects were initiated by the Soil Conservation Service, the National Park Service, and what would become the Bureau of Land Management and included building stock trails, water development projects, range improvements, and fencing and pasture work.

From January through April of 1943 the Dalton Wells CCC camp became the “Moab Isolation Center”, one of many relocation camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. The camp was used for this purpose only briefly, and housed “troublemakers” from such camps as Manzanar in California and Gila River, Arizona. At most it housed about 4 dozen men, who were eventually transferred to the indian school at Leupp, Arizona on 27 April, 1943.

There are a couple of websites with more information on the camp- one is the Utah State History website, the other is the National Park Service page on Citizen Relocation Centers. The latter page has a couple of photos of the camp.

Great Horned Owls
In April we made a visit to Phoenix and Tucson where we visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum among other locations. There is  a blog post about that trip for those interested in reading more. In Tucson we stayed in a hotel in the foothills that was also home to a Great Horned Owl and her two young ones. The owlets lived in a large planter box surrounding the deck of a second floor room of the hotel. It appeared that the hotel was respecting the owls by keeping the associated corner room vacant. Our room was right next door to the vacant room and so we had a great view of the owls, day and night. During the day the mother would sleep in a nearby pine tree, up high near the very top. The owlets would huddle together in the corner of the box, as far from onlookers as they could get. At one point the mother brought in a cottontail for the owlets to eat. They moved the rabbit around a bit, and we got to watch one of the owlets have its morning meal. At nights the mother and young ones would perch on the edge of the planter box, keeping a close eye on everything through the night. The mother would fly off and return all through the night, and would leave early in the morning for her daytime rest in the pine tree.

Mother and owlet Great Horned owls at their hotel room in Tucson. The owlet to the right that is bent over was only concerned with its rabbit breakfast. Most of the rabbit is in the foreground near the cactus.

Owlets in the planter box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Owlets getting ready for their daily rest in the early morning.

Final Words on Escalante Trip

I have covered nearly everything I wanted to regarding my Escalante Trek in recent blog posts. The only loose end was posting photos of the trip. I have finally done that. A series of photos from the trek is up on the Desert Explorer Picasa page. For more on our desert adventures, desert backpacking, floating and general information, visit the Desert Explorer website.

Escalante Trek, May 2011- Geology, Rock Art, Tracking, and Poison Ivy

This is the third part of my May 2011 Escalante Trek blog posts. There was so much to see along the way that it was impossible to cover everything in a single post. Part one covered the trek itself, part two was gear reviews. In this post I will touch upon rock art, geology, flora, and tracking practice while hiking. It is a lot to cover I know, and this post will just scratch the surface of these topics. I am still planning a post on Leave No Trace Principles, and probably a separate post on access issues on public lands. I have seen a lot in the news lately- in the Moab, Blanding, and Monticello areas- regarding problems accessing roads and campsites that folks have been visiting for 10 or 20 years. I have had emails regarding the same. It is a topic that demands careful attention, and I will start soon with visits to a couple of BLM offices in southeast Utah to ask some questions. But for now, it is back to the Escalante.

Geology
Whenever I find myself in a canyon I am always captivated by the countless millions of years of geologic history in front of me. And I always wish I knew a bit more about what I was seeing. The Escalante area is no excepotion- it is a geologic wonder. With so many different formations and so much geologic time represented there, volumes could be written on the geology of the area. Oddly, a thorough search of the internet yielded very little information about exactly which formations you are walking through as you make your way down the river, at least if you are a novice geologist. If you can read a geologic surface map, or follow a technical paper written specifically for geologists, then you will find some detailed data available. I had expected to find a geologic map of the canyon bottom for the hiker walking down the river, but found very little other than references to the formations themselves. And those were not specific. So the task remains for a geologically minded canyon bottom hiker to give us such a map. I’d really like to see one.

Thin sheet of quartzite, about 1/8 inch thick at most, on a slab of Navajo sandstone along the river. This was a rather common occurrence on the lower section of the river.

From the Moody Canyon trailhead I began my walk in the Wingate and Chinle formations, which apparently dip down and disappear at the river. Most of what I walked through was Navajo sandstone, in the lower part of the river canyon, and up Coyote Gulch.

While I wish I knew more about the specifics of what I was viewing- the depositional environment, the minerals that caused the specific colors, and the events that caused the folding, bending, and dipping- enjoying the imposing beauty of the vertical Navajo sandstone walls, the fluted columns of the Wingate sandstone, or the colorful Chinle shales is usually enough. Not much needs to be said about the Navajo walls- for me they represent the desert canyons with their dark, patinated, vertical walls reaching hundreds of feet high, and the occasional arch such as Stevens arch near the mouth of Coyote Gulch.  

The Chinle formation is one that I have not had much experience with, but on this trip I got to see and feel it up close. On my last day of walking I had to cross through it on my way up and out of East Moody canyon. It was a wet day and the clayey material, revealing ancient swamps and waterways, stuck to my boots, more with every step, until each foot weighed 10 pounds more. But the moisture only added to the beauty- the purples were deeper, the greens brighter, and the extra weight on my feet just added to the adventure.

Another unique geologic feature that I have wondered about for years are “Moqui marbles”. These are round or near-round sandstone spheres varying in size from BB-size up to an inch or more in diameter. I have found them on the mesa top in the Escalante in a few different locations. Don’t confuse Moqui marbles with tumbled sandstone “marbles” found in stream beds. The formation processes for each are completely different. Moqui marbles are formed during the deposition of sand as iron froth-coated air bubbles in very wet sand. Eventually they weather out of the parent material and are found, in the Escalante at least, in large concentrations making their way down gentle slopes.

"Moqui marbles"- ironstone concretions found weathering out of sandstone.

Rock Art
I encountered only a few rock art panels along the river, and a few in Coyote Gulch. As it usually goes, I likely walked by at least as many as I saw. They will be there for the next trip. All of the panels that I saw were small in size and number of elements compared to most panels I have seen both in and out of the area. Perhaps it has something to do with the rough nature of the lower part of the river canyon. The early inhabitants likely chose more hospitable locations for hunting and living and making art, if in fact it was art. Excluding one panel in Coyote Gulch, all were petroglyphs. Coyote Gulch has a few impressive panels, one of which is a pictograph of at least 5 near life-size anthropomorphs. For me, there is nothing quite like finding rock art. And finding life-size human figures staring down at me from a canyon wall, knowing that they have been there for hundreds of years, is really a humbling experience.

A small rock art panel along the lower Escalante River.

Tracking
Whenever I walk in the canyons I am always on the lookout for tracks. I search them out not only to identify them, but also to follow them. This is how you learn to track- by finding and following them, by reading them, and by building a profile of the quarry you are tracking. On a previous trip in the Escalante, on the upper part of the river, Robert and I made it a point to follow the turkey tracks that we found all along the river. Not only did we practice finding and following the freshest tracks, but after a while we found that the turkeys led us to the easiest paths and around obstacles.

On this trip I found the usual turkey, beaver, coyote, fox, and of course human tracks. Walking along the river margin, in many places there was only a narrow strip of dry land. I followed the tracks of a previous hiker through much of that. It was interesting to see where this person chose to cross the river, when to climb through or over or under obstacles. By following any set of tracks, after a time you begin to build a picture of who or what made the tracks, and you can begin to anticipate their next move. In this case it was a male traveling alone, on the river for days, and with plenty of experience in route finding and canyon bottom travel. Even when I stopped looking for the tracks, I found that I was still following them, that this person and I shared our choices for a route down river.

A Quick Note About Poison Ivy
Poison Ivy is found all along the Escalante River and in many of the side canyons. The river corridor, and the side canyons draining into it, tend to be very wet. They are perfect locations for Poison Ivy to thrive. Keep your eyes open for the stuff- you will find it everywhere there is a constant source of water. If you come down Scorpion Gulch, be especially watchful. The narrows down near the river require either careful wading through the potholes, or more careful squeezing and scrambling along the stream edge. Either way you will be negotiating a Poison Ivy jungle. I have taken to wearing long pants most of the time and also carry a small bottle of Tecnu, a soap made specifically to combat the oils deposited on the skin when you brush against the plant. 

Poison Ivy in a relatively dry location just up Fool's Canyon from the river. It gets much thicker further up canyon where spring-fed pools of water are common.

For more on the Escalante Region, Poison Ivy and other desert flora, tracking and geology, visit the Desert Explorer website.

Escalante Trek, May 2011- Moody Canyon to Coyote Gulch and Back

Wind, clouds, rain showers, and cool weather- this summarises the eight days I took to “finish” my trek of the Escalante River. I know it is still spring, but I had hoped for more summer-like weather. I began on the 12th of May at the Moody Canyon trailhead, about 20 miles down the Wolverine Loop road from the Burr Trail. The road to the trailhead is well maintained, and if dry it is not really a problem for almost any vehicle, although a high clearance, 4WD is recommended in case bad weather does move in. From the trailhead I walked for 8 days to complete a loop back to my start point. Along the way I saw a few rock art panels, endless geologic marvels, was serenaded by flycatches and towhees, and had an overall terrific experience alone in the bush.

Swimming the Escalante
My first day took me down to the river. On day two I walked up river to 25 Mile Wash and back to “connect” this walk to my 2009 walk from the Highway 12 bridge down to and out 25 Mile Wash. After that the walk really got interesting. The weather grew cooler, wind blew, rain fell, and the river got rougher with every kilometer I walked down it. River crossings- there were at least 25 each day- were deeper, swifter, and colder as I got further down river. I had to swim on a number of occasions, floating my pack alongside me. A note on crossing rivers- as a safety measure when crossing swifter water always unclip your breast strap and waist belt and at least loosen your pack straps, or remove one arm entirely. If you should happen to lose your balance and fall in the current it is far better to swim out of it without a backpack strapped to you, which can become quite dangerous in some circumstances. By the last day of walking down the river the flow had peaked, and as I got closer to the mouth of Coyote Gulch, within a few kilometers, it began to calm and become shallow. This was mainly due to the height of the water in the reservoir below.

View of the Escalante River below Scorpion Gulch, looking up river. Note the boulders and tight margins along the water that must be negotiated. It gets tougher the further down river you get.

Floating the Escalante
Coyote Gulch is about where the Escalante starts backing up and the flat water below begins, although this year water was still flowing on past Coyote Gulch. I met a few groups of boaters along the way. All were in inflatables and two of the groups were taking the smart way out, floating all the way down and meeting a boat to shuttle them back to Bullfrog. I am told this will cost about 350 dollars or so per shuttle boat. Even if you go solo, you can try to link up with another group and split the cost of the shuttle boat out. The other option is to haul all your gear up and out Coyote Gulch, something not very fun with just a backpack, let alone a boat and river gear. Currently there is only one portage on the lower part of the river, a large boulder jam that has been there for years. Depending on the flows, there may be more than this one. The river was flowing around 100 CFS during my trip according to the USGS website, but apparently that number doubles once you reach Boulder Creek. Current river flows can be found at the USGS website.

The Loop
To finish out the trip I walked up Coyote Gulch to Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch, across the mesa to the head of Scorpion Gulch, back down to the river, up river to East Moody Canyon, and out from there. It all sounds fairly easy, but don’t be fooled. It was a long one, just over 100 miles, and although the bushwhacking wasn’t too bad as compared to conditions on the upper part of the river, the river crossings and negotiating the river banks more than made up for that. Navigation was not much of an issue- follow the water down to Coyote Gulch, walk up, cross the mesa, and so on. Of course there is more to the walk than this, but for the sake of rambling and spoiling the adventure for anyone else who might choose to do it, I will stop the narrative here.

A pool of fresh, clean water about mid-way down Scorpion Gulch.

Trip Summary
It goes without saying- but I am going to say it- that you should be prepared for this hike. Carry the gear that you will need, don’t overpack, and be in shape. There was really nothing too technical anywhere along the 100 miles of the loop other than a bit of bouldering and crawling though a few cracks here and there along the river. There was no climbing or rappelling, no need for technical gear unless you explore further up some of the side canyons such as Fools Canyon. You can walk up Fools a couple of kilometers before you reach a pouroff that requires rope and harness to get around it. From there it’s anyone’s guess.

In my experience, May is a good time to do this walk, with the chance for cool weather and lower river flows.  Average river flows are around 10 CFS for May- but they could be at 200, 300, 400 CFS or higher. Temperatures should be around 75 or 80 with a sunny sky- they could be 35 or 40 with clouds and rain. Bugs were not an issue, but they certainly could be, especially if you visit later in the summer. A point of note- do keep your eyes open for poison ivy. It is all along the river, and up and down many of the side canyons, especially the lower sections of Fools Canyon and Scorpion Gulch.

Water was not an issue anywhere and excluding the river entirely, there was plenty of water in every canyon, just around every corner at this time of year. I didn’t have to filter any of it, I just filled my bottles and treated the water with the MSR MIOX purifier pen. You can read more about the MIOX at the Desert Explorer website. This fact helped to keep my pack weight down. For the most part I didn’t carry any more than a few liters of water on my back at any given time. Again, the water situation could change dramatically from year to year, and as it gets later in the summer. For more on ultralight desert backpacking, backpack foods and meals, water, and desert adventures, visit the Desert Explorer website.

Part Two
Check back in a few days for part two of this post, where I will review the new gear that I tried out on this trek including the Golite Trinity Malpais jacket, OTB DesertLite Boots, and Rokit Fuel endurance foods. You can also read our gear reviews from the first part of the trek- we tried out Sea To Summit pack liners, the Sealine HP  map case, and a Drypack case for the digital camera. I’ll also touch on the geology and rock art that you might see while walking down the river, as well as a little about the flora and fauna.

Trip Report- Swell Rock Art, Grand Gulch, and Johns Canyon

We are back in Colorado after two and a half perfect weeks in southeast Utah. You never know what to expect at the end of September, but we had great weather with unseasonably warm days and nights. The skies were clear,  filled with stars, planets, and a full moon. Temperatures were a warm 85 to 90 or so during the day, dropping to around 50 to 55 at night.

Rock Art and Green River Town
We began our trip by visiting a few rock art panels in the San Rafael Swell area. All the panels are named, quite well known, and are found on most maps. The Head of Sinbad panel, the Lone Warrior panel, and the Black Dragon panel are all rather easy to find and get to, provided you have a four wheel drive, or are prepared for a little walking. All three panels consist of pictographs, with petroglyphs also found at the Black Dragon panel.

 

Head of Sinbad panel, San Rafael Swell. The detail in this panel is really amazing, the lines are very fine and crisp.

 

 

The Lone Warrior panel is as the name implies, a single, isolated image. The pictograph is exposed to sun and the elements and as a result is not as clear as the Sinbad panel.

 

Along the way we stopped at the town of Green River where they were having their annual Melon Festival. The honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon were at their peak of ripeness and sweet and juicy. We also made a visit to Crystal Geyser and spent an afternoon there, alternating between walking through the cold water erupting from the geyser, and then dips into the warmer water of the Green River. There is a new coffee shop in town, right at the corner of Broadway and 150 West- it is a few doors away from the Melon Vine grocery store.  They serve Illy coffee- stop in and support them. See our Desert Links page for more on Green River.

After we left the Green River area we did our usual drive south towards Cedar Mesa with stops in Moab, along the edge of Canyonlands, and in Blanding. Matrimony Spring in Moab is still running strong, and there was nothing in the paper and no talk around town about closing it down again.

Horsethief Road
One important piece of news out of the Moab area had to do with a torrential downpour some time in August. The storm literally washed away the switchbacks on Horsethief road coming up from Mineral Bottom. The road is impassable by any vehicle (even a Toyota Land Cruiser.) It can be walked, and I could portage a mountain bike up through the washed out spots, and get a good workout doing it. According to the Grand Junction Sentinel, the damage is going to cost Grand County about 2.5 million dollars to fix, and it will take about 6 months to do so. The estimated loss in revenue is about 5 million dollars! So if you are still planning a river trip with a takeout at Mineral Bottom, or a ride of the White Rim, you will want to review your plans. See the National Park Service website for more info and great photos.

Cedar Mesa and Grand Gulch
We did a couple of overnight backpacks in Grand Gulch and its tributaries. On our first overnight we walked in on Government Trail and Nicolai finally got to see Big Man Panel, something he was very excited to do. Our next overnight took us down an unnamed canyon at the lower end of Cedar Mesa known locally as Lookout Canyon. This walk is not for the faint of heart or those that are out of shape, especially when it comes to exiting up the left drainage if you do the loop. Be sure to see our Lookout Canyon Dayhike page at the Desert Explorer website for more details on this hike. The hike is certainly worth it if you are up for it. Nicolai enjoyed the solitude, and we entered the canyon the night after a huge downpour, so we were negotiating not only downclimbs, house-sized boulders, pouroffs, and brush, but also pools and potholes filled with fresh rainwater. Red spotted toads were out in force after the rains. It was a great adventure, especially for a 6-year old.

 

Nicolai sketching the Big Man.

 

Johns Canyon Bikepacking Trip
Next we drove into Johns Canyon as far as is possible with a full-sized vehicle (Johns is spelled with no apostrophe, this is not a typo). After crossing over the drainage in the canyon bottom and heading south out of the canyon, there is a washout that apparently will not be repaired as it has been there for a number of years now and is just getting worse. It stops vehicle travel altogether, although dirt bikes and possibly ATV’s can get past. From this point we got on our bikes and rode most of a day to an even rougher section of what was once the road to the mouth of Slickhorn Canyon. Nicolai made the decision at this point that we should turn back and camp at a nearby switchback. It was a perfect campsite, allowing us to watch the sun set, then Venus, and Jupiter rise in the east.

 

Petroglyph in Johns Canyon- man with headdress, over a meter high.

 

Along the way we saw a number of rock art panels. I am sure we missed a few as well. It seems that this road was also a route used by the ancient inhabitants of the area to reach the San Juan River at the mouth of Slickhorn Canyon. If you do this ride, and plan to go all the way to the river, I recommend not hauling a trailer as we did. Panniers would make the portages through the washouts much easier. Be sure to carry a patch kit and extra tubes!

Unschooling in Southeast Utah
Adventures such as these are a large part of our unschooling experience. Nicolai does not attend school; his learning is largely based on what we decide to do on any given day, and on our travels and adventures, wherever they may take place. Learning for us occurs on many levels, but it is always occurring. For example while on this trip we studied not only the rock art of the basketmaker and Puebloan cultures who inhabited the area, but many other aspects of their cultures such as their technology, farming practices, building methods, food storage and preparation, and hunting strategies.

On our trips we always pay attention to astronomy- the planets and their appearance and disappearance, moon phases, and stellar navigation. On this trip we talked about how our view of the stars and planets differ between the northern and southern hemispheres. We always focus on geology while in Utah- discussing geology there is as necessary as breathing. Utah is a living geology textbook. We incorporate engineering and math into our discussions of ancient cultures, as well as the spiritual aspects of their lives. We discuss military tactics and strategies on our trips as well- Puebloan cultures and their choices for habitation lend well to this topic.  And of course there is the flora and fauna of Utah and our ongoing study of primitive skills. The point here is that learning is not something we do at a desk, and never will be. Learning comes with our daily experiences and we take advantage of every one of them to grow and learn and expand our horizons. For more of our thoughts on unschooling and nature, visit the Desert Explorer Wilderness Kids pages.

Next on the agenda: a trip to the Colorado Canyons. It has been years since I have visited the area, and I have been trying to get back there ever since. A few days exploring Jones Canyon from its mouth is in the works for early November. Check back for more on that trip. See our Colorado Canyons pages for more information on the area.

Trip Report- Back From a Week in Central Nevada

We have just returned from another visit to central Nevada, specifically the Lahontan Valley in Nevada’s Great Basin. The town of Fallon, where I grew up, sits in the middle of the valley. This is always our base camp, and we do day trips and overnights from there. On this trip we visited Lake Lahontan for some swimming, Grimes Point to view petroglyphs and to run, the town of Yerington, Stillwater Marsh and many irrigation ditches for birding, and we watched fighter jets and helicopters fly all around the valley. We also visited the site of a recent jet crash near the navy base southeast of Fallon- this was one of Nicolai’s favorite parts of the trip.

Jet Crash
The local news outlet, the Lahontan Valley News, reported on 08 July, 2010 that an A-4 Skyhawk jet had crashed just north of the Fallon Naval Air Station. The pilot ejected safely, bringing the jet down in a field just outside the base. No one was hurt, and no property was damaged. Had the pilot not brought the jet down where he did, the situation could have been much worse. The news report stated that the jet was  contractor-owned and the pilot a civilian, tasked to simulate enemy aircraft for training purposes.

The point of impact, the bank of a ditch flanking a field. Fill dirt was brought in to rebuild the ditch bank. The photo is taken in the direction of the debris scatter and ensuing fire.

A tree on the right side of the point of impact, possibly clipped by the jet's wing. Note debris still embedded in the tree.

Nicolai was fascinated by the crash site, and we approached it as crash investigators might. We spent a couple of hours at the site, with Nicolai photographing and drawing the point of impact, the burn scar, debris field, and the bits of debris still at the site.

A piece of debris at the crash site. There were many small fragment of aluminum lying around the field. Most were missing all the rivets that held the aircraft together, torn out upon impact.

Jet crashes are unfortunately not uncommon for the area, with the Fallon Naval Air Station being a primary training center for pilots. Most of the crashes I am aware of have occurred on the bombing ranges, and not in inhabited areas, as this one did.

Grimes Point
Every visit to Fallon requires a trip to Grimes Point Archaeological Area. The Grimes Point Petroglyph Trail is a short walk, maybe 1/2 mile, that takes you by at least 25 boulders bearing rock art that is as much as 7000 years old. Nearby caves hold clues to the ancient past and were used for storage, living, and burial. The more important caves have been secured, but there are tours available of Hidden Cave. You can visit the Churchill County Museum for more information regarding the cave tour and the history of Fallon and the Lahontan Valley. Also see their PDF on the Hidden Cave tour and Grimes Point. See our June 2008 blog post on Grimes Point for more information on archaeological research at the site and on the prehistory of the area.

For runners and mountain bikers, Grimes Point is an excellent choice for long runs or rides. I usually manage to get in a couple of easy 2 or 3 hours runs on the dirt roads in the area. You can ride or run for hours on the endless dirt roads and tracks throughout the area.

Grimes Point- petroglyphs on basalt boulder. Curvilinear forms represent snakes, circles, rainbow, and circle and line elements.

Later style petroglyph, possible atlatl or human form. Vandalism at top of boulder caused by gunfire.

Birding in the Lahontan Valley
The area around Fallon has great birding- the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge east of Fallon is known internationally for its water and shore bird populations. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service web page for the refuge, over 280 species of birds have been seen there. This may seem like an unlikely number of species for an arid, high desert region. But the Carson Sink, the location of the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge and the adjacent Fallon National Wildlife Refuge, marks the end point of the Carson River. It is here that water travelling through the Lahontan Valley forms the Stillwater Marsh. On this visit within the first half hour we had seen flocks of White-faced ibis, American avocets, American white pelicans, Great blue herons, various egrets, a few Golden eagles, and gulls and coots. If you are looking to fill out the shore birds on your life list, this is the place to do it.

For more on Fallon, Grimes Point, the Lahontan Valley, visit the Desert Explorer Nevada page. For more on desert hiking, backpacking, survival, and equipment visit the Desert Explorer website.

Check back in a few days for the second part of our Nevada Trip Report. We will cover new dining options in Fallon, visiting Lake Lahontan, and visiting the town of Yerington.

Utah- June 2010 Trip Report

We are safely back from another great trip to southeast Utah. We spent two and a half weeks exploring, hiking, finding ruins and rock art, and backpacking. We fought gnats and wind, and had a few cold nights, but the weather overall was cooperative, just cool enough most nights to enjoy a  fire. Fire bans had not yet been imposed, in Utah at least. We even managed a mid-trip blog post from our hotel room in Kayenta, Arizona. You can see that blog post below.

Nightly fire in our fire pan.

We always use our fire pan to lessen the impact we make in the bush. We select campsites that have already been used, and prefer them without piles of blackened rocks filled with half-burned trash. We make it a point to leave our campsites in the same, or better condition. See the Leave No Trace website for more on minimising your impact in the wilderness.

Grand Gulch
One of the highlights of our trip was the few days we spent in Grand Gulch. It turned out to be the hottest few days of the entire trip, with temperatures right at 100 degrees, but we endured and found plenty of water to keep us hydrated. The water was on its way out though, drying up quickly. There were murky potholes at many of the cooler, tighter bends in the canyon bottom, and plenty at the mouth of Water Canyon. Keep this in mind if you are planning a trip into the lower end of Grand Gulch later in the summer.

At the junction of Grand Gulch and Water Canyon- plenty of cold, clean water still there.

We started out from Collins Canyon trailhead and made our way down to Red Man Canyon.  There are a couple of small ruins and amazing rock art in that section of Grand Gulch. As I mentioned in our mid-trip post, I have been down that stretch before, but saw many panels that I had walked right by on my previous trip. I wonder how many more times I can walk it and still see something new?

200 Hands panel- an amazing sight to see. I think there are more than 200, this being just a small section of the 30 meter long panel.

An interesting pictograph found in the main drainage of Grand Gulch.

Navajo National Monument and Betatakin Ruin
After Grand Gulch there was more exploring, including our trip south into Arizona for a few days. We visited Navajo National Monument and did the hike out to Betatakin ruin. If you ever visit that part of the Navajo Nation, be sure to allow time for a visit to the monument. Visiting Betatakin requires about 5 hours or so and must be done with a ranger at the designated times- 0815 and 1000 when we were there. If you have more time the ruins of Keet Seel require a day for the walk out and back. You can do this on your own, after an orientation, and you  can camp overnight at the ruins. The times and days for visiting the ruins changes throughout the year and based on budget, so be sure to check in ahead of time to see what your options are. See the Desert Explorer Navajo National Monument webpage for more information.

The ruins of Betatakin as seen from inside the alcove. Betatakin was occupied only for about 30 years between about 1250 and 1300 .

Newspaper Rock and Other Petroglyph Sites

We also visited Newspaper Rock along the way. The petroglyphs there cover a wide range of dates, from about 2000 years back through historic times. They are very dense, well-preserved, and easily visible on the patinated Wingate sandstone surface. The site is well protected by a fence and appropriate signage. For more on rock art and how to help protect it, visit the Rock Art pages at the Desert Explorer website.

Newspaper Rock, a petroglyph site on the eastern edge of Canyonlands.

Sign at Newspaper Rock. It is unfortunate and sad, but some people do need to be told that destroying 2000 year old rock art sites is a bad thing.

Rock art is everywhere in southeastern Utah. All you have to do is look for it, and you will find it. Much of it can be seen along once-ancient, now modern roadways. An example is seen in the image below. This panel, along with a couple of others nearby, has historic Ute elements and prehistoric elements as well. We found it right off the road outside of Bluff and spent some time photographing and sketching the deer, or perhaps elk, in the photo.

Detail of petroglyph panel near Bluff, Utah.

Moab Area
We spent a couple of days in the Moab area as we usually do. We visited some rock art panels there, including the Gold Course panel. We did some swimming in the Colorado and in Mill Creek, and enjoyed Moab’s great parks and the free internet at the public library. Some good news from the area is that Matrimony Spring is flowing once again. The Times-Independent had an article that said the fate of the spring was still up in the air, then a couple of days later we found the water flowing freely. Someone had placed a piece of flashing under the spring to divert the water for filling bottles. We drank plenty of it with no ill-effects, as has been the case for may years. We have been told that it takes 90 years for the water to get from the top of the La Sals down to the Colorado. That is alot of filtering! Still, use it at your own risk. Who knows what goes on just upstream.

Nicolai next to Matrimony Spring outside Moab.

Fish Slough Petroglyph Panel, Bishop, California

Fish Slough Petroglyph panel and the Bishop Petroglyph driving loop are located just north of the town of Bishop, California in the northern end of the Owens valley. The road is well-maintained and passable in just about any vehicle in dry weather. The entire loop from the town, up Fish Slough Road, and back to Bishop on Highway 6 is about 42 miles in length. Traveling on Highway 6, towards Tonapah, Nevada, the first panel is about 11 miles north of Bishop. This is the Fish Slough panel.  Next is the Chidago panel, about 4 more miles ahead. The final panel is the Red Rock panel, about 6 miles beyond Chidago panel. Unfortunately I was just driving by, with limited time, and was only able to visit the Fish Slough panel. I visited at the worst time for photography- during mid-day, and as a result my images have been adjusted in Photoshop to enhance the rock art.

The Fish Slough area is set between the Sierra Nevada on the west and the White Mountains on the east. Fish Slough is a wetland at the mouth of the Owens River. Because of the river and wetland, the area is rich with wildlife and other sources of food and likely was seen as such by native inhabitants.

The terrain was formed by volcanic activity, both intrusive and extrusive. The valley floor is decomposing volcanic tuff from pyroclastic flows which occurred about 750,000 years ago.  The Fish Slough Petroglyphs are found on the surface of this hardened ashflow, known as the Bishop tuff.

The petroglyphs are thought to be between about 1000 and 8,800 years old, and possibly made by the ancestors of the native Paiute-Shoshone people who still inhabit the valley. The style of the petroglyphs is classified as Great Basin Curvilinear.

One point I must note about all the petroglyph elements- the shields, maps, and the zoomorph- is their similarity to those I have found in southern Utah. The shield symbol is exactly as I have found them over 1000 miles away.  The maps have exactly the same stylistic elements- circles attached by curved lines, with the lines curving back and forth, radiating out from a center element- as those in the San Juan drainage of Utah.  The zoomorph with its stick legs is reminiscent of the abstract style of the hunter-gatherers in the Glen Canyon area .

Form more information on the site and the people who may have made them, visit the Bishop BLM office at 351 Pacu Lane, Suite 100. Their phone number is (760) 872-5000. Their office Hours are 8:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., Monday- Friday, closed from 12:00 to 12:30 daily. You can also visit the Public Lands Information Center located at 798 N. Main St., phone number (760) 873-2503, for general information and a map of the driving tour.

For more on the petroglyphs of southern Utah, and other information on desert hiking, backpacking and survival visit the Desert Explorer website.

Additional photos and information on the Fish Slough area can be found at the following sites: Windyscotty blog, the Sierraweb, and at the BLM website.

Shield image.

Series of "shields" on vertical surface.

"Map" panel, Fish Slough Petroglyph site.

Another "map".

Zoomorph, on volcanic tuff, Fish Slough site. Size is approximately 25 cm wide by 40 cm in height.