IntrepidXJ's Adventure Weblog

On Memorial Day we packed up camp and headed a short ways down Comb Wash to check out some ruins in Lower Mule Canyon.

There were a few petroglyphs here as well.

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After a good night’s sleep, we headed out early on Sunday morning to hike to the Lewis Lodge ruins. While we made it down the first ledge, we were unable to make it down to the ruins because of the very narrow and steep trail with an 800 foot drop-off on one side. The exposure was just too much for us. We did manage to get some photos of the ruins from the opposite side of the canyon, though.

Spot the ruins high up on the cliff.

A shot zoomed in further…

We were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t make it out to the ruins, but after hiking back to our Jeep’s we continued on down the trail a little ways to stop at Hotel Rock for some pictures and lunch.

I took a number of pictures at Hotel Rock…

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On Saturday morning we headed out on our annual Memorial Day weekend trip to the Comb Ridge and Cedar Mesa area in Southeastern Utah. As usual, we would be meeting up with our friend Jared for the weekend and heading out to find some ruins.

After the drive down to Comb Wash and setting up camp, we headed out to check out some ruins that Jared had spotted along Highway 95 not too far from camp. We parked off the highway and made our way to the rim of the small canyon where we quickly spotted the ruins. We had to hike down the rim of the canyon to reach the bottom so we could hike back up a little bit in order to reach them.

We then hiked up canyon a little further and found a few petroglyphs.

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Since our original plans for the weekend were to go rafting near Glenwood Springs on Sunday, I ended up heading to Davis Canyon on Saturday to do some hiking and exploring. Unfortunately, because of the wind, our rafting trip on Sunday never happened

After driving up Davis Canyon to the Canyonlands National Park boundary, I parked my Jeep and hiked in. My first destination would be the Five Faces Pictographs. These pictographs are in amazing condition.

All five faces.

Below the pictographs on two sandstone slabs were ten large depressions.

After leaving the Five Faces, I backtracked a little ways down the canyon to check out this small, but well-preserved granary.

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This last weekend Amanda and I headed south to Hovenweep National Monument and the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. This is an area we have been close to many times before, but had not been to yet. I’m not sure why it took so long, but it was definitely well worth the visit, and I’m looking forward to heading back to explore more in the future!

After setting up camp at the Hovenweep campground, we started out by making our way over to the Holly Group of ruins a few miles away. Hovenweep is a bit different from other National Parks and Monuments as it is not one large area. Hovenweep is actually comprised of six separate villages spread over a twenty-mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons along the Utah-Colorado border.

Holly Tower and Holly House

Holly House

After visiting Holly, we backtracked to the hiking trail for both the Horseshoe and Hackberry ruins. After a nice half mile hike, we reached Horseshoe.

Round Tower perched on the canyon rim (Shiprock on the horizon).

Horseshoe House

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Thursday, April 8, 2010 | Day 1

Late last year I finally decided to put together a trip that has been on my to-do list for way to long. I needed to finish driving the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition (San Juan Mission) Route by driving the Hole-in-the-Rock Trail. I had driven pretty much all of the other sections of the route that are drivable except for this one. This was planned as a three day trip so that we could take our time and also get in some hiking along the trail. My adventure started on Thursday, which was the day before we were supposed to meet at the trail. I wanted to take my time driving to the trail near Hall’s Crossing and also make a few stops along the way.

After stopping at Back of Beyond Books in Moab and filling up my gas tank in Blanding, I set off west on UT-95. Of course I had to stop at ‘Salvation Knoll’ since it was an important landmark to George Hobbs and the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition.

From Salvation Knoll I made my way further west to my first trail of the trip. On my maps, I noticed there was a segment of the Hole-in-the-Rock trail that I had not driven that connected UT-95 and UT-276. After some research into the route, I found that it is still a valid route that is open to motorized travel, so I figured I would give it a try.

When I reached the turnoff from the highway, I was greeted with a well maintained county road. The sign even marked it as part of the Mormon Trail

After a mile or two of the easy pretty well maintained road, it got a little rougher and crossed some slickrock sections

Eventually I reached a large section of slickrock that dropped off into a small canyon. I didn’t immediately find a way down, so I parked the Jeep and hiked around for a while until I picked up the trail again. From this point on, the well maintained county road was left behind and the much rougher and narrower trail continued. It was hard to follow in many places and required that I hike ahead first, but there were enough signs along the way to reassure myself that I was on the right track.

Marker along the route indicating this was part of the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition

Dropping down

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Sunday, November 22, 2009

After making our way back to the highway from Arch Canyon Rim we crossed and headed back to Mule Canyon….this time on the other side of the highway. After a short half mile drive down a 4×4 road and a quick 100 yard hike down a rocky wash, we reached the Seven Towers (also known as the Cave Towers and Mule Canyon Towers).

Located here on both sides are the ruins of seven circular towers that once stood at the head of this canyon. A few still have some walls standing, but most are reduced to piles of rubble. I also spotted some ruins in an alcove located below in Mule Canyon.

If you look closely in the following picture, you can see some tower ruins on the other side of the canyon.

Looking across the canyon at the biggest remaining tower

After checking out these ruins, we headed back to the highway and made our way back home. It was another great weekend in Southern Utah!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Sunday morning we left Blanding and headed towards Cedar Mesa again. Our destination this morning was South Mule Canyon where we looked forward to hiking to the famous House on Fire ruins. We were hoping to be there at a good time of the day for lighting, and I think we nailed the timing pretty good. We spent about an hour exploring the ruins and taking some photos. Here’s a few of the photos…

Still more to come from Sunday…

Saturday, November 21, 2009

After our fun hike to The Citadel, Amanda and i headed back out Cigarette Springs Road, took a left on UT 261 and made our way down the Moki Dugway. We made a quick stop at Goosenecks State Park since we were in the area.

Then we made our way back towards Bluff. Before heading through Comb Ridge, I decided to take a right onto South Comb Wash Road. I have driven the sections of Comb Wash north of US 163 before, but I had never headed south towards the San Juan River before, and I wanted to see if there was anything cool along this route.

As I suspected, when I got near the San Juan River I came across some of the markers indicating this was part of the Hole in the Rock route.

I followed the markers down a short spur until I reached San Juan Hill, where the road ended anyways.

After heading back to the main road I passed by the remains of a trading post on The Rincone

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

This past weekend Amanda and I headed south for our annual November Cedar Mesa weekend trip. We left right after work on Friday and made our way to Blanding where we had some hotel reservations for the weekend (we’re not into cold weather camping).

Saturday morning we headed to our first destination of the weekend: The Citadel. I have wanted to check out these ruins for a while, and am glad we finally did. This was a fun hike with some minor scrambling required to reach the ruins.

After taking the short spur trail from the Cigarette Springs Road, we reached the rim of Road Canyon.

View over Road Canyon

After hiking along the rim of Road Canyon for about a mile and a half, we soon got our first view of the peninsula that the ruins are located on.

From this point we had to make our way down some steeper slickrock to reach the peninsula.

Amanda headed down

About to make our way across

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