Hiking Kane Gulch on Cedar Mesa, UT.

2015 Fall Travels of the Mercury, Oct 8th to 9th.

As we head across southern Colorado we take US 160 to Cortez. South of Cortez we take County Road G which runs through a beautiful valley of farm lands, sandstone bluffs and past the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. We haven’t explored much of this area but plan to in the future.

At Bluff, Utah we take US 191 to Blanding where we turn west on Hwy 95, the Trail of the Ancients, which will take us to Cedar Mesa. We intend to camp at Natural Bridges National Monument but the campground was full so we camp on the mesa.

Cedar Mesa is BLM land and camping or day use permits are $2 a day per person, a real bargain. Fees can be paid at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station which also has maps, displays and a great selection of books. They can advise you on where you can camp, what to see and trails to hike depending on your experience and interests.

Camping on Cedar Mesa isn't for big rigs. Camping areas can be small and are located down dirt roads. Often high clearance vehicle are necessary.

Sunset at our camp on Cedar Mesa.

We’ve visited Cedar Mesa every fall for the past 6 years. Its canyons have always beckoned us to explore, search for cliff dwellings and scramble our way through the sandstone weathered by time and the elements that carve the mesa's edge. The ruins are made of the same sandstone. To peer into them and find hand prints and figures painted on cliff walls is to come as close as we can to a civilization that once spread across the southwest a thousand years ago.

We only have one day to spend here so we hike into Kane Gulch, which we hiked the very first time we were here. The trail begins at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station and descends gradually 600 ft. between ever deepening canyon walls for 4 miles.

The Kane Gulch Trail begins as a wide wash and gradually descends into the gulch through a tangle of willows.

Kane Gulch wash.

A 10,000 year old clone of aspen.

The trail passes a clone of aspen that still thrive after being deposited here by the last ice age 10,000 years ago.

The willows give way to slick rock as the gulch deepens.

As the gulch deepens the jungle of willow give way to the slick rock.

Slick rock hiking at its best.

The slick rock makes hiking fun and easy, and gives to the water's artistic expression as it sculpts the stone. 

A water fall in Kane Gulch.

As the gulch deepens the sandstone becomes more ledgey and pouroffs become waterfalls. We descend from ledge to ledge just like the water does as we follow it down.

The gulch begins to enclose us.

We descend from ledge to ledge as we follow the water.

Water sings in a boulder grotto. 

The water sings in boulder grottoes. It's brown from silt it carries after a recent flash flood and the ambient light casts a warm glow.

Looking up at the rim of the gulch.

Junction House Ruin has structures beneath the over hang and at the base of the cliff.

At the confluence of Kane Gulch and Grand Gulch is Junction Ruin. The first structures that can be seen are on a high ledge that was accessed by ladders. The remnants of a ladder still cling to the upper ledge. 

Remnants of  a ladder can be seen high above on the steep incline to the left of the structure on the upper ledge.

One of the structures on the upper ledge.

Another structure on the upper ledge.

At the base of the cliff are the crumbling walls of dwellings. Many people once lived here and may have grown crops on the wide terrace at the confluence.  

Fallen walls show that there were once many rooms here.

Walls blend with the cliffs and can go unnoticed until we get close to them.

A complete room constructed beneath an overhang may have been a grainery.

One of the  kivas.

Another view of the kiva.

The kiva smoke hole.

We walk through the ruins being careful not to step on remnants of walls or the fallen rocks of walls. These ruins are on BLM managed lands and are accessible to the public. It's a privilege to visit them and there are rules to be observed. Don't walk on, touch or lean on walls. Walk carefully and don't disturb anything. Leave everything as you find it. These ruins were heavily looted when they were first discovered so little remains but the structures. No restoration or stabilization is being done so time and weather are taking their course. It's our responsibility not to create further degradation of these special places.

Hand prints on the cliff walls in the ruin.

More hand prints.

We found two groupings of hand prints on the cliff walls in the ruin, one group is white and another red. Placing a hand print is such a human thing to do. It says "This is I". It's the signature of a particular individual. They are a personal connection we have to the people of the past. Some are associated with special ceremonial or sacred sites. These are next to rooms in a community. I was thinking of them as being the prints of the people who built and lived in the dwellings. Like a street address, they're saying, "This is our house".

The second kiva and the tallest wall still standing.

The tallest standing wall was 2 stories so this was a sizable community. The voices of the past are still and it's just us standing here in the solitude, silence and warm canyon walls. 

Here are some photos I took with filters.

Junction Ruin I.

Junction Ruin II.

Around the bend about 1/10 of a mile down stream from Junction Ruin is Turkey Pen Ruin. We visited it before and don't go there this time because we need to start our hike out. Clouds are building and there's been a lot of recent rains. These gulches can flood quickly.

The view looking down Grand Gulch from Junction Ruin.

We backtrack our way up Kane Gulch. The gulch can look quite different on the return trip. We notice different things on the hike out.

Hiking back up Kane Gulch.

For instance, I find this giant molar.

One big tooth.

A quiet flow of water protected by an over hanging rock catches my eye. You can see how high the water got when Kane Gulch flashed only a few days previous to our hike.

After the Flood I.

After the Flood II.

We pass the clone of aspen again and they look different in the overcast afternoon light.

A clone of aspen.

The trail goes beneath a sheltering overhang.

One of the many interesting features of the trail.

The place where the trail goes through a crack behind a house size boulder was more interesting on the return hike.

The trail goes through a crack.

The stairway in the crack.

The wall on the left of the above photo had and interesting color and texture. Here are 3 filtered photos of the wall.

The Wall  Behind the Boulder I.

The Wall Behind the Boulder II.

The Wall Behind the Boulder III.

We made it back to Kane Gulch Ranger Station as the rain began. This is a wonderful hike and one of the most accessible on Cedar Mesa since it begins at the Ranger Station. We hope you get the opportunity to hike it as well as some of the other hikes to the very special places on Cedar Mesa.

We hope you enjoyed this tour of Kane Gulch. Next post we'll be telling you about our hike to Capitol Reef and Lower Calf Creek Falls as well as a great bike ride on the Red Canyon Bike Path near Bryce Canyon.

Until then.
Jackie

Grand Gulch at Junction Ruin.