TRAIL OF THE ANCIENTS
We got up early Monday morning. As I was packing the car, the morning sunlight bathed the snow covered peaks of the Abajo Mountains. After taking advantage of the continental breakfast (a bagel, hot chocolate, and OJ) we were on our way. We headed first to Blanding, passing numerous mule deer along the way. To the west we had a great view of the San Juan Mountains in Colorado. After passing through Blanding, we turned towards Lake Powell. We drove out to the Cedar Mesa, which was quite a change from Canyonlands. The mesa is higher in elevation, and therefore somewhat wetter. Most of the area was covered with pines. The rest was covered with cattle. It was something of a challenge driving the back roads of the mesa and dodging the cattle.
We had decided to hike here at the last minute. Shortly before the trip started, Christy had expressed interest in exploring ancient Indian ruins. At that point, it was way too late to properly research a hike. However, my guidebook by Michael Kelsey described several good ruins hikes. I didn’t have a proper map, but there was a hand-drawn map and a description in the book. The hike we settled on was Road Canyon. It looked like a good day hike, with a nice balance between interesting features and few visitors. The most appealing aspect of Road Canyon is that it isn’t in a national park. There would be no fences, no interpretive displays, no shuttle buses, no tourists, and no friendly, informative rangers. Only thousand year old ruins set in a true wilderness.
The guidebook got us to the trailhead without any difficulty. We paid a small day use fee and arrived at a parking area and some unofficial campsites. Here we encountered a group that was planning to do the same hike as us. They helpfully pointed out the unmarked trail and we were hiking by 9:15.
We hiked down through the pine forest before dropping steeply into the upper end of Road Canyon. We followed the canyon bottom a ways, keeping an eye out for ruins along the north side of the canyon. The book indicated several cliff dwellings not far from the trailhead, but high above the floor of the canyon. We weren’t having any luck finding anything from the bottom, so we climbed up onto a bench. We hiked the bench for awhile before a side canyon forced us back down. Finally, we rounded a bend and Christy spotted a ruin ahead of us. We scrambled up, picking our way over ledges. When we reached the ruin, we found a photographer there setting up a shot. We talked briefly, and he had a legitimate map. Our intended destination was a ruin known as the seven kivas. We located it on the map, and he thought it was about 3 miles. It was hard to tell though, as the canyon was quite curvy. I thought it looked quite a bit farther.
The ruin we were at had 3 small rooms with windows (or doors, depending how you look at it). It was situated high on a bench, but below a sheer cliff. As I understand it, these chambers were used by the Anasazi for food storage. The walls and interior were in remarkable condition, despite being over a thousand years old.
We left the first ruin, but decided to walk the bench rather than drop back down into the canyon. We quickly arrived at several more ruins scattered above the bench. Eventually we reached sheer cliffs and had to retreat down into the canyon. We hiked downstream, now and then finding a trickle of water. At one point Christy spotted another ruin high above. She scrambled back up the steep slope while I waited below. When she returned, we decided to stop playing around and get serious about reaching the seven kivas. We hiked downstream, before reaching a cairn signaling a turn up onto the south bench. Soon we were several hundred feet above the canyon floor. Down below was a pouroff and a deep pool. It looked like a great place to swim, and it was a hot, sunny day. We had a long way to go though, so we didn’t try to get down there. While on the bench we spotted some more ruins high up on the opposite wall. One in particular was surrounded by sheer cliffs and appeared totally inaccessible. After 30 minutes or so we dropped steeply back down to the canyon floor. It was lunch time, but we wanted to reach our destination before we stopped. We hiked downstream, passing through a series of "S" curves. As we rounded each bend, I expected to see the seven kivas ahead. Each time though, there was only more cliffs. Finally, I told Christy that we’d turn back if it they weren’t around the next bend. 3 or 4 curves later, we finally found it. These ruins were under a huge overhanging cliff only 50 feet or so above the creek.
We climbed up and explored the seven pits. Many of the kivas were open, but at least two still had roofs intact. The inner wall of one was stained with what appeared to be blood. This one also had bones scattered throughout. We also found numerous shards of pottery and tiny corn cobs. We retreated to the other side of the creek so that we wouldn’t disturb anything while we ate lunch. We spent over an hour there, but by 2:30 or so we needed to head back. We started back up the canyon, and passed the group that we had met that morning. They mentioned another fascinating ruin up on top of the mesa called The Citadel. Apparently it was where the canyon dwellers retreated when threatened. Unfortunately, we’d never have enough time to go look for it.
We walked fast on the way back. I expected to make good time since we weren’t doing any exploring. In fact, our only distraction was counting lizards. We were seeing an amazing variety of them, including some really huge ones. Our count was in the 90’s when I began to grow concerned. It was 5pm and I thought we’d be back by now. We arrived at a high pouroff that looked almost impossible to climb. I remembered that we had skipped part of the upper canyon by walking the bench on the way down. Perhaps we had bypassed this part? We couldn’t continue up canyon, so we climbed up onto the north side to get our bearings. The canyon was very shallow here. We hadn’t hiked through here at all. There were faint paths running everywhere, and even some cairns. We followed a few of these for a while before deciding it was foolish. We crossed to the south side of the canyon and found another faint path. Christy explored one direction while I went another. Mine ended quickly, so I decided to sit down and think about this a little bit. Perhaps we wandered up the wrong canyon? There were numerous forks, and it would have been easy to do. I got out my cute little map. Road Canyon runs west to east. The access road that we parked on runs parallel to it, on the south side. No matter where we were, if we headed south we’d hit the road.
Christy returned, with news of a more prominent trail running south out of the canyon. I told her that’s where we needed to go, so we decided to head for it. Even if it was the wrong trail, it was going the right way and it would be easier than bushwacking. When we reached it I thought it looked familiar. The farther we walked on it, the more sure I was that it was correct. A few minutes later, we reached a parking area, and the Daewoo. Daewoo! It was after 6pm, more than 9 hours since we had started our adventure. We were both exhausted, but relieved. Getting lost without a decent map isn’t any fun, but we stayed calm and found our way out. To celebrate, we enjoyed chips and salsa and some cold beer on the drive out. Have you ever tried to drive a Daewoo on a one lane dirt road while drinking a beer and eating chips and salsa and dodging cattle? It was quite the driving challenge. I’m pretty sure I violated every provision of the rental agreement in about two miles.
We reached the main road. Although it was late, we took a side trip down to the Muley Point overlook. The paved road ended and soon we were moving at 50 mph down a graded dirt road. Fun! The road ended at a spectacular overlook. Far below was the winding course of the San Juan River. In the distance we could the see the formations of Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley. We enjoyed the moment, but we had a long drive ahead of us and it was getting late. Soon we were back on the main road, heading for Lake Powell.
We drove for miles without seeing any signs of civilization. Not a gas station, restaurant, house, or phone. We’d pass another car every 10 miles or so. That was it. I didn’t see much need for a posted speed limit, so I had the Daewoo up to 90. Well, it was downhill. At one point we both needed to use a bathroom. Well, there weren’t any. So we just pulled off and went right beside the highway. Why not?
After a long descent we crossed a bridge over deep and narrow White Canyon. A few miles later and we drove over a fancy bridge above flooded Glenn Canyon. You could still see enough of the canyon to get a feel for what’s been lost. I found the view depressing.
We began to climb the far side, but pulled off to see the Lake Powell overlook. It was beautiful and ugly at the same time. The deep blue waters of the lake were certainly pretty, but I couldn’t get past knowing (or not knowing) what was hidden below. All of that destruction so that Las Vegas could run their neon billboards. Meanwhile, millions of gallons of precious water evaporates from the lake each day, while the Colorado River no longer reaches the Pacific.
We only stayed a few minutes. I didn’t have any interest in lingering. We drove on, climbing up and away from the lake. Things quickly got better. We got a great view of the Henry Mountains as the sun was setting behind them. The Henry’s were the last place in the lower 48 to be mapped. Today, they still have a wild herd of bison. I itched to spend some time there, but as usual we had to move on. Of course, it was still a bit snowy there.
We drove on, now in a truly remote desert. We passed through Hanksville, which had a couple of gas stations and a diner. We were hoping for fast food, but nothing presented itself. We had to get to the campground before it closed, so we continued on. We reached Goblin Valley State Park around 9pm. We had a site reserved, which was a good thing. The campground was pretty full. We set up camp in the dark and finished our last freeze dried dinners. Beef and Chicken stew. Yum. The stars were absolutely brilliant. We were both exhausted, and collapsed in the tent right after dinner.
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