James_B_Wads2000
11-07-2005, 10:34 PM
So after hiking Alien Car Canyon on Saturday (see TR in canyoneering section) we headed out Sunday morning for Range Creek Canyon.
Where is Range Creek you ask? Even I had to look it up and I have a nine-foot tall map of Utah in my living room. It is a large canyon system in the Book Cliffs that drains into the Green River just up stream from the Price River confluence.
Why go here? Well a few years back a rancher named Waldo Wilcox sold his ranch that had been in his family for over sixty years to the federal government. His father had bought it from the family that had originally homesteaded it around the turn of the century. Basically the canyon had been without public access since the arrival of the White Man. Which is good because it is full of untouched Fremont Indian ruins. We are talking not touched by anyone since the Fremonts abandoned them around and before 1300AD. For more on the canyon read this article that contains this quote.
"I was cussed all my life for locking those gates," the 74-year-old Wilcox said Wednesday. "Now the archaeologists tell me we were heroes for doing that. Otherwise the hippies would have come in here and destroyed the place."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19415-2004Jun30.html
Well starting this past spring/summer they have started a permit system to allow the public to hike in this archeological gold mine. I won't bore you with the details but the gist is that with a permit you can hike from the gate on the road down canyon and explore the sites. No overnight camping allowed beyond the gate and only horse and foot traffic allowed beyond the gate. Rangers patrol every weekend and there is a stiff fine for anyone found out there without a permit. More details here:
http://wildlife.utah.gov/range_creek/index.php
Well anyhoo a friend of mine had tipped me on this place and invited me to meet him out there on Sunday. After getting gas and water in East Carbon we headed for Horse Canyon. The road up and over the pass down to Range Creek is pretty exciting. It has been cut out of the mountainside and hangs thousands of feet above the canyon floor almost the whole time. When we did it the road was mostly dry and no problem for the mighty 4Runner. It has snowed since and chains are now required for anyone thinking of heading out there in the next few weeks (canyon closes from late November to Late May depending on snow conditions.)
We started hiking around eleven and only made it about 2.5 miles down canyon. There isn
Where is Range Creek you ask? Even I had to look it up and I have a nine-foot tall map of Utah in my living room. It is a large canyon system in the Book Cliffs that drains into the Green River just up stream from the Price River confluence.
Why go here? Well a few years back a rancher named Waldo Wilcox sold his ranch that had been in his family for over sixty years to the federal government. His father had bought it from the family that had originally homesteaded it around the turn of the century. Basically the canyon had been without public access since the arrival of the White Man. Which is good because it is full of untouched Fremont Indian ruins. We are talking not touched by anyone since the Fremonts abandoned them around and before 1300AD. For more on the canyon read this article that contains this quote.
"I was cussed all my life for locking those gates," the 74-year-old Wilcox said Wednesday. "Now the archaeologists tell me we were heroes for doing that. Otherwise the hippies would have come in here and destroyed the place."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19415-2004Jun30.html
Well starting this past spring/summer they have started a permit system to allow the public to hike in this archeological gold mine. I won't bore you with the details but the gist is that with a permit you can hike from the gate on the road down canyon and explore the sites. No overnight camping allowed beyond the gate and only horse and foot traffic allowed beyond the gate. Rangers patrol every weekend and there is a stiff fine for anyone found out there without a permit. More details here:
http://wildlife.utah.gov/range_creek/index.php
Well anyhoo a friend of mine had tipped me on this place and invited me to meet him out there on Sunday. After getting gas and water in East Carbon we headed for Horse Canyon. The road up and over the pass down to Range Creek is pretty exciting. It has been cut out of the mountainside and hangs thousands of feet above the canyon floor almost the whole time. When we did it the road was mostly dry and no problem for the mighty 4Runner. It has snowed since and chains are now required for anyone thinking of heading out there in the next few weeks (canyon closes from late November to Late May depending on snow conditions.)
We started hiking around eleven and only made it about 2.5 miles down canyon. There isn