gnwatts
01-12-2011, 03:09 PM
I thought I would share a recent trip to a canyon system that a friend and I visited last weekend. These canyons are situated between Slickhorn Canyon and Grand Gulch.
We left Carbondale around 7:30am. Taking the back road to Moab near Cisco we entered an ice fog that plunged the temperature to -5, we thought about turning around, but figured things would look better the closer we got to Blanding, and we were right.
I was a little worried about the snow depth, as it was getting deeper the closer we got to the Slickhorn road junction, all of the major roads in the area had 6" of snow on them, which my car could handle, but I wasn't excited about 7 miles of it, and the drive out 3 days later. This is Utah, after all, so we were not that surprised to find the State of Utah had plowed the road. I guess they plow it for the ranchers. So you take the Slickhorn Road, make your second left. We parked about 1.5 miles down this road on some nice slickrock.The plan was to head the canyon and descend, but we nixed that after seeing a pour off, and the 6" of snow we would have to descend, so we decided to walk down the road, which ends up at a park at the confluence of several canyons.
40607
40606
Heading up to the mouth of the canyon we picked.
40609
We found this ruin in a deep recess in the north wall of the canyon. Basically in good condition, some partially intact roofs and Kiva. I love this type of ruin, an easy walk up, in an exquisite canyon. The defensive type structures are great too, but I wonder what drove these people to such extremes. I get a different "vibe" when the ruin is so accessible, a very positive feeling. It is hard to describe.
@ sunset:
40603
40604
40605
The next morning:
40608
40602
We left Carbondale around 7:30am. Taking the back road to Moab near Cisco we entered an ice fog that plunged the temperature to -5, we thought about turning around, but figured things would look better the closer we got to Blanding, and we were right.
I was a little worried about the snow depth, as it was getting deeper the closer we got to the Slickhorn road junction, all of the major roads in the area had 6" of snow on them, which my car could handle, but I wasn't excited about 7 miles of it, and the drive out 3 days later. This is Utah, after all, so we were not that surprised to find the State of Utah had plowed the road. I guess they plow it for the ranchers. So you take the Slickhorn Road, make your second left. We parked about 1.5 miles down this road on some nice slickrock.The plan was to head the canyon and descend, but we nixed that after seeing a pour off, and the 6" of snow we would have to descend, so we decided to walk down the road, which ends up at a park at the confluence of several canyons.
40607
40606
Heading up to the mouth of the canyon we picked.
40609
We found this ruin in a deep recess in the north wall of the canyon. Basically in good condition, some partially intact roofs and Kiva. I love this type of ruin, an easy walk up, in an exquisite canyon. The defensive type structures are great too, but I wonder what drove these people to such extremes. I get a different "vibe" when the ruin is so accessible, a very positive feeling. It is hard to describe.
@ sunset:
40603
40604
40605
The next morning:
40608
40602