TR - Cedar Mesa, Jan 2011

[Deadeye008]

Blank

[bowjunkie]

:2thumbs:nice pics !!!1

[ibenick]

Awesome. :cool2:

[gnwatts]

The Mule Canyon ruin is one of my favorites. Spectacular setting.

[oldno7]

Very nice TR

[gnwatts]

Where did you park to access the upper part of Mule?

[Iceaxe]

I'm still looking for a good route to access the upper part of Mule Canyon.... if anyone happens to have a GPS track or map of a reasonable entry I'd be grateful. :2thumbs:

Also.... look on the ceiling of Monarch Cave. There are some nice big pictographs that have now faded. But they would have been pretty cool back in their day. Not sure how they would have painted them without a big step ladder...

Nice TR... thanks... :nod:

[Deadeye008]

Where did you park to access the upper part of Mule?

Here's a map of our tracks. The red track is going in and the green is coming out. I would recommend the green. We found some rock cairns on our way out so if you were to back track the green trail you should come across them.

[Deadeye008]

I'm still looking for a good route to access the upper part of Mule Canyon.... if anyone happens to have a GPS track or map of a reasonable entry I'd be grateful. :2thumbs:

Also.... look on the ceiling of Monarch Cave. There are some nice big pictographs that have now faded. But they would have been pretty cool back in their day. Not sure how they would have painted them without a big step ladder...

Nice TR... thanks... :nod:

I have some pics of those big pictographs. To me it looks like there dwellings there were multi-storied based on all the holes in the rock for support beams. That is probably how they were able to get up that high. Would have been cool to see that place in its prime.

[Reddirtdawg]

LOVE your shot of sunrise in Butler Wash........making me "homesick" looking at it.

[denaliguide]

looks like time well spent. :2thumbs:

[Scott P]

Nice photos. There's less snow down there than I thought.

[jman]

Nice photos. There's less snow down there than I thought.

Well, Didn't the Farmer's almanac predict a mild winter this year. I haven't verified that, but so far it seems correct so far.

[Deadeye008]

Nice photos. There's less snow down there than I thought.

There was a lot of ice but not much snow. We encountered the most snow coming out of mule canyon on the North facing slope. There was still 8-10 inches in some spots. Was glad I had my gators on!:mrgreen:

[Deadeye008]

More pictures from the trip.

[Deadeye008]

One more shot of procession panel that I left out.

[Cosmic Kid]

great photos....but what are those tracks in the 3rd photo of Post 15? are they in mud or rock?

[accadacca]

Freakin' awesome! :hail2thechief:

[Deadeye008]

great photos....but what are those tracks in the 3rd photo of Post 15? are they in mud or rock?

Those are Moki steps carved into the slickrock.

[peterb]

700 y/o knot....awesome! Great images!

[jodygrigg]

Great report, nice pictures. How hard or easy is to get to the TH for Monarch Cave, thats one place I have always wanted to visit.

[Deadeye008]

Great report, nice pictures. How hard or easy is to get to the TH for Monarch Cave, thats one place I have always wanted to visit.

Trail head is very easy to get to. We saw a van back in there as we were leaving. Go in from the South near Bluff.

[lucidiot]

Thanks for posting your tracks. I've been looking for a mid-entry into South Mule Canyon for a few months now. A few years ago I hiked from the canyon mouth to the multi-tiered upper ruins you photographed. I was especially impressed with the intact granary doors, pot shards and cobs. The ruins were worth the effort but the hike was long. This May I'm heading back to Cedar Mesa and hoped I could shortcut my way back to those ruins. A couple of questions: How long (time) was the round trip? And, ignoring the ice ;-), do you think the effort to scramble down and up the canyon side was better than taking the typical trail from the canyon mouth?

[Deadeye008]

Thanks for posting your tracks. I've been looking for a mid-entry into South Mule Canyon for a few months now. A few years ago I hiked from the canyon mouth to the multi-tiered upper ruins you photographed. I was especially impressed with the intact granary doors, pot shards and cobs. The ruins were worth the effort but the hike was long. This May I'm heading back to Cedar Mesa and hoped I could shortcut my way back to those ruins. A couple of questions: How long (time) was the round trip? And, ignoring the ice ;-), do you think the effort to scramble down and up the canyon side was better than taking the typical trail from the canyon mouth?

Our round trip took us about 4hrs but that was because we visited two ruin sites and because we were route finding and our initial decent was not the best route. The way out only took us about 45min and we actually found some rock cairns near the top of the canyon. When I go back I will take the route we used to get out and probably follow the cairns.