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View Full Version : Trip Report Comb Ridge, Ruins and Rock Art



BaitForTheBuzzards
10-31-2012, 12:36 PM
It was the fourth of July as we approached Blanding Utah from the north. A fine cool mist had enveloped the area. The moisture clung to the red dust on our windshield and formed into droplets that slowly slide down the window leaving streaks of clean glass. As we entered Blanding the mist had turned into a heavy rain. The drop in temperature from the summer heat was blissful as we had not seen rain in weeks.

The streets were lined with chairs and throngs of people. Many huddled under umbrellas that had been brought to provide shade but were now used to shield against the rain. By the look on the people's faces the rain had not dampened their enthusiasm for the parade that was about to begin.

As we approach the other end of town and passed the park it was covered by the white tents of vendors. Already the delicious smells of southwest cooking was wafting on the breeze. It made us almost want to stop and participate in the food and festivities, but are destination beckoned.

Leaving Blanding we turned towards Comb Ridge and before long turned off onto a dirt road that would take us to our favorite camping spot on the top northern edge of the Comb. This is not a campsite for midnight wondering as the camp is no more that 50 ft from a 500 ft drop off down the face of the Comb.

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I'm still recovering from a near death experience last fall and emergency surgery in the Moab hospital. That was definitely not the funnest week I have spent in Moab. As a result I had decided we would explore Comb Ridge more thoroughly than we have in the past. The short hikes with not much elevation gain would suit my present physical condition.

From our campsite I could look across Comb Wash and see the mouth of Arch Canyon as it entered the wash on the opposite side from where I sat. I could see a rock formation known as Walnut Knob near the mouth of the canyon about a mile away. Climbing to the knob would be our first adventure.

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That evening we drove up Comb Wash to the base of Walnut Knob. We would have to climb up a steep rocky slope of several hundred feet to reach the knob and I knew it would be a painful experience. Grabbing my trekking poles we began the ascent. My marathon running wife proceed up the steep climb as graceful as a gazelle as I lumbered up behind her like an arthritic grizzly bear.

It felt good to be climbing slick rock again even though each breath caused be lungs to burn, matching the pain in my thighs. After many a rest stop we made it to the top.

We found some very nice petro-glyphs, one of which looked liked a map of the world surrounded by stylized sheep, elk and oddly feet. Nearby a large devilish looking petro-glyph guarded the wall.
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Michelle, who pokes her nose under every rock and into every cranny found some beautiful pottery shards as well as a broken stone tool. A small amount of masonry walls could be seen but not enough to get a sense of their purpose. This would make an excellent spot to guard the approach to Arch Canyon where a number of habitation sites can be found. All and all this was a nice place to start our exploration.

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The next morning we headed down Butler Wash to the Double Stack Ruins trailhead. Leaving the truck we walked down the now abandoned dirt road towards the Comb. After fighting our way through the wash with its steep sandy sides we entered the canyon. Before long we found a well preserved log sweat house. This was the first of three in the canyon.

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A little while later we reach the ruin proper. It is a fairly large ruin site with a number of standing walls, but no complete rooms on the lower level. As the name implies, on a alcove above the main ruin were other structures. The upper ruins were better protected from the elements and people and appeared to be in better shape than the ruins in the canyon bottom.

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The main site appeared to have had a dozen or more rooms at one time including a kiva. A large number of red hand print decorated the wall behind the ruins. You see hand prints at many southwest ruin sites and to me they remind me that real people lived, loved and died in these places and as a result deserve our respect. It was a very nice visit.


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That night as we sat in camp large thunder bumpers began rolling in and we could see lightning flashing over the mesa and up on the Bears Ears as sheets of rain began falling from the black clouds. The rain knocked the summer heat down and made for very nice sleeping temperatures.

The next morning we once again headed down the wash were we were met with beautiful blues sky and a few lingering clouds. Our destination was Cold Springs Ruin. Just getting there would prove to be an adventure. As we headed down the dirt road we could see that the southern part of the Comb had been hit harder by the storm than we had realized. We began running into places were mini flash floods had flowed across the road. Before long we ran into our first major obstacle. In the turn of the road a foot of tumbleweed cover water had collected, stretching about 100 ft. Not wanting to turn back we gunned the engine and hoped our big F350 could power through it. When we hit the water we were driving blind as cascades of mud covered the windshield and tumbleweeds were either crush under us or rolled across the hood. I could feel us losing speed and traction as the mud sucked at our tires. I feared we were not going to make it as we slowly fished tailed through the last 20 ft of muck. Finally the front wheels found purchased and pulled us onto dry ground. We would repeat this process three more times, but none were as bad as the first.

Cold Water Ruin is in a spur canyon off the main drainage. The entrance to the canyon is narrow and guarded by a 10 foot pour off than can be defeated be climbing up the canyon wall.

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The ruin site is large and built into a alcove that is several hundred feet long. The alcove starts low on the wall and then climbs the canyon wall as it ascends so that the top of the ruin is 50 or 60 ft above the bottom.

This would be my favorite ruin we would visit. This place felt alive to me. The site was covered with grinding stones and narrow slits in the rock were tools and weapons had been shaped and sharpened. One large flat linier stone held six grinning surfaces that were also cover by petro-glyphs. It was easy to imagine young women and toothless grandmas surrounding the stone grinding there precious corn as they gossiped about the men in the tribe. Perhaps the old ones would share a smile as they caught the small ones eyes wandering to the striplings men as the fashioned bows and arrows nearby.
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As we explored our way up the alcove we found allot of pottery shards that had be washed out be the heavy rain. In one spot we found enough pieces to assemble about half of a black on white pot. All were placed back on the ground to be discovered and hopefully left by the next group of explores.

As we approach the top and deepest part of the alcove we found a very nice kiva as well as a number of rooms. To the back of the cave was a spring were water dripped into a large holding tank. What a blessing this spring had to have been to these people. Perhaps this spring is why this site had such a feeling of industry with its many grinding stones and tool making artifacts. How much labor was saved for this group by having water that would not have to be carried from afar.

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As I sat in the shade, Michelle went exploring. I had been told that not far above the ruin the canyon boxed up and by climbing some old moki steps you could escape the canyon. The reason for doing this would be to hike to the edge of the next canyon to the north to view the Eagles Nest Ruin. This ruin is almost impossible to actually reach so the view from the opposite side of the canyon is the next best thing. Michelle was going to scout out the route to see if it would be more than I was up to in my present physical condition.

For awhile I enjoyed sitting next to the kiva drinking in the ambiance of the site thinking about how life might of been for these ancient people. I figured that Michelle would be gone no more than 30 to 40 minutes. When that much time had passed I began to worry and was kicking myself for letting her go off by herself. When an hour had passed and my anxiety mounted I began to gather up my gear to try and go find her. Luckily, as I was about to head out I heard that tell tell sounds of tumbling rock off the slick rock and then movement through the bushes. Before long I saw with great relief Michelle rounding the top of the canyon.

She had gotten out of the canyon and had quickly walked to the brink of the next canyon and found the overlook to the Eagles Nest. On the way back she was unable to find the break in the canyon that would lead her down into the canyon where I was waiting. Luckily after some intense searching she found the escape route. We were very happy to be reunited and decided to return to the truck.

That afternoon we decided to drive up passed the Bears Ears and circle around to our camp. We turned off the pavement near Natural Bridges and headed up the mountain. It was surprising how fast we went from the jumpier covered desert to beautiful pines with lush undergrowth. We found a number of nice camp sites we will use in the future when we are down here in warmer weather. We drove up past the Bears Ears and then headed east along a very good dirt road. At one point there was a place to be able to look down into Arch canyon. The late afternoon sun was painting the walls of the canyon an amazing array of reds and oranges with a crown of green surrounding the edge of the canyon.

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After many miles of driving through some beautiful country we knew we had to turn off the road we traveling on and head back South. I thought we had turned onto the Cottonwood Wash road but instead we had turned onto the Whiskers Springs road instead. The Cottonwood Wash road is a very good road. The Whisker Spring road we were about to find out is not. The road quickly narrowed and we realized we had made a wrong turn. The road would have been a blast on a 4 wheeler but in a full sized F350 it was a nightmare. We soon had to pull the mirrors in or they would have been ripped off by the Junipers that we encroaching ever closer to the edge of the road. In several places we had to back up and pull forward several times to make some of the tight bends. We crossed our fingers we would not break down or get stuck because in July it would be very unlikely anyone would be coming down this road any time soon. After about 2 hours we finally made it through the maze of trees and sand and back to the road our camp was on. If we would have taken the right road it would have taken about a half hour but it would not have made for as good as story.

The next morning we headed back down the Comb to Split Level Ruin. As the name implies the ruins are built on two alcoves, one directly above the other. This ruin had rock art painted with green paint, something that is rarely seen. As we hiked along the bottom ruin it was very sad to see dozens of holes dug into the cave were pot hunters had looted the ruin. We also found the very unique petro-glyphs of hands with fingers at least twice a long as normal. Some people call these ruins, "Long Finger Ruins" as a result.
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On our last day we went to Beaver Dam Ruins. We had chosen to do these on our last day because on the map they seemed to be the easiest ones to get to. It looked like you could practically drive to them, which was true, but little did we know they were protected by a moat and a forest of almost impenetrable willows.

We decided that we would try to follow along the edge of the canyon hoping the willows would be a little less thick. This appeared to be the case for a bit but then we found we were having to fight are way threw a ever thickening forest of green spears. I fell down several times. I hate to fall down because of the amount of energy it requires to pull my oversized frame off the ground. After ten minutes of reenacting a scene from a Tarzan movie the willows did pull away from the wall and in their place was a pond about 5 feet wide and 40 ft long. Michelle stuck with the willows. I decided I'd try my luck with the pond. As I stepped into it my leg sunk down to my angle into the slimy ooze. The pond smelled like the pit of eternal stench. With each step I feared I would lose my boot in the deep muck. I finally reach the far bank and with allot of effort pulled myself up and over the bank. We were now free of the ruins defenses and could climb the slick rock into the alcoves were the ruins had been built.

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These are very nice ruins. The lower ruin had some nice rock art. They included something I had never seen before. About 7 feet above the floor of the alcove were three sets of painted baby feet. As I looked at these unique prints I wondered if by chance triplets could have been born into this village. Something I'm sure these people would have never witnessed. What kind of signs and omens would they read into such a rare event. I envisioned their father dipping each child's feet in the red ink and then carefully picking each child up and placing their feet on the rock wall, never dreaming that a man 800 years in the future would be looking at them and wondering about the origin.
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To reach the next alcove we had to go up canyon as well as climb higher. The higher ruin is set in a exquisite alcove with a high sloping roof. The base tan and orange rock appeared to have had caramel dripped down then from the ridge above. The view from this high perch was beautiful as you looked up canyon. Green trees were sprinkled along the red cliffs, a perfect blue sky could be seen above the edge of the canyon walls adding to the symphony of color.60685
It was a fun trip that we hated to see come to an end. The nightly thunder storms had dropped the temperature to make sleeping and hiking much more enjoyable that July would have normally been. Good bye Cedar Mesa, we'll be back soon.

chromehead58
11-02-2012, 10:42 AM
amazing....

fourtycal
11-02-2012, 11:58 AM
Awesome trip report! great read and about my favorite parts of the state. Thank you.

esmekristen
01-19-2013, 12:11 AM
well described trip photography....

Iceaxe
01-19-2013, 06:36 AM
Great TR, some how I had missed seeing it until now.

Tap'n on my Galaxy G3

ozwald
01-25-2013, 05:01 AM
Awesome trip report and pic's. Thank you for sharing. Oz....

Slot Machine
01-25-2013, 02:06 PM
GREAT report and photos! Keep at it! :2thumbs:

libra66
07-10-2013, 03:51 AM
Its really amazing and nice.Thanx for sharing it.

TXtrailhunter
07-10-2013, 09:17 AM
Awesome report

goomba271
07-17-2013, 11:45 PM
Spectacular! Nice report and nice photos. Hope you are recovering from your near-death experience?

Doc Foster
11-16-2013, 11:21 AM
Thank you for sharing the pics and trip report. I spend much of my spare time searching the web for reports like this, then pouring over maps to plan my annual trip to the Four Corners area in search of petroglyphs, pictographs, and ruins. I can only spare 3 weeks a year to do this as I live in Maryland.