Snake Gulch middle entRy

Snake Gulch has rock art, but from the trailhead is up to a 17 mile round trip. So wife and I tried a sneaky middle-ish entry based on topo contours and a side drainage immediately west of Toothpick Canyon, but got bluffed out - the topo contours were wrong. Interestingly, someone had set a small vertical stone monolith at our arrival point, very visible from the floor of the gulch. We will return some day with our climbing gear. So my question is - have any forum members tried this sneak entry into Snake Gulch?

BTW- floor of gulch was quite verdant in this early May 2016.

Google Earth makes it look non-technical. Where did you get cliffed out? Near the bottom?

WE were cliffed out in the last horizontal 1 ft which was at least 50 vertical feet :-(

In a Youtube rock art video you can see that mostly the gulch walls are bluffs - I trusted the the USGS Topo map too much.

Google Earth uses the USGC Topos for its contours.

This is the first time that I have found a Topo map to be so wrong.

My experience w/ GE is that if you expect to be able to get detailed info you will get burned. Same w/ USGS topos. If you want a sneak route to SG you can drive to appx: 369150 4062600 NAD83. You can find a good route in from there.

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Originally Posted by Canyonlight

My experience w/ GE is that if you expect to be able to get detailed info you will get burned. Same w/ USGS topos. If you want a sneak route to SG you can drive to appx: 369150 4062600 NAD83. You can find a good route in from there.

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Thanks so much - I found it. We will try your southern approach later this year.

BTW - why do you use UTM over Lat Long?

Virtually everyone I know uses UTMs. It seems much simpler to me & it can sometimes be a help to know that the numbers are meters.

The rub is, now that we have pocket GPS -- there is no need for UTM - the ease and degree of calculation is immaterial. Your APP can tell you where you are on a map and distance to goal (waypoint).

And yes, I am an old fart.

No need for UTMs? I get UTMs from friends all the time. They are invaluable using Google Earth. Without a UTM you wouldn't have the location of the SG sneak route.Also, I always have a physical map w/ me at all times. I never depend on any electronic device. Many instances where they are sub optimal: narrow canyons or heavily treed areas.
Whatever mapping/location methods you use is certainly your option.

Well, wife and I went in via the South middle entryand it was fine, we walked right onto the gulch floor. Appproach roads were good.

Price of admission for north or south sneak is 800 ft vertical.

We took another look at the bluff on the northern sneak; it can be climbed, tho better with a handline or safety line. Judy also found the lens cap that escaped the camera in spring this year.