Trip Report: Horseshoe Canyon

[The Dude]

My wife and I needed to get out of town, so at the last minute (well, Thursday night), we decided to head down to the southern desert and visit a place I've never been before and Alene had not been since her field trip to Escalante (2001?).

Despite many warnings about the weather from Summit42, we decided to chance it, with a couple of back-up plans with going to Arches, or the other side of Canyonlands, both of which have paved roads running through them.

We left around 8:30am on Saturday and headed straight down to Horseshoe Canyon. We arrived at the main turn-off about noon and headed down the dirt road we were most worried about. Well, we lucked out. No wet weather, the road was actually REALLY dry, except for a couple of parts that were muddy for about 20', but we just gained speed in the subaru, and headed straight through it and out the other side. We were fine.

The hike was AMAZING. We were the only ones in the canyon. This canyon has one of the most oldest and largest gallery's of ancient art petroglyphs. The hike we did went about 1.5 miles down hill into the canyon, then extended another 2 miles to the main Gallery of art. Along the way we were able to see a couple of other areas of art, which were all very impressive. Some of the cool things were the fact that we had the canyon to ourselves. Also, your voice echos like crazy from some spots. The last thing that was cool was Alene bringing to my attention the fact that this is the canyon that Aron Ralston was found (well, he found the people that helped him as he hiked up from his torn arm spot in Blue John canyon).

The weather conditions were PERFECT, not too hot, not too cold. The only mis-hap was as we were leaving. We had already done about 1.5 miles back and were looking at another rock art panel, when we heard a VERY loud roar from the canyon (back where we were). It didn't sound like any sort of a cat or dog, but like a bears roar. Bears don't live out there, so we have no idea what it was. All I know is we picked up the pace and high-tailed it out of there.

After the hike, we drove on back, again lucky it never rained on our road (no rain in the immediate area, but there were plenty of clouds in the distance). We drove back to Green river where we had reserved a hotel room at a Comfort Inn (the finest lodgings in Green River, might I say). We ate a good cheeseburger at Ray's Tavern, then went back to crash and sleep away the hike.

Here are some pictures and videos of the trip:

Starting off on Robbers Roost Road


The road in


Trailhead


Dinosaur print on the way down


Looking into Horseshoe Canyon


Frozen part of Barrier Creek


High Gallery


Wind Ripples


Bobcat Tracks???


Alcove Gallery


Looking away from the Alcove Gallery. It's almost a half-dome ampetheater


The Great Gallery


By the Great Ghost (don't tell the park ranger; we didn't touch anything)


My wife by the Great ghost


Ancient hunters (my favorite picture)


Leaving the canyon with my "whatever yelled at us will be defended with this" stick


The road out (the sun made the surrounding brush turn gold). Temple Mtn. in the background, LH side



Great Gallery area Echo



Dick heads at The Alcove (I thought these were recent, but I read somewhere that they were legitimately from the 1920's during the oil exploration)



Doing 60mph on Robbers Roost road (don't worry, we didn't do this the whole way)

[oldno7]

Last time I heard a roar in that canyon I ran around the corner towards the sound and caught a glimpse of a yeti.
But maybe it was Aron Ralston cutting off his other arm

nice TR

[CarpeyBiggs]

Sweet write up, thanks!

[Scott Card]

Thanks for posting this. Nice to see some folks getting out!

[Brewhaha]

Well done. I am now experiencing Trip Lust. I feel so dirty.

[oldno7]

These tracks are from a Mt. Lion. Bobcat tracks are no bigger than a 50 cent piece and that would be a huge one.(quarter more common) I see lion tracks in the canyons alot, next time put your hand next to the track for a size comparison. A lion will roar but it is very seldom heard. That is your likely canidate.

[Jaxx]

Yes very nice TR. I reported you to the authorities for crossing the chain link and not just using their top notch binoculars.

When we did the hike from blue john out horseshoe we didn't run into anyone except right at the river at the base of the climb up to the parking lot. Beautiful canyon.

[Jaxx]

These tracks are from a Mt. Lion. Bobcat tracks are no bigger than a 50 cent piece and that would be a huge one.(quarter more common) I see lion tracks in the canyons alot, next time put your hand next to the track for a size comparison. A lion will roar but it is very seldom heard. That is your likely canidate.

SCARY

[asdf]

Despite many warnings about the weather from Summit42

WTF... making me sound like the bad guy ....
Forecast was for 3 inches of snow, I just said was toss some sleeping bags in the car and some extra food/water.
I am sure I am not the only one in this forum to become a victim of muddy roads in southern Utah.

Nice write up and pics looks like a perfect day.

[The Dude]

WTF... making me sound like the bad guy ....
Forecast was for 3 inches of snow, I just said was toss some sleeping bags in the car and some extra food/water.
I am sure I am not the only one in this forum to become a victim of muddy roads in southern Utah.

Nice write up and pics looks like a perfect day.

Dude, not making you look like the bad guy. We heard your advice, we went prepared, and decided to chance it anyway, along with backup plans. We really feel like we lucked out with the perfect weather/conditions.

[trackrunner]

nice pics and TR
I need to get out there

[asdf]

We really feel like we lucked out with the perfect weather/conditions.

man... so perfect.
I am currently suffering from Trip Report envy right now.....

[The Dude]

These tracks are from a Mt. Lion. Bobcat tracks are no bigger than a 50 cent piece and that would be a huge one.(quarter more common) I see lion tracks in the canyons alot, next time put your hand next to the track for a size comparison. A lion will roar but it is very seldom heard. That is your likely canidate.

Nice. Good to at least know it could have been a Mt. Lion. In the guestbook at the Great Gallery, the dude that was there the day before us notes "saw possible Mt. Lion tracks behind previous visitors tracks (the day before him), could have possibly been stalked?" It was kind of creepy.

I would guess they were roughly the same size as a large dog's tracks. For a while i thought it was a dogs track, but then there were a few that had deep claw scratches as well.

I'm still getting chills thinking about that roar I heard.

[asdf]

Fouristhenewone and I saw one while biking at Sundance a few years ago. I was thinking "damn that dog is HUGE!" for the split second it was holding still, once it started running away there was no doubt as to what it was.

[Iceaxe]

Thanks for the TR....

And last time I heard a roar I ran around the corner and saw Beech.

[sparker1]

Enjoyed your TR, thanks for sharing. I agree those appear to be mountain lion prints, although in sand the size is deceptive. I have found what I thought were mountain lion prints several times around Lake Powell, always in sand or dried mud making it hard to judge size of the animal.

[accadacca]

Sweet TR, Dude.

[happyhiker]

Awesome trip! I've been trying to get there myself...hopefully your pictures will help convince my hiking buddy to join me!

[Rented mule]

Way cool! Nice Tr! Great pictures of some place on my list this spring.
Thanks! Also, great to add a little danger and excitement to the outing; as long as nothing happened. wow!

Heard a ruckus of birds in some hoo-doos down in Nevada one time and such a noise! Birds were dive bombing, carrying on and such! I crept slowly around the corner and saw a huge tarantula on some slickrock.
My presence got the birds to take off and clear out. The spider just sat there, intact, uninjured, and let me get really close to take a picture. I've got it hanging up in the garage.

Were the birds going to eat it? Do spiders eat their eggs or young?
Naturaly enemies? These were small sparrow type or flycatcher birds.

Uhhh....the spider didn't roar, though....hehe good thing, eh?