TR - Cedar Mesa, Jan 2011

[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.