desert – Page 2 – Wandering the Wild

Hiking Grand Gulch in Utah: Day 3

July 16, 2017July 16, 2017 Anna (North Star) and Chris (Shutterbug)2 Comments

Grand Gulch lies in the new Bears Ears National Monument. This and many other national monuments, including three along the PCT, are now under threat. We wanted to continue writing about our hike so more people can appreciate the archaeological significance and natural beauty of this special place.

Rain fell overnight and into the morning of our third day in the canyon. A cliff overhung Split Level Ruin, keeping it dry. We ate our breakfast up near the ruins and explored the area a bit more as we waited for the rain to calm down.

Hundreds of Ancestral Pueblo pottery shards were scattered on the ground. We feasted our eyes but didn’t touch anything.

The creek had developed a nice flow from the night’s precipitation. The rain eased as we walked, but we still became soaked as we brushed against wet vegetation. On the positive side, all the wet sagebrush smelled fantastic!

Utah Hikes

Hiking Grand Gulch in Utah: Day 2

December 11, 2016December 12, 2016 Anna (North Star) and Chris (Shutterbug)4 Comments

We woke to a peaceful morning on the second day of our hike in Grand Gulch. Quiet surrounded us as we filtered water from the creek near Junction Spring.

Backpacking in Grand Gulch in late April

We found an intriguing collection of rock art at Turkey Pen Ruin. It is thought that the sheep pictograph on the right has a spear in its back.

Peering inside an ancestral Pueblo structure

Utah Hikes

Hiking Grand Gulch in Utah: Day 1

November 20, 2016 Anna (North Star) and Chris (Shutterbug)5 Comments

In late April we embarked on a backpacking trip in Cedar Mesa, BLM land in southeastern Utah. We planned to hike from the Kane Gulch ranger station to the Bullet Canyon trailhead in four days. The area is renowned for its concentration of Ancestral Pueblo (previously called Anasazi) ruins and rock art.

We picked up our backpacking permit and got information about current water availability at the Kane Gulch ranger station. Since we were doing a one-way hike, we then drove to the Bullet Canyon trailhead and left our car there, then hitched back to Kane Gulch.

With everything in order, we began our descent into Kane Gulch.