Grand Gulch 2010

I had been wanting for several years to do a spring backpacking trip to Grand Gulch in southern Utah. With some urging from a friend I made it happen this year.

Grand Gulch is in the southeast corner of Utah. It is southwest of Blanding and north of Mexican Hat only about 50 miles or so north of the Arizona border. It is a deep redrock canyon in an area known as Cedar Mesa. The attraction here is both the scenery and the many Anasazi Indian ruins in the canyons. Another important plus is that it is an area that can be hiked in the spring before the upper elevations open up.

Originally the trip was meant to be a photography trip with my brother Glade and myself. When work tied him up and he couldn't get away I invited Brian Grigsby, a friend who is a hiking fool, and he jumped a the chance to go. The trip changed from a photography trip to a backpacking trip with a little photography along the way.

I worked the morning of April 27th and we left town at 1:00 PM. We drove as far as Hite Marina on the extreme north end of Lake Powell and got there just at dusk. We battled the gale force winds to put up the tent. It was Brian's new tent that he had put up once before so it was a bit of a chore but not too bad considering the conditions. We had eaten along the way so we quickly crawled into the tent and fell to sleep.

The next morning I got up early to take a few pictures. There was still plenty of wind but not nearly as bad as the night before

For breakfast it was merely a matter of boiling some water for my breakfast rice (instant brown rice, cinnamon, raisins, pecan gems and powdered milk) and we then threw everything in the truck and were on our way. We went to the Kane Gulch ranger station to pick up the permit and see if we could find anyone willing to help us shuttle the truck to Bullet Canyon trail head where we would be exiting the canyons 3 days later. The trail head is about nine miles from the ranger station. Brian thought that we could walk back to the ranger station if we needed to but I have known for some time now that he is nuts. Shortly after we got to the ranger station a group of guys from California came in. It turned out that they were doing the same trip as us but taking one more day to do it and hiking it in the reverse direction. They planned on leaving a bike at the ranger station that one of them could ride to the TH to get the truck. When I proposed that we help each other shuttle vehicles they jumped on the idea-especially the guy who was supposed to ride the bike. So I followed them down to the Bullet Canyon TH where I left my truck and then drove their truck back to the Kane Gulch ranger station where we left it for them.

Brian and I were headed down Kane Gulch by 10:00 AM. It was a very pleasant walk in the upper part but got steeper and more rugged further down. It was here that I strained the teres tendon (in my ankle) of the peroneous muscle which got progressively worse as the trip went on.

There was a small stream running in Kane Gulch which added to the beauty. In this picture you can see Brian at the top of the waterfall and to the left which gives a little scale to the scenery. We were just getting into the deeper part of Kane Gulch but nowhere near as deep in the canyon as we would be shortly.
At the bottom of Kane Gulch where it joins Grand Gulch we stopped for a bit to view the Junction Ruins. The canyons down here are full of Anasazi ruins and we saw 24 different ruin sites on the trip. The ruin sites are littered with pot shards, corn cobs, bone fragments, gourd shell fragments etc., all of which are 700-1000 years old. There is quite a bit of rock art as well.

The junction ruins are one of the biggest sets of ruins in the canyon. There are multiple buildings and all quite accessible without climbing. We didn't stay long though as we were about 4 miles into the hike and still had another 3.2 miles to do for the day.

I was already getting tired. It was my first time out this spring and I had not done any conditioning, though I felt that the little bit of snowshoeing that I had done during the winter certainly helped. We were also carrying heavy packs as we were carrying cold weather gear (which came in handy). By the time that we got to the mouth of Todie Canyon where we were spending the night I was beat. It was a little chilly, the wind was howling and I was worrying about my family more than just a little bit. At home I had a new grandson in the NICU and a wife that didn't feel real great. I was ready to give up backpacking. I made it through the night though and life was better the next morning.
At the mouth of Todie Canyon we met a guy named Dave who was from Dallas. He was by himself. This was his 11th trip to Grand Gulch. He said that on each trip he found something that he hadn't seen before. On this trip he had found a ruin 600 feet up on the wall of Todie Canyon that could only be seen when up at that level. Later in the trip we talked to some people that he had taken up to see some pictroglyphs that were several hundred feet up and along a narrow ledge. They said that it was pretty scary-especially when a big gust of wind came along

We had lots of wind on this trip and at times we could hear it coming down the canyon like a freight train before it got to us. Occasionally it would be followed by the sound of falling rocks.

Thursday was originally planned to be 8.5 miles but we decided to try to make it further to shorten up the last day. It was also supposed to be easy hiking as we were going down canyon without climbs. But we crossed the stream (not perennial) many, many times and that got old really fast. Most of the time we could rock-hop the shallow water. But it was often a steep 6-10 feet down to the water edge and then a climb back up the sandy bank. By late in the day there weren't always rocks to cross and I didn't have much hop left. When we stopped for lunch I already had some pretty sore feet and my ankle was starting to bother me more.

Our progress was also hindered by stopping to check out the many ruins. Some were high up on the cliffs and we just looked briefly but others, like the Split Level Ruin pictured below begged for a little exploration.

Split Level Ruin (shown right) was particularly impressive and the middens were especially large and rich in pottery shards.

We pushed on and made it 11 miles for the day and we camped in the cottonwoods right below Jail House Ruin. It is called Jail House ruin because of wooden bars on one of the windows. We climbed up to the ruin and took some pictures. We passed 14-15 ruins that day.

Part of JH Ruins with the barred window on the far left.

The canyon bottom was surprisingly lush. There was lots of green grass in some places as well as cottonwoods, willows and oak trees. There was always an abundance of prickly pear cactus, with occasional barrel cactus and a few claret cup cactus. I found a few of the claret cups in full bloom at Jail House Ruin on the ledge just below the main part of the ruin. We saw some huge cottonwoods that must have been 10 feet in diameter at the base. The big ones always had limbs bending clear down to the ground.

The camp at Jail House was pleasant and beneath some cottonwoods. It was just a few hundred feet above Jail House Spring. It was a cold night. There was ice on the underside of the rain fly in the morning.

Temperatures on the trip were generally pleasant and the day time temperatures were in the 50's and perfect for hiking. It got up into the 70's on the first day and it was a little too warm. I just about ran out of water at one point. We could have filtered the stream water but it was just cloudy enough to clog the filter pretty fast. We got some light snow flurries twice while hiking and light rain on the first night.

Looking up at Jail House Ruin from Camp. Notice the two large white discs painted on the canyon wall above the ruins. There is another structure on the corner on the left at the upper level just behind the tree branches.

Day three was kind of a fun day but with a few pretty tough climbs. I really like Bullet Canyon. It was much more open and dry than Grand Gulch but the canyon walls were very interesting and beautiful. We left camp at Jail House at 9:00 AM and stopped just a little while up the canyon at Perfect Kiva ruin-so named because of a kiva that was intact when discovered. The roof has been reinforced and a new ladder has been put in place so that you can go down inside. Once inside though there wasn't much to see. It is quite a climb up to the ruins of a couple of hundred feet. There was a nice seep right below the ruins that was running nice, clear water and there was a small place to camp.

Indian Pain Brush growing in some cryptobiotic soil. The cryptobiotic soil is the black soil and is made up of microorganisms. It serves to hold the soil together and prevents erosion. Walking on this soil is a no-no.

This is a view looking down canyon from up on the shelf at Jail House Ruin. Camp is in the bottom left corner

We left Perfect Kiva at 10:00 AM and headed up the canyon. It started as a gradual climb and was quite pleasant. 1.5 hours into the hike we came to a place where the rock cairns indicated that the trail went up a very steep slope with lots of loose rock. Brian thought we should just stay on the easy canon bottom but I told him that there was a reason for the deviation from the canyon bottom and that it was probably a pour-off that couldn't be climbed. I was wrong though. It was a jumble of house-sized boulders on the canyon bottom. We followed the trail up the steep and only somewhat treacherous switch-backs to a wide rock ledge a couple of hundred feet above the canyon bottom that we traversed until the canyon bottom rose to meet it. A short way further up the canyon we came to a low pour off that we climbed without any difficulty and onto a flat, slickrock waterway.

It was easy and fascinating hiking for about 200 yards in a very rugged and wild looking canyon. In the picture you can see a few hikers in the bottom part way up this stretch of canyon. We then came to a pour-off that we couldn't climb. At this point there was another drainage coming in from the left which we climbed with some minor difficulty on my part. Part way up this drainage the trail left the drainage and went onto another shelf that led to the right and around a corner to end up high above Bullet Canyon's bottom. Upon turning the corner there was an overhang that forced you out onto a rounded shoulder of the ledge that had some loose grit on it. Even Brian admitted to some discomfort at this point. At one point I sat down and scooted along a short distance underneath the overhang. Add in my sore ankle that didn't feel like it would hold me and I was very cautious. It was never dangerous but my discomfort with heights made it seem that way.

I sure wouldn't want to do it with snow or ice on the trail. It took about an hour to get through the most difficult parts of the canyon--from the first climb up the loose rock switch backs to just beyond the overhang ledge. After that it was an easy and very pleasant hike up the pretty canyon to the final grueling climb of about 150 feet to the canyon edge and a short hike to the trail head. We got to the trail head at about 2:00 PM

That I afternoon we drove a couple of hours to Cortez Colorado where we met my new pack goats and I booked a motel room, much to Brian's objections. He thought that we could either tent it one more night or load the goats and head home. The hot shower alone was worth the cost of the room.

The next morning (May 1) it was 26 degrees at 6:30 when we loaded the goats (Bubba and George) and headed home. We got home at 2:00 PM.

Grand Gulch was another grand adventure and certainly one that I would do again.