Calf Mesa

[Udink]

Chris and his girlfriend, Rachael, stayed at my place in Price this weekend and we were in need of a short hike to do on Saturday before Traci's family Christmas party. We looked at my long to-do list of waypoints in Google Earth and Chris picked out Calf Mesa, which is a few miles southwest of the San Rafael River bridge at Buckhorn Wash. There's an old, washed out mining road leading onto Calf Mesa, but hiking it would have taken more time than we had, so I mapped out a shorter route up a steep, bouldery gully that breaches the upper cliff band that surrounds the mesa. We parked where the road ends at Cane Wash and hiked over to then up through the gully. There was a shallow mine adit up one side of the gully so we changed our course to check it out. From there it was a sketchy traverse below the cliff band until we reached a break that allowed us to get on top of Calf Mesa.

Parked in Cane Wash

Bouldery drainage leading to the top of Calf Mesa

Bouldery slope

Old, washed out road onto Calf Mesa

Chris below the final cliff band

Inside a shallow adit

Once on top of Calf Mesa it was an easy walk to the south rim, which we followed southeast toward some mining relics that I'd spotted in Google Earth. Besides some drill holes and claim markers, the first relic we came across was an '35 or '36 Chevy that had been converted into a hoist. The driveshaft was attached to a series of large pulleys, both belt- and chain-driven, with a lever to control the hoist. It has probably been moved from where it was originally put to use because it wouldn't be of much use in its current location. On the ground near the hoist was a four-cylinder engine lying on the ground with a huge hole broken out of the crankcase. Beyond that was an ore bucket and a ramp or chute leading down from a mine shaft.

On top of Calf Mesa

Three peaks on No Man's Mountain

Calf Mesa rim

Calf Mesa rim

Chris on the high-dive

AM #2

A '35 or '36 Chevy converted into a hoist

Water temp looks good

Chain drive on the hoist

Four cylinder engine

Ore bucket

Ramp or chute

The mine shaft was angled down into the sandstone cap that covers the top of the mesa. It went underground deeply enough to make use of our headlamps, but it ended after perhaps a couple hundred feet. Unlike most uranium mines I've been inside that are shored up by timbers, this one had roof bolts holding up the ceiling. There were small pockets of coal, and streaks of yellow and deep blue from uranium and vanadium. After having been inside for a short while we noticed there were a couple of bats hanging from the ceiling.

Climbing up to a mine opening

Just inside the mine

Yellow ore on top of coal deposits

Bat on the ceiling

Inside the mine

We explored outside a little more but didn't find anything of interest except for a steep old wooden staircase leading down through a fault in the cliff. We decided to try descending the steps instead of retracing our steps back across the top of the mesa. It felt really sketchy at first, then I removed my backpack and made it pretty easily down the steps and the ledges below. We went both directions below the cliff to check out several mine shafts that were recently sealed off.

View northwest across Calf Mesa

Scrambling around the rim

Tipple below the mesa

View along the mesa's edge toward Window Blind Peak

Sketchy stairs that we used to descend the mesa

Rachael above the stairs

Steep route below the stairs

Sealed-off mine entrance

Another sealed-off mine

Cable anchored to a boulder below

Colorful mineral growth

Rachael and Chris

A mining track led from the mine shafts down to the road we'd driven in on, and we followed it back to the Jeep, passing an old Allis Chalmers bulldozer on the way. On the drive out we stopped to check out some abandoned vehicles below the mines: a late-1940s International truck and an 1965 Lincoln Continental. The International was probably used in the operation of the mines but the Lincoln almost certainly was abandoned after they closed down.

Walking down the mining track

Allis Chalmers bulldozer

Dozer track

Dozer blade and Window Blind Peak

Following Jeep tracks in the snow

Cane Wash

Old truck below the mines

Chris goin' for a drive

U.12,000

1965 Lincoln Continental

View up to the mines, with the stair-gap near the center

This would be better done as a spring hike when the ground is softer to provide better footing on the steep slopes and the snow is gone to allow more mining relics to be seen on the ground. I really wouldn't mind going back and exploring more of the mesa top next year, perhaps taking the stair route up and back down, leaving plenty of time to explore for other mine shafts along the many dozer roads on top.


Full photo gallery:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Udink/CalfMesa

[parsehtml]<iframe width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Fudink.org%2Fgeo%2FCalfMesa.kmz&amp;hl=en&amp;sll=39.499761,-111.547028&amp;sspn=5.255682,10.821533&amp;t=h&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=39.031386,-110.720901&amp;spn=0.016002,0.027423&amp;z=15&amp;output=embed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Fudink.org%2Fgeo%2FCalfMesa.kmz&amp;hl=en&amp;sll=39.499761,-111.547028&amp;sspn=5.255682,10.821533&amp;t=h&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=39.031386,-110.720901&amp;spn=0.016002,0.027423&amp;z=15&amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>[/parsehtml]http://udink.org/geo/CalfMesa.kmz

Featured image for home page:

 

[Nick]

Love the snow. Love the relics. Love that awesome old staircase up the crack. Way cool. And Chris on the ledge - nuts!

 

[regehr]

Re. the snowy diving board: Nope nope nope.

 

[Artemus]

Nice TR Dennis. Unusual to see this much snow last this long in Buckhorn, eh? Tell us more about your organization method. An endless toDo list in Google Earth???? How do you keep track of them? How do you add and subtract them?

 

[Udink]

Nice TR Dennis. Unusual to see this much snow last this long in Buckhorn, eh? Tell us more about your organization method. An endless toDo list in Google Earth???? How do you keep track of them? How do you add and subtract them?

The snow seems about typical, though almost all of my photos are facing south off the mesa. Looking north it didn't appear to be quite the winter wonderland.

Hah, my to-do list isn't organized at all. When I'm looking for something to do, I just pan around and find something that fits my needs (depending on time, weather, etc.). This is what my Google Earth looks like right now:

 

[regehr]

Dennis, here's another challenge where I've struck out. Where exactly are these petrified logs?
http://www.ancientvistas.org/petforest.htm

 

[Udink]

Dennis, here's another challenge where I've struck out. Where exactly are these petrified logs?
http://www.ancientvistas.org/petforest.htm

That's a toughie--not enough landmarks to pin it down. It's almost definitely on the flat benches surrounding the South Pinto Hills, but that's still a pretty big area and my searching in Google Earth turned up nothing.

 

[regehr]

That's a toughie--not enough landmarks to pin it down. It's almost definitely on the flat benches surrounding the South Pinto Hills, but that's still a pretty big area and my searching in Google Earth turned up nothing.

That's about as far as I got!

 

[Dave]

Hah, my to-do list isn't organized at all. When I'm looking for something to do, I just pan around and find something that fits my needs (depending on time, weather, etc.). This is what my Google Earth looks like right now:

"Get into this canyon!"

 

[slc_dan]

"Get into this canyon!"

I love that screen shot.

I was on a run on a trail up Millcreek this weekend with my dog, and couldn't help but keep thinking, "This is like the swell for Udink."

I'm jealous.