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- May 31, 2015
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March 18-20, 2018
There was a huge difference in weather between my spring break this year and my spring break last year. Last year was sunny and a bit warmer than normal. So you likely can imagine what this year's was like.
My wife, @Jessica, and I headed down to Cedar Mesa Sunday March 18 to start our 2-night backpacking trip. We backpacked in Slickhorn Canyon last May with some friends, and I ended up losing all my photos from that one. I wasn't going to let that happen this time.
There was snow in the forecast for several of the places we would be driving through, so we got an early start to ensure that we would reach the ranger station before noon.
Bags ready to go
The roads were a bit worse than anticipated, in more places than we expected. Spanish Fork to a bit below Soldier Summit, Wellington to I-70, and around Hog Springs all the way to Kane Gulch were sketchy, with fairly deep snow in places. We were happy we had put new tires on the Outback the weekend before.
We got to the ranger station around 11:30 and picked up our permits. There was a pretty good snow storm blowing around up there, and we were uncertain about starting that day. The forecast from the ranger station said it would snow until the early evening. The people working at the ranger station were surprisingly encouraging in spite of the less than ideal conditions. Far different from my experiences with very cautious staff in national parks.
We decided we'd head to the trailhead and see what things were like over there. Of course they were going to be the same as at the ranger station, but we had just a shred of hope that things would clear up by the time we got there. They didn't clear up. We sat and deliberated, and we decided that a descent into Bullet or Sheiks in the snow could be treacherous and possibly injurious. This would also be Jessica's first backpacking trip since last May, and first one with just me since 2015, and I really didn't want to make it an unpleasant experience for her (that way she'll continue to agree to go with me later on). So we headed to Blanding to get a hotel room for the night.
Nice day at the trailhead.
Our neat hotel room in Blanding. The town was mostly shut down since it was Sunday. One of the few places open was their gas station/restaurant/bowling alley combo. Very interesting place!
We got up early the next morning and got to the trailhead. There were some clouds in the sky, but the day was supposed to be free of precipitation. And it was.
Our plan was to pack our same trip into an overnighter instead of taking two nights, as we had originally planned. We accepted that we'd have to put down some decent mileage the first day and maybe skip a point of interest or two.
We parked our car the the Bullet TH and walked up the road to Sheiks.
Still a bit snowy
Pretty soon, we were headed down Sheiks. We arrived at Yellow House shortly.
We continued on, and we saw a granary.
This rock looked like Jessica's thumb.
There was plenty of water in Sheiks Canyon.
We neared the series of descents toward the middle and end of the canyon. As we descended each one, we repeatedly remarked how happy we were that we didn't have to do it in the snow.
One of the trickier spots. Plenty of sand and loose rock to keep things interesting.
The views are awesome once you get to the lower parts.
Pretty soon, we reached Green Mask Spring and Ruins. The pictographs there were fantastic. We had a snack and looked around. Many of the pictographs were up high, and my shots of them turned out poorly. Jessica found the small green mask pictograph, and that was awesome. I remember reading about Sheiks canyon on BCP a few years ago, and I had really wanted to go ever since. It was awesome to finally see all of this.
We ran into some people who had come up to the ruin from Bullet Canyon. They said they had started in the middle of the snowstorm the day before. They probably looked down us when we told them we stayed in a hotel the night before instead of starting. They said it was a pretty tricky descent with the snow and ice, and that the night was very cold. I have no regrets.
We got going again and headed down Grand Gulch. What a neat canyon. Probably looks a lot more alive in April and May.
Little pockets of water left over from the snow the previous day. It warmed up to 50 or 55 that day, so most of the snow in the canyons melted.
Heading down the canyon.
Quite jungle-like.
Ruin up high. Wall Ruin, maybe.
We got to the mouth of Bullet Canyon and headed up. We got some water at Jailhouse Spring. It didn't look like great water, so we just used it for cooking that evening.
Jailhouse Ruin. We were getting pretty tired at this point, and we made the difficult decision not to go up to it so we could go to see the Perfect Kiva ruins and have time to relax a bit at camp.
We got near Perfect Kiva and dropped our packs before heading up. The ruins were wonderful. I got some pictures inside the kiva, but they were not good, so I didn't put them in here.
We left the ruins, picked up our packs, and headed out to find a camp site. We found a nice one nestled in some junipers.
There was a nice field out in front of it.
Jessica doing some reading in the early evening.
I sat out that evening and read from Wind in the Rock by Ann Zwinger. It was interesting to look out on the open part of the canyon and envision its inhabitants living their lives in it hundreds of years ago. It seems like such an inhospitable place, but they were there for quite some time. Truly impressive.
We got up early the next morning and headed out. It was pretty cold, and there was some ice on the slickrock.
I really enjoyed ascending this slickrock section.
Before we knew it, we were headed up out of the canyon, and we could soon see the cars parked at the trailhead.
Although the walk felt rushed at times, we were happy that we were still able to do the full-distance trip and see most of the sights. And we were happy that we didn't start in the snow. And I was especially happy that we didn't have to drive through any snow on the way home.
Cedar Mesa is a magical place!
There was a huge difference in weather between my spring break this year and my spring break last year. Last year was sunny and a bit warmer than normal. So you likely can imagine what this year's was like.
My wife, @Jessica, and I headed down to Cedar Mesa Sunday March 18 to start our 2-night backpacking trip. We backpacked in Slickhorn Canyon last May with some friends, and I ended up losing all my photos from that one. I wasn't going to let that happen this time.
There was snow in the forecast for several of the places we would be driving through, so we got an early start to ensure that we would reach the ranger station before noon.
Bags ready to go
The roads were a bit worse than anticipated, in more places than we expected. Spanish Fork to a bit below Soldier Summit, Wellington to I-70, and around Hog Springs all the way to Kane Gulch were sketchy, with fairly deep snow in places. We were happy we had put new tires on the Outback the weekend before.
We got to the ranger station around 11:30 and picked up our permits. There was a pretty good snow storm blowing around up there, and we were uncertain about starting that day. The forecast from the ranger station said it would snow until the early evening. The people working at the ranger station were surprisingly encouraging in spite of the less than ideal conditions. Far different from my experiences with very cautious staff in national parks.
We decided we'd head to the trailhead and see what things were like over there. Of course they were going to be the same as at the ranger station, but we had just a shred of hope that things would clear up by the time we got there. They didn't clear up. We sat and deliberated, and we decided that a descent into Bullet or Sheiks in the snow could be treacherous and possibly injurious. This would also be Jessica's first backpacking trip since last May, and first one with just me since 2015, and I really didn't want to make it an unpleasant experience for her (that way she'll continue to agree to go with me later on). So we headed to Blanding to get a hotel room for the night.
Nice day at the trailhead.
Our neat hotel room in Blanding. The town was mostly shut down since it was Sunday. One of the few places open was their gas station/restaurant/bowling alley combo. Very interesting place!
We got up early the next morning and got to the trailhead. There were some clouds in the sky, but the day was supposed to be free of precipitation. And it was.
Our plan was to pack our same trip into an overnighter instead of taking two nights, as we had originally planned. We accepted that we'd have to put down some decent mileage the first day and maybe skip a point of interest or two.
We parked our car the the Bullet TH and walked up the road to Sheiks.
Still a bit snowy
Pretty soon, we were headed down Sheiks. We arrived at Yellow House shortly.
We continued on, and we saw a granary.
This rock looked like Jessica's thumb. There was plenty of water in Sheiks Canyon.
We neared the series of descents toward the middle and end of the canyon. As we descended each one, we repeatedly remarked how happy we were that we didn't have to do it in the snow.
One of the trickier spots. Plenty of sand and loose rock to keep things interesting.
The views are awesome once you get to the lower parts.
Pretty soon, we reached Green Mask Spring and Ruins. The pictographs there were fantastic. We had a snack and looked around. Many of the pictographs were up high, and my shots of them turned out poorly. Jessica found the small green mask pictograph, and that was awesome. I remember reading about Sheiks canyon on BCP a few years ago, and I had really wanted to go ever since. It was awesome to finally see all of this.
We ran into some people who had come up to the ruin from Bullet Canyon. They said they had started in the middle of the snowstorm the day before. They probably looked down us when we told them we stayed in a hotel the night before instead of starting. They said it was a pretty tricky descent with the snow and ice, and that the night was very cold. I have no regrets.
We got going again and headed down Grand Gulch. What a neat canyon. Probably looks a lot more alive in April and May.
Little pockets of water left over from the snow the previous day. It warmed up to 50 or 55 that day, so most of the snow in the canyons melted.
Heading down the canyon. Quite jungle-like.Ruin up high. Wall Ruin, maybe.
We got to the mouth of Bullet Canyon and headed up. We got some water at Jailhouse Spring. It didn't look like great water, so we just used it for cooking that evening.
Jailhouse Ruin. We were getting pretty tired at this point, and we made the difficult decision not to go up to it so we could go to see the Perfect Kiva ruins and have time to relax a bit at camp.
We got near Perfect Kiva and dropped our packs before heading up. The ruins were wonderful. I got some pictures inside the kiva, but they were not good, so I didn't put them in here.
We left the ruins, picked up our packs, and headed out to find a camp site. We found a nice one nestled in some junipers.
There was a nice field out in front of it.
Jessica doing some reading in the early evening.I sat out that evening and read from Wind in the Rock by Ann Zwinger. It was interesting to look out on the open part of the canyon and envision its inhabitants living their lives in it hundreds of years ago. It seems like such an inhospitable place, but they were there for quite some time. Truly impressive.
We got up early the next morning and headed out. It was pretty cold, and there was some ice on the slickrock.
I really enjoyed ascending this slickrock section.
Before we knew it, we were headed up out of the canyon, and we could soon see the cars parked at the trailhead.
Although the walk felt rushed at times, we were happy that we were still able to do the full-distance trip and see most of the sights. And we were happy that we didn't start in the snow. And I was especially happy that we didn't have to drive through any snow on the way home.
Cedar Mesa is a magical place!
