Cedar Mesa, Utah

[Steve Scearce]

My wife and I left Durango last Friday for a three day weekend on Cedar Mesa, Utah. The weather forecast was a little iffy, but we were committed to making the trip. Our destination was the end of Cigarette Springs Road, one of our favorite campsites on all of Cedar Mesa. The campsite is at the end of the road (8.5 miles from Hwy 261) and perched on the edge of an unnamed side canyon of Road Canyon. Added benefit: a coldwater spring.

 

[Steve Scearce]

Saturday morning was clear and gorgeous, despite a semi-ominous forecast.

 

[Steve Scearce]

My buddy Michael and I made our way down into the canyon below camp while our wives enjoyed lounging in camp. SE Utah had an exceptionally wet spring and the wildflowers were impressive.

 

[Steve Scearce]

Michael and I hiked the canyon bottom and turned up another fork of the canyon. Our destination was an Anasazi ruin that I had visited several years ago. The approach to the precarious ledge location of the ruin takes some careful routefinding.

 

[Barko1]

There is also Cedar Mesa 79 miles SE in Capital Reef, it is a primitive campground off the Notam-Bullfrog road. Also recommended.

 

[Steve Scearce]

The ruin has a completely intact kiva. The dirt covered roof looked pretty fragile, so we didn't climb on it to peek inside. I suspect that the interior plaster was well preserved. After exploring the other structures - mostly wattle and daub granaries - we headed upcanyon, following a route I had marked on the topo map several years ago. I recalled a complicated, but easy, climb up to the canyon rim. Well, we managed NOT to find that particular route. Instead, we committed ourselves to some kinda unnerving scrambles up steep rock with serious exposure. Eventually we topped out on the rim after sweating bullets for nearly an hour. We were greeted with a blast of cold air. The weather was changing. Sunday morning we awoke to snow. We broke camp hastily and headed back out the wet and greasy road before it turned into a quagmire. The descent down the Moki Dugway covered in thick slush was, uh, "interesting."

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

Awesome.

 

[SunMan]

Nice pics and report. As Yvon Chouinard says, its not an adventure until something goes wrong!

 

[Steve Scearce]

As Yvon Chouinard says, its not an adventure until something goes wrong!


Very true! What we expected to be a pretty straight-forward hike became an adventure... and luckily one with a happy ending.

 

[chnlisle]

I made some progress convincing Pam to try Moki Dugway once more. She just read this. Back to square one.

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

Great report Durango. I especially liked that little, hidden ruin you searched out.

 

[Tomas Tierra]

Very true! What we expected to be a pretty straight-forward hike became an adventure... and luckily one with a happy ending.



Boy do I love a happy ending ..

Nice report Steve. Another reason I MUST GET TO UTAH!

 

[ski3pin]

Great adventure Durango! Thanks for the report and ideas for exploration.

 

[Steve Scearce]

Thanks. One piece of advice: if you want the end-of-the-road, drop-dead-gorgeous campsite, plan to get there early... or better yet, during the week. I'm certain that the only reason we scored it this time on a Friday night was because of the weather forecast. Sorry I didn't take any pix of the snowstorm. I was too busy loading up and then slipping on the greasy 4WD road to stop to squeeze off some shots. It was kinda pretty...

 

[Phil]

Thanks for the great report and picture..