Above Mule Canyon

Utah School Trust Lands

Bears Ears National Monument

Click for map.

I decided to explore three roads to nowhere that leave the highway at gates and get to spots out above Mule Canyon and its larger tributaries. They're all rough for my little car. The first, just slightly east of the Mule Canyon Roadside Ruin, is part of the School Trust Lands rather than the monument. Rules are pretty much the same with motorized travel allowed on existing roads and camping allowed and so much as disturbing cultural artifacts illegal.

Signs at the second gate explain the broad rules.

A bit of mountain with a line of canyon just visible somewhere between here and there. Also a few of the people waiting on the highway for the flagman because there is a lot of road construction on at the moment.

It isn't that far in that they feel the road isn't good enough for low clearance or longer vehicles. There is a big lot next to yet another drill hole. (This one has no writing on the pipe.) There are more signs. The road is quite easy on foot, although apparently a Subaru can also do it. One is coming up, but I have the edge of the canyon to myself when I get there.

A closer canyon up ahead. That is the edge of Mule Canyon.

There is supposed to be a spring up here and I think there is flowing water over there. The source of some of the water I saw yesterday.

There's that skinny pillar well separated from the edge down the canyon. I got a little past that, up around the junction.

A grave far more recent than area ruins. I'm going to make the wild guess that it's Possey's.

Then back again. It's nice and short.

Happy cactus among the biological soils.

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The second road is the longest and nothing marks it. It has a tank early on and a few extra roads and more cholla than I've been seeing around. It's pencil cholla and I'm not really ready to be seeing it again.

Not far down the second road, the next one to the east.

The tank is very dry, but even so it is noticeable by the different vegetation dried in it.

From afar, the gash of the canyon just doesn't look like much. It doesn't even take that much distance.

Comb Ridge on the far side of the wash.

I initially follow the ridge to a shallow bit of canyon that is not where it is supposed to get to. There is a cairn marking a spot to enter the canyon, which is a tempting offer. There's usually some reason someone thought they should stack one. But no, not today. Just three short things today. Turning back, the reason I and a lot of motor vehicles missed the road is it went across a rock bottomed wash. Once there, I can see a lot of scrape marks on it and more road beyond that is starting to get light. Some people have figured it out, though more go the other way.

Once near the scrapes, they're hard to miss although there seems no reason for them to have been made in the first place.

The road doesn't stop where it shows on the map. It actually goes down into the canyon although a wash out keeps anyone from trying today, even with an ATV. From there, it looks like it goes up the other side. There is a half barrel there now, but then I lose the road. I expect it was a place to get water. There is water now in the bottom of the canyon even with the unusually dry summer.

Old road cut going down into the canyon.

Water in the canyon. The deer will lead you here.

The water is interesting, so I go ahead and explore a little further down the canyon. I think I see ruins everywhere. They're probably just around the corner from where I stopped.

Not quite the same sort of walls as elsewhere.

Gardens in the challenging spots.

The rest of the canyon as it travels down to Mule Canyon and then Comb Wash.

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One last road is another short one. This also has a fair amount of extra roads and is the roughest yet.

The road splits and I'm not sure which is the right one or if it matters. Already close to Comb Ridge.

It looks like most any way can get one down into this canyon with its perfect V shape. There's just the cliff at the very top. Comb Ridge is behind the far side, not part of it.

An arch like a table leg down below. Also a pillar.

I feel like I've built up a repertoire of tools for some future Mule Canyon extravaganza hike. Long in the future, because I'm moving to the other end of Butler Wash soon.

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I did find ruins along the way.

The edge of a kiva and another building up on the mesa top.

A spot where the window of one ruin shows another ruin.

Either someone had kids that had fun with sticks when this was being made or there is a natural danger attacking this mortar.

A pair of a circle and a square in cliffs.

©2019 Valerie Norton
Written 20 Nov 2019