Cahone Trail to Cross Canyon

The Cahone Trail is an officially unnamed access route into the often difficult to access Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwest Colorado.

The trail head is 4 miles west from Highway 491, along County Road R from the small town of Cahone, Colorado. This canyon area is part of the Cahone Canyon Wilderness Study Area.

Road R reaches a dead end at a brown easy to open gate. An old two track road leads northwest, easily down into a side canyon of the upper end of Cross Canyon. It is about 1.5 miles of hiking to the main Cross Canyon. The junction of the side canyon with Cross Canyon is a broad flat area of sagebrush fields with several other side canyons meeting at the same point. The old road continues to the north.

Three deeply cut washes join at this point with a small flow of water at the bottom. I chose to hike south and followed cow trails down into and across the wash over to the west side. About 0.3 miles south there is a short side canyon on the west that seemed to offer the cliffs and large boulder foundations often associated with Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites.

I scanned the cliff areas with binoculars and didn’t see anything but decided to climb up anyway. I made my way up the side canyon below the rim and passed many locations that looked like good building sites but didn’t find anything except good views to the south.

At the upper end of the side canyon I descended down the rocky wash and returned to the bottom. Scanning again with binoculars I saw a wall section under a rocky overhang nearly all the way to the rim. So I had to climb up a second time.

The wall fragment is hidden by trees and boulders and is visible only from the right angle, but the rock overhand covering the site is clear from many angles. I could only see an entrance into this protected site from the left side. There is a small fragment to the left of the remaining wall, suggesting that the whole open front was once walled in.

I slithered along the front of the site avoiding the steep drop off to look at the right side. On the right side there is a dry wall perimeter structure that is standing up well. I saw a corn cob along the way.

Further to the right there are two smaller wall fragments in small alcoves. I didn’t see a way to exit from the right side and had to return the way I came back to the left side of the site. This was the only site I saw in this area, but they are often hidden and easy to miss. At the canyon bottom near the side canyon junction there is a rubble pile that may be a site but it wasn’t very definite.

I spent about 3:30 hours hiking and climbing to find this site though the distance was only about 2 miles. The return hike took 1:15 hours for a total hike of 4:45 hours for about 4 miles. It was a 65 F degree mid October day and I carried 3 liters of water. There are many more locations to explore in this area, both up and down Cross Canyon.

I thought it odd at the time, but there are initials “JW” inscribed on the back wall of this site. This is a remote, hard to find site so why would there be graffiti here? After viewing a similar “JW” on the right end the well known Spruce Tree House ruin at Mesa Verde, it occurred to me that JW could be John Wetherill, one of the famous Wetherills that were instrumental in the development of Mesa Verde and other Four Corners ruins sites as places of major interest.

So John Wetherill may have visited this otherwise obscure site and left an historic inscription. Besides exploring the Cahone Trail, John Wetherill established trading posts in southeast Utah and led expeditions into the backcountry near Navajo National Monument, Monument Valley and Rainbow Bridge National Monument. I didn’t see a year carved here but one could guess around 1890.

Ismay Petroglyph Trail and Lower Yellowjacket Canyon

From the old Ismay Trading Post, along the south edge of the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwest Colorado, the dirt Yellow Jacket Canyon Road turns north. This site is west of Cortez, CO about 26 miles along County Road G.

Only about 0.2 miles north of the old trading post, a large boulder is the foundation of a ruins site, and has an extensive petroglyph panel.

Around the left side of the boulder are some small wall sections and petroglyphs are visible on the side and back of a piece broken off the main rock.

The inside of the boulder has the most works of rock art. The ages probably vary as there are some horse figures and some English letters, but also many drawings of sheep and geometric figures.

It is easy to climb up on the broken piece and get a good look at the figures inside. Around the boulder there is a lot of rubble scattered and some intact wall sections. There is a probable kiva on the back side of the boulder.

Not all the rock art is ancient. The JW initials look like the work of John Wetherill, one of the famous brothers associated with Mesa Verde and other Four Corners ruins sites.

This site is at the junction of McElmo and Yellowjacket Canyons, both having water for most of the year. The area is otherwise very dry with very few trees growing except along the streams.

The top of the large boulder has some ruined wall sections also. It seems to be common in this area to build on the tops of boulders.

The Yellowjacket Canyon dirt road continues north for about 1.5 miles along the wide canyon mouth. Just before reaching the small farm area, there is an elevated rocky area that looks like a possible ruins area.

There are a number of large boulders and flat areas overlooking the farming area and many rock surfaces that looked like good places for petroglyphs, but I didn't see anything that I was sure was a ruins.

There was a locked gate in the farm area and it didn't appear that any road or trail continued further up the canyons. This area is near the junction of Yellow Jacket Canyon coming from the east and Hovenweep Canyon from the north.

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a large area with a high concentration of Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites but it doesn't have many official trails and there aren't very many easy to find access points. It is a discover things on your own park.

The wash in the center of the canyon is deep and wide and probably has year round water. The Yellow Jacket Canyon is a favorite among birders for the lush riparian habitat it provides. They have been having luck spotting Lucy's Warbler, a rare sighting in this area. Visiting the Isamy Petroglyphs and continuing up Yellow Jacket Canyon provides about 2:00 hours of hiking and maybe more if you linger.

(On a later visit I noticed a cow trail that leads to the top of Cannonball Mesa about 1.4 miles northeast along the rough dirt road. Following the cow trail, there are good hikes up above that I call Cannonball Cliffs and Cannonball Point. There are at least four other ruins sites to find in this immediate area. There is also a small site on the west side of the Yellow Jacket Creek. Use the labels for more on these hikes.)