Cahone Canyon Mesa Top

The Cahone Canyon Wilderness Study Area of the northeast part of the Canyons of the Ancients can be accessed with a west turn at County Road R at the small town of Cahone in southwest Colorado. From Highway 491 it is 4 miles to a gate and trail head.

The unmarked but obvious trail leads northwest about 1.5 miles to a junction with Cross Canyon. On this hike I stayed straight west along a vague trail next to the fence line.

It took me 1:15 hours to travel about 2 miles to the canyon rim overlooking the northern part of Cross Canyon. The fence line with the vague trail extends nearly the entire distance. There are two small canyon drainages to cross along the way. This point is about 1 mile south of where the main trail arrives at the bottom of Cross Canyon. 

Looking up and down the canyon, I couldn’t spot any Ancestral Pueblo Ruins sites from the mesa top. I could see some trail segments down below on the west side of the Cross Canyon bottom. On a previous hike to the canyon bottom I had found one ruins site slightly south of where the main trail enters Cross Canyon.

From this Cross Canyon view point I hiked south about 0.7 miles to the north rim of Cahone Canyon. There were two short side canyons to cross or walk around to arrive at the north rim. This south facing canyon rim had many large boulders that I thought would be likely places to find ruins sites. In the Cahone Canyon below looked like there was a permanent flow of water, but I didn’t notice any structures along the 1 mile closest to the junction with Cross Canyon. 

Walking back north, steering by compass, I came to a sagebrush area in the otherwise Pinon Pine and Juniper forest and started seeing many pottery shards and sharp edged rock pieces.

Looking around more, there is a fairly large village site that is largely overgrown with sagebrush. It looks like there has been some excavation is a few places here. There are several piles of collapsed building stone that have been moved away from the structures. Otherwise it is hard to see anything other than jumbled building stones.

This site is on the south side of the western most cleared field in this area. The cleared field and sagebrush show up clearly on the aerial photos on Google maps.

From this site I circled around the cleared field and walked northeast until I found the fence line I had followed from the trail head. I had spent about 3:30 hours and 4 miles looking around before finding this site. The return hike after looking around the site took about 1:00 hour. My total hike took 5:30 hours for about 6 miles. It was 70 F degrees at my 9:00 AM start and 88 F as 2:30 PM on a sunny early July day. I carried and drank 4 liters of water.

Cross Canyon Trail-Lower

The lower Cross Canyon access road is a west turn 5.9 miles south of the turnoff to the Painted Hand Pueblo site along paved County Road 10, along the Utah and southwest Colorado border. The access road is marked as San Juan County 2031 and descends somewhat steeply for 2.3 miles down into Cross Canyon.

At the bottom there is a creek crossing. Just west past the creek there is a right turn that enters Cross Canyon and heads toward McLean Basin and the Cross Canyon Wilderness Study Area.

After 3.2 miles there is another crossing of the same creek. I started hiking at the crossing but the road is drivable for another mile to a sign marking the San Juan Resource Area where there is room for parking. Past the sign, the road becomes rougher.

After 0:15 minutes of hiking past the sign, the road veers away from the flowing creek while a trail that is marked as closed to vehicles continues north following the creek up Cross Canyon. Except for the no vehicles sign, the trail isn’t marked. This trail seems to weave back and forth across the Utah and Colorado border for a while before settling into the Canyons of the Ancients Monument area in Colorado.

There is a creek crossing at the trail starting point and many more crossings as the stream meanders across the canyon bottom area. The crossings during mid October were 6 to 10 inches deep and usually only 6 to 8 feet across. In some cases there are some rock stepping stones, but my feet got wet with every crossing.

The canyon bottom area has a lot of sagebrush, greasewood, and three wing saltbush with cottonwoods and tamarisks close to the creek. Sometimes the trail pushed through dense patches tamarisk. The canyon sides were steep with Pinon Pine and Juniper in the segment I walked. I scanned the canyon rims with binoculars frequently but didn’t notice any ruins sites up above.

About 1:00 hour of hiking past the San Juan Resources sign, there is a large boulder based Ancestral Pueblo ruins site that sits in the middle of the canyon. Rubble from the site flows down the steep slopes below the rocky outcrop.

Some of the wall sections have held together on top. There are good views up and down the canyon from the boulder tops. To the east, it looks like there might be an old trail that starts to descend part of the way down from the canyon rim.

Most of the pottery shards I saw were on top. Mostly I saw plain white pieces with a few corrugated and a few painted designs.

On the south side below the top, there is a rock overhang with walls still intact. This large castle rock type site was the only one I noticed in the first 1:20 hours of hiking.

About 0.3 miles north of the castle rock ruins I thought I had found a tower, but it appears to be a historic ranching type ruins. There is a piece of metal bed hanging on the wall and other ranching artifacts lying among the rubble. There is some cement plaster helping to hold the walls together.

About 0:30 minutes of hiking further, as the creek makes a turn to the east, there is a petroglyph panel in an alcove a short climb above the trail. The horse images must mean that at least some of this is the work of the Utes.

Below the petroglyphs there are two rock walls forming a set of level terraces. These level spots have a good view of the creek below and look like a good place to relax. I turned around here about 3:00 hours into my hike. My return hike without any stops took 2:00 hours. My total hike was 5:00 hours for about 9 miles. I hiked on a 65 F sunny mid October day and carried 3 liters of water.

Side Canyons east of Lower Cross Canyon

In the central part of the Canyons of the Ancients in southwest Colorado, the lower part of Cross Canyon, south of Pedro Point, has several east side canyons that don’t seem to have names.

 In this area, there is a loop road that is an established mountain bike route.  The loop has a starting point near an old corral that is about one mile north of the turn off to the Holly and Hackberry outlying Hovenweep National Monument sites, along County Road 10. This corral area is also about 3.6 miles south of the turn off for the Painted Hand Trail.

Across County Road 10 from the old corral, there is a dirt road trail that leads northwest. I followed this trail for 0.3 miles to a junction with another road trail that is closed to vehicles. At this junction, there is a rock outcrop with many large boulders sliding down the hillside.

Near the base of this rocky hill there is a rubble pile Ancestral Pueblo ruins site. I was only a few minutes into my hike when I noticed this site, a good start.

A collection of boulders is usually a good place to look further. Up near the rim, there is a very small alcove with a small structure. Other than the Sand Canyon area, there aren’t very many alcove sites in the Canyons of the Ancients.

At this trail junction, there is a choice of continuing to the northwest, or turning left and going mostly southwest, toward a rim area with overlooks of the lower Cross Canyon area. I turned left. I was able to continue for about 0:45 minutes, scanning the side canyons with binoculars.

There are a lot of good canyon views, but I didn’t see any more ruins in along this segment of trail. I returned back toward the junction and could have ended my hike after about 2:00 hours. But I cut north across the canyon head and looked a little further to the north and east.

There is a very long side canyon that extends northeast all the way to the south side of the Pedro Point area. I hiked along this south rim of this long side canyon and for a while I was back on the established trail, which seems to end at the rim.

I used a compass and started to hike southeast back toward my starting point when I came across a large semi-circular ruin structure. This site seemed to have a curious location. It wasn’t very close to the canyon rim or on a hilltop.The concept of shrines is somewhat vague, but this might be one. This site might be hard to find again. Looking east from the site, I could see vehicles on the paved Road 10 about 0.5 miles away, and the old corral is about 1 mile to the south.

There was lot of pottery visible at this site, including a few of the largest shards I’ve seen. There might be a small check dam across a small wash near the site. Check dams are easy to see when they are pointed out at Mesa Verde, but I don’t seem to see them in the backcountry areas.

Associated with the large circular structure was a site with several flat rocks turned on end. The interpreted sites at Mesa Verde describe rocks like these as possibly being the lining of underground food storage structures. From this site it took me 0:50 minutes to return to the old corral. My total hike took about 4:00 hours for about 8 miles. It was 72 F degrees at 9:20 AM and 86 F degrees at 1:30 PM on a late August day. I carried and drank 3 liters of water.

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.