backpacking in Grand Gulch, April 10-12

Spring is here, and with it the jones to go hiking in the desert. This is the perfect time for the Utah canyon country; the bugs and heat haven't arrived yet, but it's no longer winter-cold...or so we thought. Our original plan was to spend a long weekend, but the forecast was looking grim (8°F overnight low?!?! Snow?!?!) so we delayed a couple of days and headed out with our friends Doug and Anne on Sunday morning April 10th.

We were able to pick up our original itinerary permit and get it rewritten for our new dates. Our plan was to hike in via Kane Gulch, which is the trail closest to the ranger station, and camp near its confluence with the main stem of Grand Gulch. The next day we'd continue to the confluence with Todie Gulch, where we'd camp and hike out the following day. The daily distances we'd planned were quite short to accommodate side visits to the many pre-Puebloan cliff dwellings, some marked on maps and unmarked ones we hoped to spot, which are the main attraction of Grand Gulch. Back during what passed for the medieval era in Europe, Grand Gulch was relatively densely populated with the pre-Puebloan peoples who are often referred to as the Anasazi. Now there's nothing there but ruins, rock art, potsherds and corncobs - and the occasional hiker.

( Trip report and about a dozen pictures... )

Or just go look at the pretties on Flickr: 34 pictures, mostly captioned.