Ruins

     After Monument Valley, we started back north toward Blanding. Our final destination for the day being a hike in South Mule Canyon to see some old Native American ruins. We cut up Hwy 261 to travel along the Moki Dugway on our way to South Mule Canyon. A dugway is defined as a road that is excavated along a hillside using the materiel located on the hillside directly above the road. In the mountain bike world, we call it benching. The Moki Dugway is a stretch of Hwy 261 that climbs the side of the Cedar Mesa that rises sharply out of the valley where Valley of the Gods sits.

The Cedar Mesa looms as you approach the Moki Dugway

Nice sign

Another of my favorite road signs to see.

View from the first switchback

     The dugway was created in 1958 and is not paved. It's three miles of graded dirt and gravel switchbacks at 11% grades. It's considered by some people to be one of the most dangerous roads in the country, but it seemed plenty wide and in great shape to me. I don't see how you could end up off the road unless you were doing something stupid. We did see one motorcycle crash on a switchback, but he just simply lost the front wheel in some deep gravel and fell. We cruised right up it in the car and enjoyed the switchbacks and great views of the desert valley. I would have loved to have been on my bike, but time did not permit if we wanted to hike South Mule Canyon before dark.

View of the valley from halfway up the dugway.

Hwy 261 below

Fun section of the Moki Dugway

The dirt road on the left side of the picture is the road we drove through Valley of the Gods earlier in the day.

View from the top of the Moki Dugway, now on top of the Cedar Mesa.

Top of the Moki Dugway

     We attempted to drive another dirt road at the top of Moki to an overlook that was supposed to be an even better view of the valley below, including the goosenecks of the San Juan River we saw earlier in the day, but we didn't make it through the road. It was rough and had many low areas full of sand. We didn't have the clearance in our car to make it through the sand bottoms. We crossed one sand pit that was more than we should have attempted. When we approached the next one, I figured we should turn back. We were still five miles from the overlook and the road was getting worse all the time. You only get lucky so many times and there was nobody out here to pull us out if we got stuck. We had to cross the first sand pit again, but did make it, sliding across the sand on the frame of the car, making it to the other side just as we ran out of momentum.

     Hwy 261 took us into Bears Ears National Monument and over to Hwy 95, which is the road we drove through the night before on our way into Blanding from Hanksville. We could see the Bears Ears rock formations sticking up in the distance as we reached Hwy 95, but did not feel like trying another dirt road excursion today with it being late in the afternoon.

     Our next stop was at the Mule Canyon Ruins. There is a nice set of Pueblo ruins here that are over 700 years old. This is where I thought the South Mule Canyon trail began, but it did not. We used my phone to search maps and knew we were close, but couldn't tell exactly where the trailhead was. After enjoying these ruins for a few minutes, we searched a few dirt roads along Hwy 95 for the trailhead with no luck. Eventually, we gave up and headed toward Blanding. There was one more ruin site we knew we could hit before dark.

Mule Canyon Ruins

The rooms of the ruins were connected by underground tunnels.

     Our final stop of the day was at the Butler Wash Ruins. We hiked about 0.55 miles through a small dirt trail and then onto open slickrock to reach the Butler Wash where a set of ruins was tucked up under rock overhangs. It was a really cool set of ruins. I only wished we could get closer to them, but I didn't see any way to get from where we were over to the cliff where they were located.

Butler Wash Ruins

Hiking up the rock on the way back out

     There were some prickly pear cacti growing by the parking lot. I tried to grab one to take back to the rental house. I have always heard that you can grill the pads and they taste pretty good. Harvest is tricky though. I took care to miss all the big spines, only to find out that there are thousands of tiny, hair-like spines around the base of each pad that you can't really see. That was a lot of fun trying to pick all of those out of my fingertips. Still haven't been able to try a grilled prickly pear pad yet...

The evening sky as we drove back to Blanding on Hwy 95.

     We had dinner in Blanding at the Patio Drive-In. They made some great burgers and shakes, maybe putting the most time and effort into making a thick shake that I have ever seen. We then relaxed in our rental house, watching Manhunt: Unabomber on Netflix, combing through pictures from the day and then doing more research on the location of the trailhead for South Mule Canyon. This was our last full day before starting the trek home, but if we got up early the next morning we could still take one more crack at finding the trail and ruins. By the way, if you haven't seen Manhunt: Unabomber, check it out. The show is the story of Ted Kaczynski, the notorious Unabomber, and how the FBI tracked him down. It took years, but they did finally get their man. That was a very interesting time in our nation and results in a very good show.

     The next post will finish up our trip and start the drive toward Tennessee.