We drove out to the west side of Cedar Mesa to hike down Collins Canyon into Grand Gulch. In Grand Gulch, we hiked a short ways down canyon to view the Narrows, then up canyon to Bannister House. Overall, we hiked 11 miles with 500 ft of loss/gain. We only saw a couple of other hikers on this trail today.
Heading down Collins Canyon
About 0.4 mile from the trailhead is a side trail leading to an old cowboy camp
Back hiking down Collins Canyon
Collins Canyon is nice and winding. Lots of great views
and interesting sandstone walls
The canyon walls were steep enough to keep us cool in the morning.
Sun rising above the wall where the rock window is located (about 1.4 miles from the trailhead)
View from the window
I think this is near or at where we entered Grand Gulch
one of many lizards
In Grand Gulch, we headed down canyon (about 0.3 miles to the right) first to see the Narrows
The Narrows
view of the Narrows from the other side
we walked a short ways down the other side of the Narrows before turning back up canyon
a beautiful lizard, he had blue markings at the neck
Hiking up canyon in Grand Gulch, this section has many turnings,
beautiful rock formations
Instead of taking the short cut trails, we stayed in the bottom of the gulch as there was more shade here
love these canyon walls
About 3+ miles up Grand Gulch is Bannister House Ruins.
We could not reach the upper level of the ruins.
There were other ruins below
There were also pictographs and petroglyphs here
pottery shards (we did not move these)
another view of Bannister House Ruins
On our hike back down Grand Gulch,
we spent some time enjoying the shade at the bottom of the gulch,
and some of the time exploring the ledges along the side of the gulch
Different perspectives depending on whether we were on the bottom of the gulch or up on a ledge
We explored many alcoves
and found some other ruins
more pottery shards
and other petroglyphs
We enjoyed our hike out as much as the way in, seeing more rock formations,
and enjoying how the canon walls appeared from the other direction
We even decided to hike up the pour out, instead of the trail around it
some of the wildflowers and flora we saw along the trail today:
one of many lizards
Instead of taking the short cut trails, we stayed in the bottom of the gulch as there was more shade here
There were also pictographs and petroglyphs here
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