Saturday, May 12, 2018

South Fork of Mule Canyon

We drove out to the South Fork of Mule Canyon on Cedar Mesa in the Bears Ears National Monument. We spent the day hiking along the canyon and scrambling up to see various ruins. We saw 8 different ruin sites in this canyon. Overall we hiked 12 miles and gained around 1,600 ft going up to the different ruins.
Descending down the canyon floor was very moderate.

Lots of interesting sandstone canyon walls
and many large boulders

Wind, water and sand sculpt the canyon walls in many interesting ways
About one mile down the trail is House on Fire Ruins. This ruin is close to the canyon floor in an alcove.
For hikers who arrive around 10 in the morning will see the sun light up the rocks above the ruins. (We were at the ruins much earlier than 10 am)


We continued the gentle descent into the south fork of Mule Canyon

It is fun to hike in these canyons, admiring the sandstone walls and looking in the many alcoves for different ruins
We also had fun on the boulders


When we thought we could see ruins up in the alcoves we would hike/scramble up to get a better look
more ruins

Even without ruins, these are beautiful canyon walks
There are lots of juniper and pine trees here. We also found some small pools of water
Some of the ruins were more difficult to access than others, these we enjoyed from a distance

zoom




some creative scrambling
other ruins
pottery shards, they should be left where they are found. We found these already on top of this boulder
sometime the ruins are a few scattered rocks
pools of water in the bottom of the canyon floor

beautiful canyon walls
interesting canyon floor



more ruins in this canyon



pottery shards and ruins
We also saw some petroglyphs on the canyon walls




Heading up on the tributaries in the canyon
Wall Ruin



more pottery shards
we continued to hike down Mule Canyon









Some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today:



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