The Old Pioneer Dugway Outside Bluff, Utah.

Back to the "Around Bluff" pamphlet and checking off another place; this time the Old Pioneer Dugway.  Using Bluff Fort as the reference point, travel south on Route 191, past the 191/163 junction (so now you're on Route 163) and make a left onto CR 2691, Bluff Airport Road. That was a total of 5.2 miles in driving on a paved highway; go 2/10ths of a mile down the Airport Road and there will be a two track, dirt road on the right (a pipe will be sticking out of the ground).  Now the real thrill ride begins, so you better have a 4 wheel drive vehicle, and not mind being bumped along for 1.5 miles.

Good portions of the trail will be solid rock, rutted and bumpy.

Now while some folks refuse to go out if it's not 100% sunny, we love those partly cloudy days that keeps the sun from beating us down.  The play of light and shadows makes for great scenic shots; we definitely saw that being played along the Comb Ridge as we drove parallel to it.

After shaking, rattling and rolling along for 1.5 miles, we reached a slickrock area which stretched to the right and left of trail end.  We parked on a relatively flat section, grab our gear, including bottles of water, and began exploring.  At first, we didn't see the cairns heralding the beginning of the Dugway trail, so wandered off to our right along the slickrock. 

Slickrock, shrub bushes, grottos, alcoves; what looks like desolation to some, is fascinating and beautiful to us.  We're always keeping an eye out for the hidden, that simply decides to make its presence known suddenly.  So it was with a set of ruins we found in one of a series of alcoves; oh yes, we have learned to look, and look often.

Ruins in an alcove.

Whether there had been ruins in any of the other alcoves will be a mystery.

Back to the SUV, ok, so no cairns to the right; we finally spied them when we walked over to the edge of the slickrock ledge and looked to the left.  The largest of the stones is a deeper red than the surrounding area; the trail itself is over an all natural terrain (sand and rock), wide in spots, more times narrow.  Occasionally we could see where the rock had been chiseled out, or the mark of wagon wheels had dug grooves into it.  At the end of the first downward part, we found a stone wall, but were not expert enough to tell if it was ancient ruins, or simply a stone wall built by more modern hands.

The trail begins downwards after the cairns.

Wall of Stones.

Since it was monsoon season (July), the potholes were filled with water, and tiny creatures were swimming away...tadpoles.  No Roy, we can't take them home and keep them as pets!!!




This was one of the roughest trails we've walked yet; up, down, twist, turn, wide, narrow; ledge walking with the San Juan River directly down to our left.  It was very important to pay attention to our footing, if we didn't want to tumble down into the river.  Any ideas of taking in views, or snapping shots, meant stopping completely; otherwise that next step would have been a doozy!

San Juan River below.

Onward we went, occasionally seeing shoe prints left behind by other travelers; actually that helped a lot to keep us on the correct path.  There were no other cairns along the way, so shoe prints, wagon wheel ruts and apparent chiseled rock were our only leads. 





At one point we stopped to see how far we had come, while it had seemed like miles and miles; it was closer to only a mile, mile and a half.  Another area of ledge walking brought us to a wider area where there was a small alcove, and obviously used for camping.  Looking back, we could barely make out our vehicle sitting all alone on that slickrock ledge area.

We figured we were at the two mile mark when we came to, well an area of path confusion.  The pamphlet said "The petroglyphs are on the left at the river where the wash enters the San Juan River."  Two paths leading downward towards a wash, we followed one which ended at top of the wash, and no where else to go.  Hiking back up, we followed the second path downward and came to the same conclusion.  We saw a third path that led narrowly along the rock walls, but with all the rain we'd been having, it looked like a small avalanche had piled dirt and rocks along a good section of it.

Decision time...finding the petroglyphs were not as important as our safety.  We could try and maneuver over the avalanche, but what was waiting for us on the other side?  What if the dirt and rocks gave way and we slide down, down, down?  Decision was, we turn back and do this again; perhaps in the fall when the greenery fades for the upcoming winter, and we could see more.

Going back was just as rough, the downward sections are steep, and feel even steeper going back up.  I pretended my legs didn't hurt so much when I stopped to take a photo of lizards or plants.  There were times though that I thought I could actually hear my muscles scream...no, no, that was a hawk flying overhead.  Bet it was laughing at us!



Claret Cup Cactus



Indian Paintbrush

Mormon Tea

Western Fence Lizard

Western Fence Lizard

After getting back to the vehicle, we did not go home immediately; our muscles hurt, but that doesn't mean we had no energy.  We drove down the airport road to another dirt trail we'd seen months before.  It was only a mile drive before it ended at an overlook of the San Juan River, but what a view it was!

Overall, this was an awesome adventure; roughed, impressive, demanding and it tested us fully.  Yeah, we had a great time; especially when we went to Twin Rocks Café for those great Buffalo Wings and Prime Rib Sandwiches with Fries.  What an ending!!!

Mary Cokenour

An Afternoon in Bluff.

Lately, Roy and I have been spending leisurely afternoons down in the Bluff, Utah, are; then meeting up with our friend, Amy, for dinner.  Lets say we are on a quest, a quest to see all the sites listed in the "Around Bluff" pamphlet given out at Bluff Fort Museum and Visitors Center.  A map will help you with today's post, especially since I filled in added details.

Two of the famous attractions in Bluff are the Navajo Twins and Sunbonnet formations located at the Twin Rocks Café and Trading Post, but we didn't stop here this time.  Instead, we drove past and onto County Road 723 which took us to Calf Canyon, and another formation called The Locomotive.  To me, The Locomotive seems to be more of a focal point of the Bluff area than the Navajo Twins.

The Locomotive

Calf Canyon is a peaceful area to hike around in; we found a large stone slab with various rocks placed upon it.  Looking from above, we could make out the form of a spiral; someone's idea of an altar or sacred space?

A long while back, I had seen a photo in our local paper, The San Juan Record, of The Locomotive as viewed from the cemetery.   Going back towards Twin Rocks Café, we made a right turn before getting to it and ended up on Red Rock Road (aka Cemetery Road).  We did see a sign about the cemetery, and a ruin site, but this is where it gets a bit confusing.  We saw a road that curved upward, but it looked like it was going to a Native style home; but continuing straight on brought us to "Residents Only" streets.  Out came the GPS and to our surprise, that upward curved road was the one we were supposed to be on.  Yeppers, we drove right on past that Native style home, and came upon the Great House/Great Kiva kiosk.

Built around 1100 A.D., the Great House is an example of Chacoan culture; several rooms in which some had two stories.  The Great House was reburied to keep it preserved.  While the Great Kiva is partially buried for preservation, there is a section open to the public for exploration.



View from the hill where the Great House stood.

Trail to the Great Kiva; sheltered by wooden structure.

Some of the original plaster still adheres to the Kiva's walls.

At the end of this road is the Bluff Cemetery; small, quaint and the resting place for the first Mormon settlers in San Juan County, as well as their descendants.

With no actual plan in mind, we ended up on Route 191 again heading out of town in the direction of Mexican Hat. We did not get very far at all, but saw a sign for "Bluff Transfer Station" and said, "Oh what the heck!".  This 4-wheel drive road is 2.4 miles from Bluff Fort, and the "transfer station" is basically the dump.  It was a bumpy, yet relaxing drive out into the desert when at the 1.3 mile mark I yelled out to Roy, "Hoodoos!"  This trail ends at the 1.5 mile mark and we saw a "hoodoo spire".  Now the interesting part of this is that these hoodoos are not the hoodoos that are mentioned in the "Around Bluff" pamphlet.  We're going to try and find those within the next week.

Still time before meeting Amy for dinner; it was her birthday by the way, and we were taking her to Cottonwood Steakhouse.  So a detour onto County Road 2691, or the road to the Bluff Airport, called to us.  We rode all the way down to the hangar and tarmac with a mutual thought of, "Well now, that was anti-climatic."  That is until I looked outside my window and there, close to the ground, were two signs, "Gold Mine Access Road" and "San Juan River Road"...jackpot!  Now this ended up being, on one hand, disappointing because we could not get near the gold mine to see what it was about.  However, we did get all the way down to the river and that was glorious!  It's quiet and the sound of the flowing water is so soothing.  There was evidence of camping down there, and we figured that, in the future, this would be a perfect place to have a picnic.  One strange occurrence though was seeing all the smiling faces staring at us from across the river.  Looks like someone, or maybe a few, decided to shoot at the red rock walls across the river, and create their own version of "rock art". 



Blooming Prickly Pear Cactus

On the way back to Route 191, there was a small plane at the airport, and the pilot waved to us.  I had Roy stop, so I could take photos of flowering plants; the plane flew overhead and we waved.  Don't know if the pilot saw us, but it was a nice ending to this adventure.  We met our friend at Cottonwood Steakhouse, had a great meal as usual; it was a perfect afternoon in Bluff.

Crescent Milkvetch (Pea family)



Halogeton (Goosefoot family)

Hopi Blanketflower (Sunflower family)



Prince's Plume (Mustard family)

San Rafael Prickly Poppy (Poppy family)

Mary Cokenour