Horse Bench

On Black Friday, I rode mountain bikes with John and hiked to some ruins on Horse Bench, above the lower end of Nine Mile Canyon. The Horse Bench road was closed in 2011 through an agreement with the BLM, Bill Barrett Corp., and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Somehow the BLM was able to circumvent the normal procedure for closing roads and the public lost access without any input or chance to object. Luckily, the official closure order only prohibits the public from driving motorized vehicles on the roads.
We met in Wellington at 7AM and, since he’d already been driving for two hours that morning, John threw his bike onto the rack on the Jeep and hopped in with me. During the drive we saw a bighorn sheep at the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon, in almost the exact same spot I’d seen my first bighorn in Nine Mile last year. We parked at the first of two gates along the road, saddled up, and were riding down the road before 9:00. The first few miles were graded, hard-packed dirt, which made for fast riding. The road became rockier and more loose as we progressed. Just beyond the second gate I saw ATV tracks on the road, but the tracks didn’t go past the gate. Hmm, odd.

Bighorn sheep at the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon
Bighorn sheep at the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon


Parking spot on Sage Brush Flat
Parking spot on Sage Brush Flat


First gate across the Horse Bench road
First gate across the Horse Bench road


Cruising on the graded dirt road
Cruising on the graded dirt road


Looking into the head of Pinnacle Canyon
Looking into the head of Pinnacle Canyon


Second gate on the Horse Bench road
Second gate on the Horse Bench road


ATV tracks on the road
ATV tracks on the road


View over South Frank’s Canyon
View over South Frank's Canyon


Steep climb up the road
Steep climb up the road


Narrow ridge just before reaching Horse Bench
Narrow ridge just before reaching Horse Bench


As we neared the first the first cluster of ruins it became easier to leave the bikes and hike the remaining distance. We got to the butte with the ruins on it and found the top to be inaccessible. In the satellite imagery it had looked doable, but we hiked around the entire butte and found it surrounded entirely by cliffs. In one spot there was a rope dangling down from the top, but it was a cheap hardware store rope and I didn’t trust it to hold my weight. We found a nearby vantage point where we could look at the ruins from a distance, but I was disappointed not to see them up close. Returning to our bikes, John found that his had a flat tire so he swapped in a new tube and we were on our way again. While heading back to the Horse Bench road we saw a couple of UTVs driving on it.

Inaccessible butte with ruins on top
Inaccessible butte with ruins on top


Knotted rope
Knotted rope


Circular ruin on top of butte
Circular ruin on top of butte


Circular ruin on top of butte
Circular ruin on top of butte


John fixing a flat tire
John fixing a flat tire


We rode farther down Horse Bench and again abandoned our mountain bikes and hiked toward another group of ruins. Again we found that the satellite imagery was misleading as we encountered another butte that appeared to be surrounded by cliffs. At the point where the cliffs were the shortest we found a crack that had some potential for climbing. At the top, however, was a constructed wall about five feet high that protects the top of the butte. I was amazed at the amount of work that went into building a defensible fortress. After trying for some time to climb up the crack facing forward, I figured out that I could climb up it more easily with my back to the wall, and I made it to the top. John wasn’t comfortable making the climb and waited below, but he helped shuttle my camera to the top using some nylon webbing. Atop the butte were three dry-laid masonry structures. I noticed no habitation debris or any other signs that the butte had been occupied, other than the circular rock walls themselves. After a brief rest and some lunch, we hiked back to where we’d left our bikes.

Old shed deer antler
Old shed deer antler


Steep climb up the butte
Steep climb up the butte


John checking out the final climb
John checking out the final climb


A tough climb
A tough climb


Rock wall protecting the top of the butte
Rock wall protecting the top of the butte


Circular, dry-laid masonry structure
Circular, dry-laid masonry structure


Another ruin
Another ruin


John at the bottom of the climb
John at the bottom of the climb


Headed back down
Headed back down


Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!


Climbing back onto Horse Bench
Climbing back onto Horse Bench


It was after 2PM when we returned to the road. We mulled whether to continue east to one last point of interest, but that would have taken us farther away from the Jeep. With the late hour and many miles still left to ride, we decided to turn around and head back. Again, there were more fresh ATV/UTV/motorcycle tracks on the road. Apparently the traffic was coming in from the landing strip near Sand Wash. I’m amazed that the BLM went to the effort requiring two gates on the west side of Horse Bench, but left the door wide open to traffic from the east. We made one last stop near the head of South Frank’s Canyon and hiked to a corral that John had seen in Google Earth. The corral had two sections: one with very sturdy construction made from juniper and pinyon pine trunks, and another with pole-and-rail construction that I would guess is newer. There wasn’t as much refuse as I would have expected to find–just a handful of cans and a few bottles.

Riding the Horse Bench road over fresh ATV tracks
Riding the Horse Bench road over fresh ATV tracks


Climbing a very mild grade
Climbing a very mild grade


Oh, really?
Oh, really?


Corral gate
Corral gate


Very sturdy corral made from juniper and pinyon pine
Very sturdy corral made from juniper and pinyon pine


Punch here
Punch here


Calumet baking powder lid
Calumet baking powder lid


We continued to grind almost entirely uphill as the sun went down, and got back to the Jeep at about a quarter past five. It was definitely the right call not to visit the last set of ruins, but that leaves open the possibility of another trip to the area.

John taking in the view
John taking in the view


Ridge top near Rock House Canyon
Ridge top near Rock House Canyon


A little color in the sky after sunset
A little color in the sky after sunset


GPS stats at the end of the ride
GPS stats at the end of the ride


Photo Gallery: Horse Bench

7 thoughts on “Horse Bench

  1. Did this trip on horses a few years back, dealing with the nonsensical road closure which the BLM employees could not explain. Waited to climb the switchbacks above Cottonwood Canyon for half hour till big trucks got down. That was logical given the narrow roads. But the closure up top just for some oil wells is wrong.
    Jack Draw has a small rock art panel, typical Freemont and I bet more.
    Rock House ranch log cabin has nice spring branch out back.
    Impressive defensive fort up on that small mesa top.
    We rode in fall when water pockets were present for horses.
    Next trip i’ll start at Sand Wash, make the shallow creek crossing and avoid Cottonwood Canyon. You could easily ford the creek, but then you have a rocky climb of I bet 1,000 feet to the top.
    Excellent report and findings.
    Thanks

    1. I wish I’d have gotten into that area before the road closure, but it wasn’t on my radar until a couple of years ago. Earlier this year I heard a Carbon County Commissioner mention something about trying to open the road back up, thinking it could be done with the current Republican administration.

      1. Dennis,
        I bet the atv came from the Sand Wash area where crossing the creek should be easy, then to anywhere up on Horse Bench. Nothing would stop travel all the way back to the locked gate where you parked.
        The road closure can’t be valid any more than a timber sale road is closed.
        Perhaps after the mineral lease has expired an argument might be made to close such a road created only for that reason. But that’s not the case for 3 decades or more in this area.
        For example, on the opposite side of the Green River on Wild Horse Bench, oil field roads run everywhere and are nowhere closed in my travels and rides over there in the past.
        There is no fundamental difference between the 2 areas or valid reason to treat them differently.
        Not even in BLM Wilderness Study Areas are roads closed.
        There is something strange and unsaid about the closure.

  2. Dennis,
    I am trying to locate that brush corral. Could you put coordinates on a reply? Thanks……Everywhere I go you have already been. Thanks for the information and your experience!
    Dave S

  3. I just found your awesome website yesterday and bookmarked it, please continue sharing your adventures!

    It pisses me off they closed that road. Grrr…. I tried taking it last summer and discovered their bull shit gates. I drove thru the first, then came to the second and got scared and turned back around. Neither gate was locked and I was afraid a worker was in there and would leave and lock the gates behind him locking me in. I’ve tried accessing it from the Ranch Bottom road (below the landing strip), but it is to overgrown where you cross Nine Mile Creek and I would have destroyed my Jeep. Only accessible with a 4 wheeler or side by side now.

    Still lots of discoveries to be made in that canyon complex. I live in the Basin and Nine Mile is only a short drive away. One of my dad’s best friends grew up in the canyon, his family owned one of the ranches. He told me one time when he was a kid, him and his brother found a small cave and inside was a couple of perfectly preserved pottery bowls. They opened up the bowls and one contained old leather strips, flint and arrow heads. One of my uncles found a petrified human turd (I know, sounds crazy). It had what appeared to be petrified pieces of corn in it. My dad once found a boulder and it was full of round copper nuggets.

    When I was a kid, we used to take our horses and explore around the area. One time we found a massive rock boulder up on one of the plateau’s. The boulder was really big, maybe half the size of a school bus. There was a small opening you could crawl thru and underneath the boulder was naturally hollowed out and us kids could almost stand up. My brother, sister, cousin and myself crawled under the boulder and explored underneath. There were two side rooms filled with ancient corn cobs that had been stored. The corn cobs were very small, perhaps 3-4 inches, but there were a lot of them. This was 30 years ago, but I still remember it very well.

    1. Thanks for the info about the overgrowth at the creek crossing. I was planning on taking my Jeep in that way, but maybe not now. It’s fairly reasonable to hike down to the creek from the north (from Wrinkle Road), which I’ve done a couple of times. I’m sure there’s a lot of cool stuff in that area that doesn’t get seen often.

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