April 30 – May 2, 2021

Over the winter I discovered the location of some prehistoric structures on the West Tavaputs Plateau that I’d seen photos of which were taken from an airplane. The high elevation meant I’d have to wait until spring to visit the area, so finally in late April I headed out there with Chris to have a look around. On the way there we stopped at a pair of old cabins. Inside one were several names carved into the roof beams. Many of the names were carved by the Rich family and the dates were mostly from the 1950s and 60s. One inscription had an 1892 date but the first name was illegible.

One of two old cabins

Horseshoe and outhouse seat

The second cabin

1892 inscription

Ben Mead

We continued to our camp spot which was near where we’d begin hiking the next morning. The night was pretty cold and we spent the evening around the warmth of a camp fire.

Friday’s sunset

On Saturday we packed up camp and drove a bit before starting the hike. At first our route followed what looked like an old road, but that dwindled away into a faint game/livestock trail through a pinyon/juniper forest. The ridge narrowed up until we began to lose elevation quickly, at which point the ruins came into view just below us. We approached the butte upon which the structures sat and weren’t completely comfortable with the climb up, so we scrambled around the butte looking for a better way up. We discovered the butte had a large natural arch in the center of it but couldn’t find an easier way to get on top. We returned to the spot we’d first arrived at and helped each other climb to the top.

Camp on Saturday morning

Possibly an old road

Faint game/livestock trail

First glimpse of the ruins

Chris contemplating the climb

Natural arch in the butte

The top of the isolated butte had several stone structures, most of which were small and must have been for storage, but one large circular structure may have been a shelter or lookout. There were also two very well-worn broken metates, one tiny broken point, and a rough circle made of pieces of wood. It reminded me of a similar butte that I climbed up to a few years earlier.

Wood arranged in a rough circle

Broken metate

Small storage structure

Large circular structure

Inside the structure

Broken metate

Tiny broken point

Large circular structure

We hiked back up the ridge, gaining the thousand feet of elevation that we’d lost on the way down. Back in the Jeep it was a long drive to our next camp on the other side of the plateau–the road distance was over three times the straight-line distance. Along the way we stopped to look at a small section of a mile-long fence made from stacked pinyon and juniper trees. We also spotted some wild horses. There was a decent view from camp across Nine Mile Canyon toward the Bad Land Cliffs.

Pinyon/juniper fence

Wild horses

View from Saturday’s camp

Glowing clouds after sunset

We hiked straight from camp on Sunday morning and poked around some cliffs and ledges looking for something unusual and very interesting. I won’t say what it is, and I’m not even sure if I found it that I’d mention it publicly. Our route took us about four miles along the rim of a mesa but we didn’t have any luck finding what I was after. I did find a shed deer antler, and we visited an old cabin site where all that’s left standing is the stone chimney. I’m not sure if the rest burned down, got hauled away, or simply deteriorated to almost nothing. After a couple of hours hiking it was time to head home. Along the way we saw more wild horses, and we also drove past the butte and ruins that we’d been to the day before, only this time more than a mile away and far below it.

Sunday morning

View into Dry Canyon

Chimney and remains of a cabin

Rim walking

Old deer antler

Fence

Wild horses

Butte and structures from below

---

Photo Gallery: West Tavaputs Plateau