Nine Mile Tour

September 14-18, 2022

Most of the friends I usually go camping with have never been to Nine Mile Canyon. We’d discussed planning a trip there over the years but there’s no public land in the canyon open to camping. It wasn’t until my unplanned trip there a month earlier that I realized there was a perfect place to camp in Gate Canyon, and if that was unavailable we could simply go a little farther to Big Wash. So I planned this trip without much notice, and though most of my friends couldn’t make it we still had 12 people show up for the weekend. I went up alone on Wednesday after work in the hopes of getting the best camp spot, and I arrived to find it open. It rained all evening and into the night, like it would do almost every day of the trip.

Camp spot on a rainy Wednesday evening
Camp spot on a rainy Wednesday evening


I worked on Thursday, and my wife and her mom drove up later in the day. After work I hiked from camp down into Gate Canyon and went upstream for a bit. Along the way I followed the old wagon road, which at times followed the watercourse and others it climbed out to bypass narrow or bouldery spots. One such bypass had a fairly mature juniper tree growing in the middle of the road, suggesting it had been many, many decades since it was last used. I also saw a few axle grease inscriptions, one of which I found quite humorous.

Juniper growing in the middle of the old wagon road
Juniper growing in the middle of the old wagon road

Axle grease inscriptions
Axle grease inscriptions

Fuck you, B. Taft
Fuck you, B. Taft

Old wagon road grade climbing out of the watercourse
Old wagon road grade climbing out of the watercourse

Narrow section
Narrow section

Overhang
Overhang


That evening my brother-in-law Mark arrived with his family. I took half of Friday off work so Mark and I could go for a hike. We parked in Cottonwood Canyon and hiked up a constructed stock trail into a canyon that leads up to Flat Iron Mesa. At the top of the constructed trail I found a corn cob, then began looking for a granary in the cliffs but didn’t see one. We hiked about two miles up the canyon until I could see the place where I’d left off on a previous hike from above. I still couldn’t see what I was looking for, so we stopped to eat a snack and then headed back down the canyon and back to camp.

Coyote at the mouth of Gate Canyon
Coyote at the mouth of Gate Canyon

Bottom of the constructed stock trail
Bottom of the constructed stock trail

Natural arches
Natural arches

Corn cob
Corn cob

Scrambling along a ledge
Scrambling along a ledge

Natural arch
Natural arch

Bloon
Bloon

Near our turnaround point
Near our turnaround point

Fence at the top of the trail
Fence at the top of the trail


The rest of the group arrived on Friday and we spent the evening playing card and board games. On Saturday morning I took some of the group on a tour of my favorite rock art in the area–mostly stuff that required hiking up steep slopes or some scrambling. I’d been to most of these sites more than once already so I didn’t take many photos.

Oh, hi there
Oh, hi there

Jazz hands
Jazz hands

Who’s a good puppy?
Who's a good puppy?

Many figures
Many figures

Sheep on a leash
Sheep on a leash

Dry Canyon panel
Dry Canyon panel

Very strange petroglyph
Very strange petroglyph

Horned spiral snake
Horned spiral snake

Arcs, lines, and dots
Arcs, lines, and dots

Traversing a ledge
Traversing a ledge


We returned to camp for lunch, then everyone joined in for another tour, this time to some easy roadside rock art. I took even fewer photos on this part of the tour, since I’d been to many of these spots several times. We stopped at a few places and I set up a spotting scope on a tripod so everyone could see some high up or far away rock art and ruins that are rarely seen. We all went back to camp and spent another night huddled up in the trailer playing games while it poured rain outside. Everyone went home on Sunday. I really enjoyed showing everyone some of my favorite sites in the area, and maybe this will become another annual tradition.

Very large horse petroglyph
Very large horse petroglyph

Owl Panel
Owl Panel

Squiggly figure
Squiggly figure

One-armed horned figure
One-armed horned figure

Horned spiral snake
Horned spiral snake

Family Panel
Family Panel


Photo Gallery: Nine Mile Tour

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