The Canyon Rim

January 30-31, 2026

I headed out into the desert to explore the rims of a canyon and its forks, and I found a lot more than I was expecting–enough so that I’ve limited the number of scenery photos here. I took half a day off work on Friday and drove to where I intended to camp, then just started hiking. I went one direction along the canyon rim, following the ups and downs of sandstone domes while looking for alcoves and overhangs. I dropped down over the rim and reached one particular spot where it looked like there was an alcove in Google Earth but it turned out to be nothing, however I did find an arrowhead that appeared to have broken and been re-worked into a strange, stubby point. I also found a section corner marker surrounded by a big rock cairn.

The road to camp

Navajo Sandstone layers

Broken and re-worked point

Section corner marker

I made my way back up to the rim and across more slickrock, finding a shed deer antler there on the higher ground. I saw deer sign all over for the two days I was there, usually just tracks from a couple of deer at a time, along with their droppings. Descending back down off the edge in another area, I could barely see below what might have been an overhang but I couldn’t get a good enough view from above to tell whether it was worth climbing down to. There were two obvious route down to get a closer look, one a short sketchy climb and the other a longer but easy walk down a fin, and I opted for the short way. I dropped my pack and scrambled down, traversing a narrow ledge that dropped me right into a shallow overhang. If I had been able to see this overhang fully from above I may not have even bothered climbing down–it still didn’t look very promising–but actually there were a couple of small depressions, some chunks of chert, and a nice big metate. I ended up hiking about half a mile beyond where I’d left my backpack and GPS, which for some reason gave me an odd, almost vulnerable feeling, but I checked out some more ledges below the rim and didn’t find anything else. I did see a very promising alcove in the distance but didn’t have time before dusk to hike out to it, so I began the return hike to the truck. I arrived back at camp and settled in to read a book for the rest of the evening. Some clouds moved in and there wasn’t much of a sunset, just some slight color on the La Sals.

Nostrils

Shed deer antler

Below the rim

Depression in an overhang

Chert chunks

Metate

La Sals peeking up over the canyon rim

I was up early the next morning and began hiking shortly after sunrise. Again I hiked straight from camp, this time in the opposite direction from the day before. It was quite cold but I had about a mile and a half walk before reaching the spot where I wanted to drop below the rim to explore. I kept a quick pace to hopefully build some body heat. I saw a nice canyon wall from the rim but it was obviously inaccessible from my vantage point. I continued farther and found a single spot that I could descend, and judging from the hoof marks it appears bighorn sheep also use that spot to get up and down. I worked my way back toward that wall and found a lone inscription there, left by John Shand on January 2, 1900. I had found a 1901 inscription by J.W. Shand in 2014 but the styles between the two are completely different, so I’m not sure they were left by the same person.

Canyon fork with a nice wall on the left

Bighorn sheep hoof marks

Circular concretions

Sandstone layers above a dryfall

Small seep/spring

John Shand

January 2, 1900

I dropped farther down into the canyon bottom and walked it for quite a way, finding some unexpected overhangs that weren’t obvious in the sat imagery. One of them had loads of artifacts lying around. There were lithic flakes everywhere, a few arrowheads, manos, and a barely-used metate.

Broken mano and missing piece found nearby

Just a flake, but a pretty one!

Tiny mano

Broken point, or scraper?

Arrowhead

Shallow overhang

Pecked metate

Under a big overhang

When it was time to head back to the truck, I didn’t really want to just turn around and cover the same ground again so I found a place to climb out of the canyon. The last tiny bit before reaching the rim required a short but steep slickrock climb that I was barely able to make. Had the slope been any steeper or covered in a tiny bit of sand I would have simply slid back down. Once on top my route took me away from the canyon rim on a direct route across the flatlands back to the truck. Along the way I found a broken metate and some more recent signs of human activity. I had time for a side trip to check out that very promising alcove I’d spotted near the end of the previous day’s hike, and I was bummed to find it absolutely barren inside. There was a rough pile of rocks that may or may not have been manmade, but no charcoal or chert flakes or anything of the sort. I made it back to the truck a little later than I’d planned but still got home in time for dinner with my family. After revewing my GPS track at home I noticed that, curiously, I had hiked over 13 miles but never got more than 1.4 miles from the truck. There’s a lot of slickrock to cover out there in some country that I think generally goes unnoticed and untraveled, but it’s relatively dense with history and perfect for the type of exploring that I like to do. And I’m certain I’ll return for more.

Broken metate