For my semi-annual geocaching events I plan the date out a couple of months in advance, never knowing what the weather will be like that far out. For the camping trip this spring it started out snowy and muddy, scaring nearly everybody away, but later in the week things dried out quickly and it was a pleasant weekend. I drove down on Tuesday in the early afternoon, and while it had only rained a little at home I started seeing snow on the ground as I drove south. I arrived at my camp spot at the Wedge and the truck and trailer were covered in mud. Snow was covering much of the ground and melting quickly, leaving nearly ankle-deep mud in places.
Pulling into the camp spot
Mud caked on the trailer
As I tried parking the trailer where I wanted it, the truck sunk into the mud and got stuck. With the electric-shift 4WD not working I could have crawled underneath the truck with a wrench to shift it into 4WD but I had no desire to get that muddy. I just unhitched right where I was, pulled the truck out easily, and set up camp. The trailer wasn’t very level but I could live with that. I set out the carpets in front of the trailer in such a way that I could take the dogs outside on a leash to do their business on some firmer ground and avoid tracking too much mud inside. I only minimally set up camp so if it dried out later I wouldn’t have as much to move when I moved the trailer onto level ground. That evening I kind of filled in the huge ruts I’d left in the mud in the hopes it would make it easier to hitch back on later.
Guess I’ll just park here!
Huge ruts
I worked on Wednesday, and afterward I took each dog for a 10-minute jog. I couldn’t believe how quickly things were drying out! The roads were mostly dry and there was only mud left in shaded areas. I drove the truck back and forth in front of the trailer to test how dry the ground was and to pack it down, then raked over the ruts and tried fixing my mess a little better. My brother-in-law Mark, niece Ashley, nephew Adrian, and all the kids arrived together that evening around 7 PM. I worked again on Thursday, then after work I played some games with the family before Traci arrived. We then moved the trailer to level it out and fully set up camp, which took a couple of hours. It was windy and getting colder but the slight chance of rain that evening thankfully never happened.
After cleaning up the ruts
Wednesday evening
Thursday’s sunrise
Cedar Mountain
Dried out road
I had Friday off work and Mark and I went for a hike up some side canyons of Buckhorn Wash. The first canyon has an old closed road going up it, and I’ve always wondered why it was built. We hiked up, sticking mostly to the road, and I spotted a couple of natural arches in the sandstone ridge to the south. There were a few wildflowers in bloom which was nice to see after our dry winter. We also found a drill hole, which explains the existence of the road. I dropped a small rock down it but it stopped after a few seconds–either it’s not a very deep hole or it has collapsed. Going back down we followed the watercourse almost all the way back to the mouth.
Wildflowers
Old road
Old road
Cliffs above the canyon
Tiny slit of a natural arch
Old road
Drill pad
Drill hole
Washed out road
End of the road
Natural arch
Natural arch closeup
Going down the watercourse
Sunflowers
The next side canyon we hiked up was just to the north. There were a few cottonwoods, and in the historical imagery in Google Earth I can see a spring or seep there in some years, but this year it was dry. I also thought I could see an alcove in the imagery but when we got there it was just a shallow overhang with no floor. We sat there and ate lunch and then turned around. We had to walk the Buckhorn Wash road for a short distance back to the truck and I spotted a very faint inscription. Mark and I both thought we could make out the word “Jeep” but not much else. After getting home I ran my photos through DStretch and the inscription reads “Hotel, Beer, 50¢,” and unfortunately it revealed more words that I couldn’t see at all in person and didn’t capture on camera. I’ll definitely have to go back for a better look. Our hike was only about five miles, and it was a very pleasant time in the canyon. Back at camp they said it was windy the entire time but we didn’t feel it on our hike.
Game trail between canyons
Another side canyon
Claret cup blooms
Wildflowers
Cottonwood below a dryfall
Thin shale layers
Indian paintbrush
Near our turnaround spot
Pinkish-purple cactus flowers
Buckhorn Wash
Hotel Beer 50¢
My other nephew, Chris, had arrived with his family on Friday, rounding out the 12 total people who were in attendance. No other geocachers showed up that weekend so it was basically just a family campout. That evening we all went for a short drive to the Wedge Overlook at sunset. On Saturday everybody piled into a few vehicles and we went to see some pictographs that I’d first seen 19 years earlier. Back then, Mark and I would often take our kids out on day trips on the weekends and this was one of the places we took them. Now all those kids are adults and some have kids of their own, and while my kids weren’t there this time most of Mark’s were. I remembered hardly anything about the hike or the rock art. I assumed the hike was on the easier side but Traci had a bit of a difficult time. I’d forgotten to change into hiking shoes so I was wearing some slip-ons that were very uncomfortable, particularly on the steep downhill sections. We reached the alcoves where the rock art was supposed to be but I didn’t see it at first! I went down-canyon a bit and didn’t find it, so I returned back to the alcoves and eventually spotted the pictographs. The panel was more interesting than I’d remembered, with many tiny detailed figures, and a couple that appeared to have lightning or something emanating from their mouths.
Little Grand Canyon
Sunset through the trees
No Man’s Mountain
Window Blind Peak
Chris and Adrian in an alcove
Another alcove
Broken pictograph
Main panel
Funky hair figure
Tiny animals
Animals emitting lightning?
Central figures
Sideways animals
More crude right side
Mark and I had intended to stick around for a couple of exploratory hikes while everyone else drove back to camp, but I didn’t want to hike any more in those shoes so we all returned. We played some games that afternoon, had a potluck dinner, and sat around the camp fire into the night. On Sunday we all pulled out of camp by early afternoon. After the trip I pressure-washed the trailer and truck, which took almost three hours, but removing the dried mud wasn’t as bad as I expected. It’s too bad the weather earlier in the week affected the attendance during the weekend because Friday through Sunday were quite nice days for a camping trip.
Photo Gallery: Spring in the Swell: Buckhorn Side Canyons