Dry Canyon to Flat Iron Mesa

May 30, 2026

This is another hike that I planned many years ago when I wasn’t really in good enough shape to actually do it. I’ve been on Flat Iron Mesa a couple of times but each of those times I drove to the top and then hiked around a bit. This time I began near the mouth of Dry Canyon and ascended about 1,400′ up a trail. After taking a rare weekend off from hiking and instead staying home all of Memorial weekend I was itching for a good hike the following weekend. And because I hadn’t been hiking for a couple of weeks I wasn’t going to let the weather forecast dissuade me. There was a 70% chance of rain all morning, with a high of 69 degrees, and I was pretty apprehensive about mud, lightning, and being wet and cold and miserable. I woke up at 4:00 AM, left home at 4:30, and was parked at the mouth of Dry Canyon by 6:00. The first part of the climb out of the canyon took me past some old rock walls, probably constructed to keep cattle either on or off the bench above. I’d been dressed for cold weather but it was fairly pleasant and I shed my fleece layer after a very short while.

Parked near the mouth of Dry Canyon

Partial rock wall at the climb out of the canyon

From the top of the flat bench I spotted some petroglyphs but the lighting was still dim and so I decided to visit them on the way back down. I began hiking up the trail, which switched back and forth a few times and then mostly followed the crest of the ridge, except for in a few places where it followed the base of cliff bands before climbing steeply back to the ridgetop. Those few steep climbs seemed like too much for horses or cattle so I’m not sure either ever really traveled this route much.

Cairn marking the route up the ridge

Faint but easy-to-follow trail

Compressor station below

Ascending toward some cliffs

Mouth of Daddy Canyon

Cliff band on the ridge

Skirting around the cliffs

Steep slope back to the top of the ridge

Compressor station

Little wild daisies

Each time I regained the top of the ridge after bypassing a cliff band, I walked out onto the flat peninsula above the cliff band. On one I found a small shed deer antler which I set down next to the trail so I could pick it up on the way down. On another I was enjoying the view across Nine Mile Canyon and I noticed a decent-sized natural arch which I decided I should go visit on another trip. There was one very steep and gravelly slope where, in the 12/2006 imagery in Google Earth, some very prominent switchbacks were cut. They looked very fresh in that imagery but are either barely visible or not at all in later imagery, and in person I could only barely make them out. I’m not sure they’re noticeable in my photo below.

Flat ridgetop

Small shed deer antler

Steep and loose slope, with switchbacks nearly invisible

Switchbacks in 12/2006 imagery

View over Nine Mile Canyon

Cairn

Another traverse below a cliff band

Climbing back up to the ridge

Natural arch across Nine Mile Canyon

Just before reaching the top of the mesa the ridge narrowed dramatically and on either side was a vertical drop. On that narrow ridge close to the mesa was a low rock wall and a fence made from branches and rocks. The wall didn’t appear to serve any functional purpose but the fence was clearly meant to keep livestock from dropping down the trail. Once on the mesa I dropped below the rim to explore some ledges and boulders and found a structure built against a low cliff. I’m confident it’s ancient but I didn’t see any artifacts in or around it.

Narrow ridge

Rock wall

Rock and brush fence

Structure built below an overhang

Checking out some cliffs below the rim

I wandered out into the center of the mesa to a little knoll, the highest point of this part of the plateau, expecting to perhaps find a cowboy or sheepherder camp, but the top was barren. It got a bit darker, windier, and colder, and even sprinkled very lightly, but it didn’t last very long. I continued south, mostly following the mesa’s edge closest to Dry Canyon. I frequently peeked off the edge hoping to see some overhangs or patina-covered cliffs, but the rock layers were vertical crumbly shale without much promise for archaeological sites.

Small timbered knoll on the mesa

Yucca blooms

Large cairn on the rim

View up Dry Canyon

Following the rim

Natural arch in Dry Canyon

Looking down Dry Canyon

At the furthest extent of the hike I stopped at the site of an old cabin. While descending to the cabin I noticed a couple of partial rock walls built up against a ledge. The entire front of the structure had collapsed and the rocks tumbled down the hill below. There was no pit in the center like the structure I’d found earlier, and that combined with the close proximity to the cabin made me think this was a historic construction. At the cabin the chimney is left standing and there are some axe-cut timbers lying around, but there doesn’t appear to be enough wood to have made up even a very small cabin. I’m not sure if it burned down, got dismantled, or what. I wandered up and down the drainage near the cabin and didn’t see much except for a few pieces of very old milled lumber in one spot that didn’t seem to have been part of the cabin.

Remains of a structure above the cabin

Collapsed wall below the structure

Chimney and timbers

Big ol’ pile of horseshit

Chimney

Axe-cut timber

More timbers

Broken purple and blue glass

One of several old milled boards

I reversed course and started back across the mesa, this time noticing a small brush corral and fence. Even now that I know the corral is there, it’s not easy to spot in Google Earth. It was almost 11:00 AM and I hadn’t even yet taken a drink during the hike, so I found a comfortable rock to sit on and ate a small lunch and drank my fill of water. Since I’d already scouted all the areas I wanted to on the way in, the return hike went very quickly. Near the bottom of the descent down the ridge I stopped to visit those petroglyphs. It sprinkled again lightly but not enough to even dampen my clothes. I got back to the truck at about 1:15 PM, so the hike took about seven hours, and my total distance was 7.2 miles with over 1,500′ elevation gain. It’s a bit uncommon for me to return to the same area so many times (I think this makes about 3.5 trips here) but I think there’s still some things up there waiting to be found.

Small brush corral on the mesa