Dennis

June 7-12, 2023

This was sadly my first RV camping trip of the year, nearly two months later than usual. I had a geocaching/camping event planned for April but my wife and I both had colds on-and-off for about two months starting in March. Mine started a day or two after we brought Delta home from the St. George area where I’d socialized with a lot of different people. I suspected COVID when the symptoms became severe enough that I missed a couple days of work, but I took two tests spaced weeks apart and they were both negative. I had to cancel the geocaching trip even though I felt well enough to camp–I just didn’t want to get anyone else sick. Finally in early June I was feeling back to normal and just needed to get out so I left home on a Wednesday evening, just me and the dogs. I decided to camp along the Moore Cutoff Road since that’s where I’d originally planned the geocaching event and I already had hikes planned nearby.

I worked remotely Thursday and Friday, and went for short walks near camp with the dogs. One such walk was to check out the Rock Reservoir dam, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Strangely, the face of the dam had been filled in with dirt at some point, but has since eroded so you can once again see the rock work by the CCC. This was Delta’s first camping trip ever, and I worked up the nerve to let her roam off-leash for the first time since we got her. She did extremely well, so for the rest of our stay here I allowed her to go outside off-leash near camp.

Rock Reservoir dam

Rock Reservoir

David B., 1956

My camp spot

On Saturday I hiked to a rock shelter that a friend had told me about. Early in the hike I passed a strange sight: an overhang with a wall built up against it made from branches and brush. It was clearly made recently, but why and by whom? There were so many wildflowers in the area! My route took me past some interesting rock formations that I wanted to get a closer look at, but a huge field of cactus kept me from getting there because I had the dogs with me. However, I was able to get to a spot with a decent view from Sand Bench down off the Red Ledges.

Parked near a cow pond

Unusual but clearly recent shelter

Primrose

Yucca blooms

Paintbrush

Lupine

The dogs resting in the shade

Chicory

Scraper

Huge cactus field and interesting rock formations

Sand Bench and Red Ledges

Entrada Sandstone formations

Cairns

I entered a small canyon and began looking for the rock shelter but didn’t see it at first. I assumed it was at ground level, but instead it was on a ledge above the canyon floor. I backtracked and found a way up to the ledge then traversed it to the rock shelter. There really wasn’t much to see there but a rock wall. The site was absolutely barren of any artifacts, though I still would bet it’s prehistoric rather than modern. I hiked farther down the canyon and the climbed out to make a short loop back to the route I took in, and found a large broken point in the wash. It was beginning to get hot so for the rest of the hike back I kept a quick pace with only one stop to let the dogs have a drink and rest in the shade. This was Delta’s longest hike to date, but still just under four miles total.

Curtis Formation columns

Ledge leading to the structure

Boulder and Delta on the ledge

The rock wall/structure

Rock wall from below

Large broken point

I got an early start on Sunday morning to hike to a really interesting rock art panel that I’d visited 12 years earlier. While I was hiking I found two rock shelters, the first of which was possibly a pit house built up against a small overhang, while the other had some faded pictographs and potsherds in it.

Rock shelter

Overhang with pictographs

Faded pictographs

Potsherds

I worked my way over to the rock art and I had a slightly difficult time getting the dogs to follow me down some ledges. Boulder is getting old, and Delta doesn’t have much experience in rough terrain. We made it to the petroglyph panel and I took a few photos, then tied the dogs up so I could hike around some boulders looking for some other petroglyphs I’d missed the last time I was there. I found them all, then retrieved the dogs and we hiked back to the truck. On the way I found one additional rock shelter that resembled the first one I’d seen that day.

Petroglyph panel

Delta and Boulder in front of the panel

Bighorn sheep and large snake petroglyphs

Holding hands

Rock shelter

After returning to the trailer for lunch, I drove a short distance to Hiram Corral Spring to poke around. I parked above the spring and found my way down below the ledges where the spring was supposed to be. I found some water troughs but the spring was completely dry, which was surprising considering the wet winter we had. Above the spring was a low line of rocks that had been cemented in, as if somebody had started building a dam but didn’t finish.

Troughs