I spent a cold and windy day hiking in the area around Buckmaster Draw. I’d let similar conditions keep me home the previous weekend, but this time I resolved to get out for a hike no matter the weather. First I stopped and poked around near an old ranch at the upper end of Saleratus Wash just below where Cottonwood and Lost Spring washes join up. One area appears to be used as a shooting range for the locals, and a bit farther away is a corral and several small buildings.
Parked near the shooting range
Two-seater outhouse, or deuce-deuce
Ties buried upright
Railroad tie dugout
Inside the dugout
Inside the dugout’s dugout
Railroad tie corral
Book Cliffs beyond the corral
Next I drove toward Buckmaster Draw where I was going to hike to the Buckmaster survey marker, but considering the cold wind, that no longer seemed worth the effort. Instead I passed it up and headed north where I parked and then hiked around, exploring some boulders and a ridge that looked promising. I hiked up a wash that had cut through an earthen dam, then crossed over the ridge and hiked along its length for a while. This side of the ridge looked more promising in the satellite imagery but there wasn’t much there. All I saw was a single inscription.
Wooden trough
Breached earthen dam
Large cairn, probably a mining claim marker
Fuzzy clouds billowing over the Books
Singletrack trail
Promising boulders
Rocking H brand
I took a mining track to the top of the ridge and then scrambled down the other side. This side actually looked better than the other, and as I traversed below the ridge I saw several overhangs but there was nothing of interest inside. But then there was one more overhang that wasn’t even as deep or protective as the others, but it did have some rock art in it! There were some faded white pictographs, some of which seemed clearly Fremont in style. There was also a boulder inside that was covered in petroglyphs.
Dozer road
Crossing over the ridge
Shelter among some boulders
View from an overhang
Inside another overhang
View over the badlands
Another rockin’ H
Rock art overhang
White person pictograph
Red and white lines
Two Fremont figures
Red picto
Petroglyph boulder
Unusual petroglyph lines ending in dots
Circle at the bottom
Lines, squiggles, dots, and a couple of figures
Hunchback and maybe a Fremont guy with a lightning rod
Pecked and painted figures
There was nothing else to see along the ridge, but on the way back to the truck there was an old miner’s camp. There were a couple of stoves and beds, rusty cans, broken bottles, and a single large but rough inscription that read “J.G.” The rest of the hike was uneventful. It had been a relatively short day of hiking but I’m glad I got out despite the blustery conditions.
Stove and bed frame at a miner’s camp
Another stove
Broken gallon jug
Bottle opener
Mattress spring
J.G. inscription
The truck awaits
Photo Gallery: Buckmaster Area