After spending the previous day around Keg Point exploring for alcoves below the ridgetop but well above the canyon floor, I did the same thing about 10 miles away near Horseshoe Canyon. This ended up being a shorter but more fruitful hike than the day before. My route took me in and out of the park boundaries a few times, and right off the bat I spotted a metate at the foot of one of the sandstone fins.
No Pets
Sandstone fins
Park boundary sign
Gap between fins
Metate at the base of a fin
Metate
I walked around the base of the fins and poked around in the gaps between them. A pair of adjacent alcoves had a small rock structure and a metate in them. Another very small alcove really piqued my interest, as I could see some pieces of wood inside that had to have been put there by a person. I tried accessing it from below but couldn’t climb up, so then I scrambled around a lot on the opposite side of the small canyon to try getting a better look inside. I never could make out anything interesting in there but I sure would have loved getting an up-close look.
Striped fins
Fins and domes
Several alcoves
Unusual spires in the Navajo Sandstone
A peek into Horseshoe Canyon
Climbing up a small drainage
Sandy alcove floor
Stacked rocks in the alcove
Back of the alcove
Alcove view
Ledge leading to another alcove
Another alcove
Rocks in the alcove
Metate
Tiny but intriguing alcove above and left
View into the alcove from afar
Yet another alcove
Rodent nest
Another angle of the small alcove
A different view inside
The fins tapered off and there wasn’t much else to see so I began looking for a shady spot to sit down and eat lunch when my foot fell into an animal burrow that I hadn’t noticed. My hand landed right in some cactus and I had a lot of small hair-like spines in my skin. I found a tree to shade up under and picked the cactus out and then ate my lunch.
Checking out more cracks
Maybe a petroglyph?
Animal burrow that I fell into
Tiny cactus spines
Tiny cactus spines
Since there were no more promising cliffs to check out, I could have reversed course and had a shorter route back to the truck but instead I continued following the base of the ridge. Eventually I found an easy way to get on top of the ridge and then followed that back to the trailhead. Again I passed in and out of the park boundary, and along the way I saw some old cans and a survey marker. I got back to the truck after only about six hours of hiking, and it was satisfying to explore an area that I’d been curious about for a long time. There are a lot of areas similar to this in the San Rafael Desert that I’m sure still hold some secrets and I hope to visit more of them.
Nice layers in the Navajo
Flat rock
My route out
Last bit of the sandy climb
View down Horseshoe Canyon
A sandy trudge ahead
Park boundary sign
Section marker
1940 section marker
Tobacco tin
View toward Sugarloaf Butte
La Sal Mountains
Old cans in the sand
An old road
The spires from above
Almost back to the trailhead
Since I was driving home a little earlier than I expected I decided to stop to check out a constructed section of road that has always made me wonder every time I drove past it. I walked up the old road and wandered around the top of the hill that it led to, and determined that it’s probably just an old alignment of the current road. I could see the path that the old road followed and it appears to have been built to bypass a small ridge and drainage that was no obstacle for modern road-building equipment. I’d even guess by the construction method that it was built for wagon traffic before motorized vehicles were common. There’s no indication along the old alignment that a blade of any sort was ever used to grade the road. With one more curiosity satisfied I finished the drive home.
Old road
Old road
Old road and new alignment
Horse Bench Reservoir
Photo Gallery: Horseshoe Rim