For this year’s annual Southwestern Utah trip, Traci and I drove to Washington on Thursday and stayed with our friends, Paul and Pam, for the weekend. We left our dogs, Boulder and Delta, in Price with our sons, although Michael has moved out since last year and so they had to shuttle the dogs back and forth, working around each other’s work schedules. It’s only been one year since we brought Delta home, and she’s quite a handful so we really appreciated the boys taking care of the doggos for us.
We arrived too late on Thursday to do any hikes, but on Friday morning Paul and I headed to the East Reef/Babylon area for a couple of hikes. We first stopped at some sort of stone structure that I’d noticed in Google Earth. I assumed it was a cabin, but after seeing it in person I think maybe it was a small corral?
Stone structure, possibly a corral
Next we stopped at the trailhead where Grapevine Wash cuts through East Reef. According to Google Maps there are dinosaur tracks there, which we found quite easily. The slope was steep and difficult to traverse but the dino tracks were amazing.
Dinosaur track
Dinosaur track
Dinosaur track
A short distance from the dinosaur tracks we visited some petroglyphs that I’d seen 11 years earlier when my kids were little. This time I couldn’t remember what the petroglyphs even looked like, and it wasn’t until after I returned home that I realized I’d completely missed the best of them because the light was hitting them at an angle that rendered them invisible.
Grapevine Wash petroglyphs
Grapevine Wash petroglyphs
Grapevine Wash petroglyphs
We continued hiking around to the other side of East Reef to a large boulder with more petroglyphs. Above the boulder, at the top of a steep slope, was a mine closed off with rebar. Normally I might have climbed up to have a look inside the mine, but me and Paul in our old age decided we didn’t really care that much. 😀
East Reef trail
East Reef petroglyphs
East Reef petroglyphs
East Reef petroglyphs
Closed mine entrance
We returned to Paul’s Jeep and continued down the road to the Stormont Mill near the Virgin River. A couple of building ruins remained there, along with one more collapsed bulding a short distance away at the mouth of Grapevine Wash that we didn’t want to access due to a muddy creek crossing.
Stormont Mill ruins
Stormont Mill ruins
Stormont Mill ruins
Ruined building at the mouth of Grapevine Wash
I’d already seen everything I wanted to in the area, but Paul wanted to hike to Babylon Arch to look for a metate he’d found nearby many years earlier. We parked at the 4WD trailhead and started hiking to the arch. I’d done most of this hike with my kids on our 2013 trip, but back then I didn’t know where Babylon Arch was and we turned around just before reaching it. This time it was an easy hike for us oldsters. We checked out Babylon Arch and then hiked to the Virgin River and looked for Paul’s metate along the way. He thought he had a pretty good idea where it was but we struck out finding it. The views at the river were quite nice, though. On the way back up to the trailhead the wind really picked up and we got absolutely sandblasted on the last portion of the trail.
Starting the hike to Babylon Arch
Babylon Arch trail
Babylon Arch trail
Babylon Arch
Virgin River
Virgin River
Geese along the Virgin River
Almost back to the trailhead
Pine Valley Mountains above Red Reef
Ken arrived that afternoon, and on Saturday we all went to the annual St. George geocaching event. Afterward we picked up two more people, Jim and his son, and headed to White Reef to see some petroglyphs. Along the way we passed by an old movie set, most of which is completely collapsed now. When we reached the steep, rocky hill below the petroglyphs, Jim and his kid bombed right up, Paul and I followed slowly behind, and Kenny stayed at the bottom. Once I arrived at the site I was impressed by the rock art–it was better than I expected after having only seen a short video of it online.
Orson Adams House and a large alcove
Hollywood Revives Harrisburg
Collapsed rock wall
Remains of the old movie set
Remains of the old movie set
Overhang above some petroglyphs
Jim and his son making the steep climb
White Reef petroglyphs
N.B. 1876
T. T. Butler
L. Owen 1879
White Reef petroglyphs
White Reef petroglyphs
We headed back for the trailhead, following the ridgeline on White Reef instead of hiking back along the trail. Everyone but me eventually regained the trail, while I stayed high and checked out an old stone cabin just below the ridgetop. It had a fireplace with a wooden lintel, which seems like it wouldn’t last long but apparently it did. Back at our vehicles Jim and his son headed north toward home while Paul, Ken, and I returned to Washington. The next morning Traci and I drove home–we were already missing our dogs and we also knew our kids were probably tired of watching them.
Horsemen on the trail below
White Reef stone cabin
Interesting wooden fireplace lintel
Red Reef and Pine Valley Mountains
Long rock wall
Photo Gallery: SWUT 2024