Saturday, May 23, 2009
Saturday morning we woke up extra early and headed for one of our favorite campsites in Comb Wash. As we were driving through Monticello, I noticed a Cherokee in my rearview mirror that sort of looked familiar. By the time we reached Blanding that Cherokee had caught up with me and it was in fact someone I knew…..Jared. We both pulled off at the local Shell for some gas and talked about our current plans for the weekend. We had spent the last Memorial Day weekend exploring the Comb Ridge area, and it looked like we would be doing the same again this year.
After setting up camp in Comb Wash we took a short walk to some ruins that Jared had found near our campsite last year.
Then we headed north to the road cut into Comb Ridge that you can see when you are on the Hotel Rock trail. I have always wanted to drive this old section of road since I first saw it, and was not disapointed.
You can see the road cut in this photo if you look closely
We stopped near the top when we saw an old car hanging onto the edge of a cliff. While we were stopped, I turned around and spotted a small arch above us.
Jared taking a photo with the small arch above us
The old car on the edge…
Jared also spotted what looked like some pictographs hidden high above us, and attempted to climb up to them, but could not find a good way up…
The final section to the top of Comb Ridge had been blasted through at one time and was pretty bumpy now with some smaller ledges.
Once at the top we took a right on Poseys Trail which followed along the edge of the ridge for a few miles at an overlook above the cut for UT 95.
Our next destination was to find the Tower Ruin at the head of Butler Wash. We ended up taking the long way down into the canyon, but we did find the ruin.
Before heading back to the Jeeps, we hiked up another side canyon looking for other ruins.
On our way back to the Jeeps the clouds finally let loose and it started raining pretty good on us. We were pretty soaked by the time we made it back.
By the time we had finished lunch, the rain had stopped again, so we made our way over to find the Over & Under Ruins. After a few dead ends on some of the Jeep roads we followed, and then hiking down the wrong trail to find the ruins, we finally found our way (all part of the adventure). 😉
Over & Under Ruins
By the time we made it back to the Jeeps, it was getting late so we headed into Blanding to fuel up and grab some dinner before heading back to camp for the night. Since Amanda and I had got up pretty early that morning to head down there, we were exhausted and went right to bed when we made it back to camp.