Sunday – Monday, April 11-12, 2010
We had camped pretty close to the end of the trail the previous night, so once we were up and packed up we made our way back to the highway. I didn’t stop for anymore photos on the way out. Once back at the highway, a few of us stopped at Cal Black Memorial Airport to fuel up. Everyone else was heading back home, but I had one more day to do some exploring. On my way back towards Blanding I decided to try and head down Red Canyon to Lake Powell.
It started out as a recently maintained county road through some great scenery
Henry Mountains in the distance
Eventually the road started to get a little rougher and had not been maintained recently. There were a lot of rocks and small boulders that had fallen from the canyon walls and had to be avoided…..even one large boulder I was able to squeeze by.
Unfortunately I took a wrong turn by staying on the main road and not following the bottom of Red Canyon and didn’t quite make it to Lake Powell. By the time I realized my error, it was time to turn around and head back out, so I’ll have to come back other time to finish all of Red Canyon. There are a number of side trails in the area, so I need to go back anyways 😉
When I reached the pavement again, I headed to Blanding for some dinner. Being a Sunday in Utah, pretty much my only option was Subway. After dinner I headed south to Bluff so that I could check out The Bluff Fort Historic Site, which is dedicated to the San Juan Mission and their settlement at Bluff, Utah. I figured that stopping my this site would be the perfect end to my Hole-in-the-Rock weekend!
The Navajo Twins towering above Bluff
Sunbonnet Rock, dedicated to the pioneers of the San Juan Mission in 1958
Sunbonnet Rock and the Navajo Twins
Here’s a few photos from The Bluff Fort Historic Site
Kumen Jones Ruin
The Barton’s well and cabin
Plenty of wagons around
But I think this was the coolest wagon at the site, as it was one of the original wagons to travel through the Hole-in-the-Rock trail
After wandering around the Bluff Fort for a while, it started to get late so I needed to find a place to camp. I decided to head over to the Sand Island Recreation Area a few miles outside of Bluff for the night.
From my campsite, I was able to walk over to the Sand Island petroglyphs and shoot a few photos.
After a good nights sleep, I headed over to the Twin Rocks Cafe for some breakfast and then up to the Bluff Cemetery, where I found the grave sites of some of the original pioneers.
Before heading home, I stopped at the Bluff Fort again. This time while they were open.
This was definitely a trip to remember!