Ute Canyon & Monument Mesa Loop

Heart of the World | Saturday, October 25, 2025

In early October Diane and I drove out to Madison, Wisconsin so she could have brain surgery to get a very aggressive meningioma removed. This was not a surgery that could be done locally and she ended up going to one of the best neurosurgeons in the country at the University of Wisconsin. Although the surgery itself went about as well as could be expected for such an invasive procedure, her recovery did not, and she was in the ICU for about nine days, which was a very scary and stressful time. Of course she doesn’t remember any of it, which is probably for the best. Thankfully, Diane is very tough and pulled through and we were finally able to make it back home earlier this week, although she still has a long road of recovery ahead of her.

Even though I had to skip my annual Southern Utah Wanderings with Jared for the first time in about fourteen years, I am hoping to get back to my regular schedule of weekend adventures in the near future, but before I do I need to make sure that Diane is back to 100%, so in the meantime I will try to get out on some local hikes when I can. This weekend I had some time on Saturday to go on a local hike and decided to continue working on my Heart of the World project within the Colorado National Monument by putting together a loop consisting of the Ute Canyon Trail and Liberty Cap Trail that I had never hiked together before. I was a little worried about hiking over 13 miles after not hiking at all for the past month, but figured I would just jump right back in and hope for the best!

After driving up to the Ute Canyon Trailhead early on Saturday morning, I started hiking down the trail at dawn.

Ute Canyon Trail

Upper Ute Canyon View

There were some golden cottonwoods at the bottom of the trail and the creek was flowing a little. The trail was also muddy and slippery in places.

Ute Canyon Reflection

Ute Canyon Arch

Towers in Ute Canyon

I stopped to check out these little dinosaur tracks along the way.

I rounded the corner below this point as I left Ute Canyon and then followed the Precambrian Bench over to the Liberty Cap Trail.

I passed through the historic brush fence on The Bench.

Once I reached the Liberty Cap Trail I started my hike back up to the top of the mesa.

Hiking up a narrow sandstone ramp on the Liberty Cap Trail.

Liberty Cap Trail View

It wasn’t long until the Liberty Cap came into view.

I wandered over to the edge for a view up Ute Canyon.

Then I continued up the little switchbacks to the top of Monument Mesa.

Looking down at the Upper Liberty Cap Switchbacks.

I stopped for one final view from the edge before I continued across the top of the mesa.

Looking back toward the Otto’s Bathtub area just above Monument Canyon.

An expansive view over Monument Mesa.

I followed the Upper Liberty Cap Trail back to Rim Rock Drive.

I made one short detour to revisit a few small incised petroglyphs.

Once I reached the Upper Liberty Cap Trailhead I followed Rim Rock Drive along the upper reaches of Ute Canyon back to my vehicle.

Rim Rock Drive

Upper Ute Canyon

I made one final stop at the Fallen Rock Overlook.

I reached the Ute Canyon Trailhead shortly before 1:00pm and had hiked about 13.5 miles with over 1200 feet of elevation gain. My legs were getting pretty tired at the end, but overall I was still feeling pretty good after not hiking at all for almost a full month. It felt really great to be back home and outdoors again on the Colorado Plateau and I’m hoping that Diane will be able to join me again very soon!

>> Ute Canyon & Monument Mesa Loop Photo Gallery