Utah Trip April 2014-1
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Day 3
Sheiks Canyon / Target Ruins
Sheiks Canyon is the next canyon north of Bullet Canyon and
I wanted to hike to the Yellow House Ruins and possibly to Green Mask Ruins at
Grand Gulch. Again the information I found was sketchy but that is what an
adventure is, not knowing what you’re going to find.
Driving to the trailhead was less straight foreword than
some but I had no problems getting there with the pickup truck, although I
parked on the side of the track not making it all the way to the trailhead. I
parked about 0.2 mile from the trail register and probably could have made it
with the pickup.
This ended up being a short hike when I came to a dry-fall
that was only about 6 to 8 feet high but I didn’t have a rope or a hiking
partner. I wasn’t worried about getting hurt just worried about getting stranded. I knew I wasn’t going to make it back up
without a rope or boost. This was very disappointing. I returned back to the
vehicle.
Whenever I plan a trip I make a backup plan for the trip and
individual days. My backup hike was the Target Ruins in Butler Wash West
Fork. I hurriedly headed for the
trailhead since this would be a late start. This would not be a long hike but
more of a route finding hike. The hike description I’ve seen were very vague
but I had the GPS coordinates for the ruins. The "Cedar Mesa 2014 Canyon Atlas" has a topographical map with GPS coordinates. I already knew where the trailhead
was so getting there was easy. I started hiking up Butler Wash and veered left
into the West Fork. There was some running water but crossing the stream was
easy.
Shortly, I come to a ravine and headed west as instructed.
From here on I really didn’t have a route description but I did have the GPS
coordinates. I head edup the ravine. Basically I followed this drainage until
it turned into a box canyon. There were no ruins in sight and I needed to go
further north. I back tracked a ways and then went up a mostly Slickrock hill.
When I finally made it to the top there was a great distant view but no ruins.
From my GPS coordinates I knew I was close and I walked north a ways where
there was another ravine. I walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down and
there it was, the Target Ruins in plain sight and not very far away. I could also see a trail going up this second
ravine from the east.
The only problem was there was no chance of me making it
down to the ruins because of the steepness of the cliff and the type of
terrain. I snapped away with the camera for quite awhile. Then I started thinking if only I could get a
more level view instead of looking down so much. I surveyed the rim and all
along the rim edge and noticed a bench about half way down. If only I could
find the way down to the bench. I eventually made my way down to the bench,
some scrambling required, some loose dirt and small rocks. I very pleased with
the less downward looking view and took a lot more shots. Then I realized this
is an extremely well preserved ruins and one of the best I’ve seen.
I had really no reason to try to get into the ruins but I
was curious about where the trail led to the east. So when I returned to the
West Fork I headed north. This time I was looking for entry into the second
ravine. It turns out you can’t see the second ravine from the streambed but I
found a path going up the steep sandy dirt hill right at the same latitude as
the ruins so I now knew how people were getting into the second ravine. I went further north to find some
other ruins in the West Fork and then returned back to my vehicle. I returned
to the campground and made an early dinner and worked on planning the next day
better.
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