Garfield Ledges

Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley from Garfield Ledges

2 miles round trip, 600 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy
Access: A couple of big potholes right before the trailhead, Northwest Forest Pass required

Washington State's Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley is just over an hour's drive from Seattle but for the time being it has escaped the swarms of hikers that descend on hikes like Mount Si, Rattlesnake Ledge, and Mailbox Peak near North Bend. Garfield Ledges is a short and sweet hike at the end of the paved road in the Middle Fork Valley that has pretty views over the river and the surrounding forested mountains. The trail is new, having just been completed by trail crews in 2019, and leads up to a small open viewpoint on the lower slopes of Garfield Mountain.

I've hiked Garfield Ledges twice since it's recent opening, once on a misty autumn soon after the trail's opening and again in June 2020 as a social distancing alternative to the more popular hikes around North Bend. From Seattle, I drove east on I-90 to exit 34 and turned left (north) onto 468th Ave SE; I took this road past the gas station and fast food joints near the exit and then turned left onto the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Road, which I followed past the Mailbox Peak Trailhead until the pavement ended just before the bridge over the Taylor River. Be careful here: at the time of writing, there were some massive potholes just where the pavement ended, so pay attention. The trailhead was just across the bridge, with ample parking for the crowds that this trail will certainly draw in the future. Garfield Mountain's towering cliffs are not visible from the trail itself but are visible from the road on the drive to the trailhead.

From the trailhead, the trail climbs gently into second-growth forest. At the time of writing, the hike still had a new trail feel, with fresh gravel, comfortable dirt treads, and little erosion marking the surface of the trail. The forest here was characteristic of second growth forests on the western slopes of the Cascades: young trees grew above a lush understory of ferns, huckleberry bushes, and devil's club.

Ascending through the forest en route to Garfield Ledges

The trail ascended along a ridge and up a nicely built set of stairs before making a long switchback and exiting the woods at an open viewpoint a mile into this hike. This ledge on the lower slopes of Garfield Mountain is the hike's destination and there was a good view down to the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River below and around to the peaks surrounding the valley, including the great cliff of Stegasaurus Butte and snowy Preacher Mountain. North Bend's Rattlesnake Mountain was visible in the distance at the mouth of the valley.

View of Preacher Mountain from Garfield Ledges

In the universe of hiking that is the Pacific Northwest, Garfield Ledges isn't particularly special, with views that are enjoyable but rather pedestrian for a mountain range that's home to Mount Rainier and the Enchantments. Nonetheless, this is one of the few hikes one can drive to in less than an hour and a half from Seattle on a paved road that isn't flooded with other hikers; take advantage of this while you can.

Burney Falls Loop

Burney Falls

1.2 miles loop, 180 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy
Access: Paved road to trailhead, McArthur-Burney Falls State Park entrance fee required

This short and easy loop in Northern California visits a spectacular, spring-fed waterfall and then meanders through a lovely, lush canyon. California is a state well-known for incredible waterfalls but even here, 129-foot tall Burney Falls stands out. While far shorter than the state's well known waterfalls in Yosemite, Burney Fall's spring-fed curtain of water tumbling down a mossy cliff is extraordinarily scenic and worth the detour if you around Lassen Volcanic or Mount Shasta; it's also much more reliable later in the summer than Yosemite Falls or other waterfalls in the Sierra Nevada. Unfortunately, the trail's scenic highlights also makes it an extremely popular destination: many locals come to cool off in the pool at the base of the falls, so come early if you're looking for a hike where you can social distance in the time of Covid-19.

I visited Burney Falls on a hot July afternoon as I drove down during my move from Seattle. The closest city to the falls is Redding; many visitors from farther away will likely come to the falls as part of a visit to either Mount Shasta or Lassen Volcanic National Park. From Redding, you can reach the falls by taking Highway 299 east from the city into the mountains and past the town of Burney, turning left at the junction with Highway 89 and then heading north 6 miles to the entrance of McArthur-Burney Falls State Park. Turn left for the state park and the trailhead is the main parking lot just past the visitor center.

From the trailhead, a paved path leads immediately to an overlook with a view of the falls in the canyon below. If you just want a glimpse of the falls without any physical effort, you'll be easily satisfied.

Burney Falls from the overlook

The far more impressive views of this waterfall, however, come from the base of the falls. A sign marks the start of the Burney Falls Loop: the paved trail heads to the right from the overlook and then begins to descend into the canyon via some switchbacks. The roasting temperatures in the parking lot began to drop as we dropped into the canyon, with the mist of the falls providing natural air conditioning in the canyon.

As we descended to a switchback near the edge of the falls, we got a close-up look at this beautiful 129-foot waterfall. Burney Creek itself fed the two main branches of the falls that flowed from the top of the canyon. Numerous smaller spring-fed cascades flowed out of the walls of the canyon, creating a beautiful curtain of water.

Burney Falls

The paved path ended at a viewpoint of the falls at the base. Multiple social trails led from here out onto the rocks along the side of the pool at the base. This area was unfortunately a bit crowded on a July weekend afternoon, with many people cooling off in the water. We found a less crowded spot and enjoyed the falls for a bit before escaping to the less crowded latter stretches of the loop.

View at the base of Burney Falls

Theodore Roosevelt once declared these falls a wonder of the world. That might be stretching it a bit, but this is certainly one of the more impressive waterfalls in California and the moist, verdant surroundings are a nice respite from the hot and dry summer conditions in this part of the state.

The falls' unique appearance of streams emerging from a cliff is a result of the area's volcanic geology. The falls are in the California Cascades, which start at Lassen Peak to the south and run north into Oregon and Washington as a chain of volcanoes. One of those volcanoes is nearby Burney Peak, the source of the water in Burney Creek and the falls. Eruptions that built Burney Peak laid down a surface layer of porous basalt here, but underlying that igneous rock are impermeable layers of sedimentary rock. Thus, rainfall on Burney Peak collect in the basalt as groundwater; this groundwater is forced to flow by the underlying impermeable rock and this water then emerges from the ground at the boundary between the two rock layers at Burney Falls. Unlike seasonal waterfalls in the state that dry up in summer when the snowmelt ends, spring-fed Burney Falls maintains a flow rate of about 100 million gallons per day throughout the year.

Spring-fed cascades

To continue the loop, we took the trail down the canyon from the falls. Here, the pavement switched to dirt and the crowds quickly thinned out. The trail followed Burney Creek down a lush, cool, and beautiful canyon. Cooled by the mists of the waterfall, the canyon is home to Douglas Fir and other other trees and plants that are typical of wetter and cooler climes which survive here because of the temperature and moisture effect of the falls. A number of sizeable trees grew along the trail at the bottom of the canyon. Burney Creek itself burbled as it flowed next to us.

Burney Creek

After passing a talus slope along the riverbank, we came to a trail junction: the Burney Creek Trail continued onward, following the creek, while the Falls Loop Trail made a left turn here to cross Burney Creek on the Rainbow Footbridge.

Rainbow Footbridge over Burney Creek 

Crossing the bridge, we quickly came to another junction with the PSEA trail, which headed downstream along the west bank of Burney Creek. We stayed on the Falls Loop Trail, which began a gradual ascent up the west canyon walls as it headed back in the direction of Burney Falls. This climb brought us out of the cool canyon air and returned us to the scorching 90-degree temperatures over Redding and the California Cascades that day.

The trail fully climbed out of the canyon after a few final switchbacks as the trail neared the waterfall; from this angle, Burney Falls was obscured behind trees and there were no good views. Once out of the canyon, the trail followed the canyon rim with the roar of the falls below still audible. Following Burney Creek upstream, we soon came to the Fisherman's Bridge. At a junction right before the bridge, the right fork led to a junction with the Pacific Crest Trail, which passes by the falls; we took the left fork and crossed the bridge. Burney Creek is itself entirely spring-fed and emerges from the ground just a mile upstream from here. The groundwater source keeps the water flow fairly constant, nurturing the flowers and other lush vegetation in the creek's riparian zone. True to the bridge's name, we spotted a handful of visitors fishing below the bridge for trout.

Burney Creek viewed from Fisherman's Bridge

After crossing Fisherman's Bridge, we followed the trail to the left as it paralleled a service road until we returned to the Falls overlook at the start of the trail and then the parking lot.

This was a very enjoyable, easy hike. The highlight is undoubtedly the curtain of water view at the base of Burney Falls, but hiking the loop and adding a mile rather than just returning directly was a good choice that helped us avoid many of the other visitors while taking in pretty views along other stretches of Burney Creek and appreciating the lush vegetation in the canyon. Burney Falls is a highlight of far Northern California and this loop is an excellent way to experience the park.

Gobblers Knob

Lenticular cloud caps Rainier

11.5 miles round trip, 2600 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Moderate
Access: Decent gravel road to trailhead, Mount Rainier National Park entrance fee required

Perched atop a rocky peak across the Tahoma Creek valley, the fire lookout at Gobblers Knob offers one of the most impressive front-row seat views of the west aspect of Washington State's Mount Rainier. This is one of the best places to view the less-visited western side of this mighty mountain and is a good deal quieter than Paradise, Sunrise, and other more tourist-friendly parts of the national park. The hike to this lookout visits placid Lake George as well but does require a long, 3.2-mile walk up the carfree portion of Westside Road to reach the singletrack trail leaving from Round Pass. While the scenery here is still not as impressive as the wildflower meadows and close-up glacier views elsewhere in the park, it's a good place to enjoy amazing views of Mount Rainier without having too much company.

I hiked Gobblers Knob on a late June Friday, choosing a less popular hike on a weekday so that I could practice social distancing. Unfortunately, the timing for my hike wasn't great: there was still over two feet of snow on the upper parts of the mountain, making the trail hard to follow and requiring me to use traction on my boots.

From Seattle, I took Highway 167 and then Highway 512 south to Puyallup, exited onto Highway 161 and followed it south past South Hill, Graham, and Eatonville to the junction with Highway 7; I turned left and followed Highway 7 to Elbe and continued on Highway 706 from Elbe towards Mount Rainier. Passing Ashford, I entered the park and soon after the entrance booth I made a left turn onto Westside Road. I followed the gravel Westside Road up about 3 miles to the parking area at the road closure; there were some potholes but the road wasn't too bad.

From the trailhead, I followed Westside Road north, quickly passing by the massive rockslide that caused the northern portions of this road to be closed. Originally meant to be part of a ring road around Rainier, Westside Road offered car access between the Nisqually and Puyallup watersheds until the threat of rockslides from Mount Wow led the road to be closed at the current trailhead. After passing the rockslide, the trail followed the base of the massive cliffs of Mount Wow. In June, a seasonal waterfall cascaded down these cliffs with a number of gracefully plunging drops.

Waterfalls tumbling off Mount Wow

Westside Road maintained a steady but gentle uphill grade, soon crossing a bridge over Fish Creek. At about a mile in, the road came to the wide, debris-strewn path of Tahoma Creek. This spot offered the first good views of Mount Rainier: Liberty Cap and Point Success rose above the forested mountains that boxed in the Tahoma Creek valley. Tahoma Creek is a volatile geologic area: there are frequent glacial outburst floods from the South Tahoma Glacier that cause debris flows through the valley; at the time of writing, the last such flood had just occurred in 2019.

Tahoma Creek

After the road left Tahoma Creek, it embarked on a set of switchbacks through the forest as it climbed towards Round Pass. This is unfortunately the most boring stretch of the hike: there were no views and the road itself took two miles of switchbacks with a very gentle grade to cover a distance that it probably could've covered much more efficiently with some steeper uphill.

A little over three miles into the hike, Westside Road arrived at Round Pass. A former parking area on the left side of the road marked the start of the trail to Lake George and Gobblers Knob. There's a bike rack here: if you'd rather not hike the long, three-mile slog of Westside Road, you always have the option of biking up to Round Pass. The Lake George Trail left from the northwest corner of the lot and immediately began a climb with a steeper grade through a beautiful forest. Occasional breaks in the trees here provided partial views of Rainier and the understory vegetaion, having just recently melted out, was dotted with avalanche lilies.

Lake George Trail

A mile after leaving Round Pass and a little over 4 miles into the hike, I arrived at Lake George. A spur trail broke off to the left, leading to some campsites and a toilet; I took a brief detour from the main trail to the lakeshore to enjoy views of Mount Wow rising over Lake George. Lake George is a pretty alpine lake, although it's not necessarily a standout in the PNW due to tough competition. While nice, I wouldn't recommend the lake as a standalone destination.

Lake George and Mount Wow

The trail towards Gobblers Knob briefly followed the lakeshore before turning sharply into a stream valley. Here, the snow started: between Lake George and Gobblers Knob, I spent most of my time hiking in snow that was well over two feet thick in places. Luckily, the initial snow patch ended once the trail began to climb again and the first set of switchbacks above the lake were snow-free with beautiful carpet blooms of avalanche lilies. Avalanche lilies bloom immediately after the snowmelt and are one of the my favorite Washington wildflowers- their brief bloom requires good timing to catch. The Mount Rainier area is one of the most reliable places in the Cascades to see avalanche lilies.

Avalance lilies

Trillium and avalanche lilies

The snow-free trail didn't last: the next small basin was covered in snow and this time the trail ascending out from it was still snow-covered. As some parts of the hike required crossing steep snowfields, I donned my microspikes here and kept them on for the rest of the hike.

The trail was completely snow-covered by the time it ascended to a small pond on a bench beneath Gobblers Knob. Here, it became hard to follow the trail and the bootpack faded out. With this much snow, it would've been wise to turn back, but having limited time before I moved from Seattle, I was determined to reach the summit. I circled around the south end of the pond; with no clear path through the snow, I chose to head roughly due west as I ascended the snowy slopes of Gobblers Knob.

Frozen pond above Lake George

Unfortunately, I popped out on the ridgeline a little south of where I should've been, so I backtracked a bit and headed north and soon found myself at the intersection between the trail west to Goat Lake and the spur trail to Gobblers Knob: the trail sign was lower than the snow level but was visible as a snow well and melted out around it. The snowy terrain was slippery and disorienting and not recommended for hikers without proper traction gear and navigation skills. I followed the Gobblers Knob spur for a last half mile uphill push to the summit. After spending most of the hike in the forest, views finally started opening up as I approached the summit. Soon, the lookout appeared above on a large rocky outcrop.

Gobblers Knob and Mount Rainier

A final push into a terrain of meadows and rocks brought me to the summit. I climbed up onto the deck of the fire lookout for an excellent panoramic view of Mount Rainier and the South Cascades. Rainier dominated the view to the east. All three summits were visible: Liberty Cap, Columbia Crest, and Point Success. A lenticular cloud has just begun forming over the summit. Liberty Cap and Point Success together create the Sunset Amphitheater, a caved in portion of the mountain filled by the massive Puyallup Glacier that catches the sun's dying rays each day. Below Point Success was the South Tahoma Glacier, which fed Tahoma Creek. The debris flow-widened valley that I had hiked up was visible below.

Rainier from Gobblers Knob: Sunset Amphitheater and the Puyallup Glaciers

To the southeast were the Tatoosh Range familiar to tourists at Paradise and farther away were the Goat Rocks, the most impressive peaks in the South Cascades outside the three major volcanoes. Mount Wow's snow-streaked slopes were due south.

Tatoosh Range and Goat Rocks

Two more volcanoes were visible to the south: Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens. Mount Adams is blocked by Mount Wow from this angle. High Rock is a notable and sharp peak to the south and is home to another Rainier-area fire lookout. To the west, the Cascades faded into the lowlands and the hills of Capitol State Forest near Olympia. The Puget Sound can probably be seen from here on a clear day but the skies over the lowlands were not very clear so I couldn't see the Olympics, the Sound, or Cascade peaks to the north.

Mount Wow, High Rock, and Mount St. Helens

Due to the snow conditions, no one else appeared to have made it up to Gobblers Knob on the day of my visit and I had the spot to myself. On weekends, this area sees its fair share of visitors, although the hikers here are still far sparser than the crowds that ascend to Paradise. I got to enjoy the views from all four sides of the deck of the fire lookout at a leisurely pace. The fire lookout is one of four left in Mount Rainier National Park.

Gobblers Knob Fire Lookout

This was a beautiful and enjoyable hike, with wildflowers and a lake on the way to a summit with stunning views of Mount Rainier. While not one of the highlights of the Cascades, this is nonetheless an excellent hike for locals who wish to see Rainier from a less frequently viewed angle.

Corona Arch

Corona Arch

3 miles round trip, 350 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy-moderate, some ladders and cables
Access: Paved road to trailhead, no parking fee

One of the most impressive arches near Moab, Utah is outside Arches National Park or any Utah national park, for that matter; Corona Arch is a 140 foot by 105 foot opening spanned by a muscular limb of sandstone near the Colorado River. Although popular, this arch on Bureau of Land Management land receives far less attention than its counterparts in Arches National Park despite being equally spectacular. The hike to this arch doesn't require too much elevation gain but but does offer some minor obstacles, with a ladder and a short cable necessary to maneuver through the slickrock terrain of the canyonlands. This is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Moab area and an excellent hike for visitors who don't mind the terrain. 

I hiked to Corona Arch during a Moab road trip with my mother. From Moab, we took US Route 191 north across the Colorado River and immediately made a left turn onto Potash Road (Route 279). We then followed Potash Road 10 miles along the Colorado River until we reached the Corona Arch Trailhead on the right side of the road. Along the way, we passed by multiple sets of Native American petroglyphs carved into cliffs rising above the road.

Petroglyphs off of Potash Road

From the trailhead, we headed up the steep path leading up from the entrance of the parking area. The trail made a quick and brief uphill and then flattened out and began heading north, crossing the railroad to the potash mines. The openness of the terrain meant that the views started from the very beginning of the hike: we enjoyed seeing the sunrise light paint the sandstone domes across the Colorado River.

Domes above the Colorado River at the Corona Arch trailhead

After crossing the railroad tracks, the trail stayed flat for a while, hugging the cliffs on the east (right) bank of the Colorado River. Rounded sandstone domes made this part of the Colorado River canyonlands very scenic. The trail then turned east (to the right) as it continued contouring on the cliff until it entered a gully; we then followed the trail through a short ascent as it climbed through the gully and came out on top of a slickrock bench at about 0.4 miles into the hike.

Sandstone domes along the trail

The trail was easy, flat hiking on slickrock up to about the one mile mark. Here, the trail traversed some angled slickrock at the base of a sandstone cliff; while the angle of the trail is not too steep there were some chains to hold onto for security.

Cables across the slickrock

Wrapping around into a new stretch of the canyon, Corona Arch and Bow Tie Arch came into view ahead. Corona Arch was a robust sandstone bridge with a perfect, rainbow-like form while Bow Tie Arch was simply an overhanging span over a deep recess in the cliff.

The next stretch of trail had a few bells and whistles as it headed uphill over slickrock. A ladder assisted one ascent while another climb over a steeper stretch of slickrock was aided with hand cables and small steps carved into the rock. There can be a bit of traffic at these two chokepoints; these obstacles may make this hike less suitable for children or for less agile hikers. My mom was able to handle both stretches, though she found both to be a bit challenging.

Ladder with Bowtie Arch and Corona Arch in the distance

Cables over slickrock

The trail hugged the rocky bench in between cliff layers on the canyon as it followed the canyon walls first to Bow Tie Arch and then to Corona Arch. Bow Tie Arch's opening is only apparent when we approached the base of the arch; from most angles it just looked like a deep alcove.

Bowtie Arch

The final stretch to Corona Arch was over slickrock, with angled surfaces and uneven footing at times. There was no defined path but the destination was clear. We arrived early enough in the morning that there was just one other hiker at the arch; this is quite a popular destination so expect company if you hike at midday on a weekend. Corona Arch is an immense and beautiful rock arch, easily as memorable as the more famous Landscape and Delicate Arches in nearby Arches National Park. Anchored on a sandstone cliff at one end, the rock span arcs down gracefully but with a muscular form. Many visitors have noted a resemblance between this arch and Rainbow Bridge in Glen Canyon, giving this arch the nickname "Little Rainbrow Bridge." In these Covid times, this might be the preferred name considering the arch's now-unfortunate given name.

Corona Arch

The arch was once the site of a rope swing that some claimed was the world's largest; daredevils visiting the arch would secure the rope swing to the arch itself and swing across the slickrock. Corona Arch went viral went a YouTube video of the rope swing went up. A death on the swing in 2013 led the Bureau of Land Management to ban the activity. For me, the adrenaline of seeing such a beautiful arch was enough.

Corona Arch

There's not too much elevation gain on this hike, but the ladders and cables and the uneven terrain may make this a slightly challenging hike for some. The rewards of hiking to Corona Arch are ample, though, and anyone who has more than two days in the Moab area should make time for this arch after visiting the national parks.

Horseshoe Canyon

Anthropomorphic pictographs of the Great Gallery

7 miles round trip, 750 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy-moderate, but bring lots of water
Access: Long gravel road to the middle of nowhere, no entrance fee

Hidden in the remote Canyonlands of Utah, Horseshoe Canyon contains one of the most significant and haunting collections of rock art in the United States- the prehistoric Great Gallery, a panel of dark red, limbless anthropomorphic pictographs silently guarding these desert canyon walls. Painted over a thousand years ago, this is the largest and best preserved collection of Barrier Canyon style pictographs in the Southwest. The day hike to these pictographs is not too difficult, but be prepared to travel to the middle of nowhere- hours from any towns or cities, this is the landscape where Aron Ralston found himself trapped for 127 hours, inspiring the movie of that name.

In summer, the Canyonlands can get hot. It is absolutely essential to carry enough water, as there is usually none in the canyon. You may see that this is not a strenuous hike and assume you can get away without much water, but the sun here is relentless and the sandy bottom of the canyon can be tiring to hike through. Bring at least two liters of water per person.

I hiked Horseshoe Canyon on the last day of a weeklong fall trip to the Canyonlands region with my mom. The Horseshoe Canyon of Canyonlands National Park is about as close to the middle of nowhere as you'll get- 4.5 hours away from Salt Lake City and still an hour and a half from Hanksville, the nearest available services to the canyon. My mom and I came from Hanksville as we finished up a clockwise driving loop around the Canyonlands via Arches and Bears Ears. From Hanksville, we headed out early, taking Utah Highway 24 north until reaching a sign for a dirt road on the right for the Hans Flat Ranger Station. We turned here and started the long drive on unpaved roads to the trailhead. The dirt road initially headed east but soon came to somewhat of a T-intersection, where we headed to the right and followed the road south. The road made a sharp left bend after reaching a ranch at the foot of a hill and swung east, crossing a saddle between two buttes. The road continued across a flat stretch of desert before climbing a bit up a hill; at the top of the hill, a spur road broke off the to the right towards a house. We ignored that spur and continued taking the main road, which followed the top of the hill with views of the San Rafael Swell to the west until swinging east again. Soon, we passed a set of Sand Dunes on our right, which caught the morning sun and appeared quite dramatic with the Henry Mountains as a backdrop. Continuing past the sand dunes, the road came to a fork at a Canyonlands National Park info board; the road to the right led to Hans Flat Ranger Station and the Maze, so we took the left fork here to continue towards Horseshoe Canyon. We followed this road for about another five miles before we finally came to the turnoff for Horseshoe Canyon on the right. Taking this turn, we drove two miles to the end of the road and arrived at the parking lot for Horseshoe Canyon.

Sand dunes and the Henry Mountains

We were the only people in the parking area. Signing in at the trail register, I noted that a few groups per day made it out to the canyon on weekends but that the trail was often untouched on weekdays.

From the trailhead, the trail began a gradual descent into the canyon (it's important to remember that you'll have to ascend on your return!). The trail was quite rocky in places as it made its way downhill. The open terrain provided nice views of the surroundings; the La Sal Mountains were visible in the distance to the east and the flat mesa tops on the other side of Horseshoe Canyon gave no clue of the gaping Green River canyonlands that lay beyond.

Horseshoe Canyon

After about a half mile, we arrived at one of the points of interest in the hike: a fossilized dinosaur footprint. The footprint would not have been obvious to spot had there not been a a ring of rocks surrounding it. Many sedimentary layers of the Colorado Plateau were laid during the Mesozoic Era, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the area that is today the Colorado Plateau was instead sandy beaches, a shallow sea, or great sandy deserts. The Colorado Plateau thus preserves not only dinosaur footprints but also has yielded a treasure trove of paleontological finds.

Dinosaur footprint

Short after passing the dinosaur footprint, we passed a water tank that was used by ranchers in the past who once grazed livestock in the canyon. After the water tank was a stretch of descent across slickrock. The Navajo Sandstone layers that defined the top element in Canyonlands stratigraphy formed series of domes and buttes here that added interest to the landscape.

Navajo Sandstone domes and buttes above Horseshoe Canyon, La Sal Mountains in the distance

Continued descent brought us to the edge of the cliff above the inner canyon. Here, the trail first descended while hugging the walls of the canyon before then taking a sandy ridge down from the canyon walls to the bottom of the canyon. This is the steepest part of the hike- the most difficult uphill during the return hike- and placed us at the bottom of Horseshoe Canyon about a mile and a half from the trailhead.

Horseshoe Canyon

Arriving at the sandy wash of the canyon floor, we followed the canyon south; from here to the Great Gallery, the trail was essentially flat. Around us rose the sandstone canyon walls. The trail danced in and out of the wash itself, often going through stands of cottonwoods on alternating sides of the canyon floor. Soon, the trail brought us to the foot of a high sandstone wall on the left side of the canyon adorned with the first of this hike's pictograph panels. Known as the High Gallery, this panel is indeed high up on the canyon wall- in fact, it's not intuitive how anyone could've painted these as the panel is well over ten meters above the bottom of the canyon. The pictographs show a collection of anthropomorphic figures, most of which have legs and some of whom have arms, differing slightly from the limbless figures at the Great Gallery later in the hike. One of the most notable figures in this panel is a pregnant woman in the bottom right of the panel.

High Gallery

The pictographs here are painted in what's known as the Barrier Canyon Style, which includes a series of rock art sites around Utah's San Rafael Swell and Canyonlands that exhibit similarities in the colors and the forms of anthropomorphic figures. Horseshoe Canyon has the largest and most significant collection of these pictographs- indeed, the name of the style actually derives from the name of the canyon, as Horseshoe Canyon had been earlier named Barrier Canyon. The Barrier Canyon Style pictographs were left by the Archaic culture, an early hunter-gatherer culture in Utah that preceded the later Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan cultures. Paleo-indians were the first humans to inhabit Utah, arriving over 10,000 years ago during a wave of human migration from Siberia in the last ice age. The extinction of ice age fauna in North America brought about the Archaic culture, hunter-gatherer societies that inhabited Utah until about 500 CE.

The next panel of rock art came soon after the High Gallery, this time at eye-level: the Horseshoe Shelter Gallery was on the opposite (right) wall of the canyon and displayed another set of figures, which included a dog. This panel lacked the unsettling, haunting visages of the High Gallery or the Great Gallery.

Horseshoe Shelter Gallery

Horseshoe Shelter Gallery

The trail continued along the sandy bottom of the canyon past Horseshoe Shelter Gallery. The sand made this flat canyon-bottom hike substantially harder that it seemed that it would be: the sensation was similar to walking on a beach, requiring more exertion for flat ground than would usually be expected.

Horseshoe Canyon

A half mile of hiking past the Horseshoe Shelter Gallery brought me to a massive rock overhang on the right side of the trail. An arched alcove was cut into the sandstone walls of the canyon.

The Alcove

Entering the alcove, we spotted the third rock art collection of this trail- the Alcove Gallery. This panel was in the worst shape of the four panels in the canyon: some of the figures had become a bit washed out and part of the panel had been vandalized. Nonetheless, it was interesting for displaying some horned figures quite different from the anthropomorphic forms in the other panels.

Alcove Gallery

This should really go without saying, but it's both against federal law and just morally offensive to deface archaeological sites like these. These pictographs and the other rock art and ruins left by the cultures that once inhabited southeast Utah are priceless artifacts linking us to the past. Don't vandalize or touch these panels- oils from human contact can cause degradation of fragile ancient artifacts.

Past the Alcove Gallery, we continued to trudge another mile along the sandy bottom of the valley. Beautiful buttes and domes above us on the canyon rim, a reminder that this hike isn't just about pictographs.

Horseshoe Canyon

A mile from the Alcove Gallery- and 3.5 miles from the trailhead- we came to the Great Gallery, on the right side of the canyon. This is certainly the most awesome spot of the hike: eerie ghost-like forms floating on the canyon walls, their eyes gazing out from their otherwise featureless faces.

The Great Gallery

This is one of the most significant and best-preserved rock art sites in the United States. Reproductions of this panel have been displayed at the MoMA in New York and the Natural History Museum of Utah. Many of the figures show intricate detail: one of the larger and more notable figures has two sheep painted on its torso along with some intricate patterns. Others exhibit multiple colors of paint in the patterns that make up their torsos, although many others are simply a dark red hue throughout. Most of the figures here lacked limbs, although a unique contorted figure who almost seems to be dancing had arms and legs.

The Great Gallery

The most interesting part of the Great Gallery is a panel of dark silhouettes surrounding an outlined form that's been named the Holy Ghost. There has been considerable scientific research into the age of this panel and a good amount of that research has concentrated on this panel. Some anthrolpologists and archaeologists have pinned the age of the pictographs to the Archaic Period, between 8000 and 1500 years ago, due to the similarities between these pictographs and clay figures that have been found which date up to 8000 years. A more recent analysis based off a cracked portion of the Holy Ghost panel, however, suggests that the panel was likely painted in the first millenium CE.

Holy Ghost panel of the Great Gallery

Regardless, the panel is an extraordinary communication between prehistoric peoples who lived on the Colorado Plateau and the people of today. We spent nearly an hour at the pictographs before retracing our steps, this time climbing uphill back to the trailhead. We saw just one other group on the trail all day.

Be prepared if you travel out here as this area is very isolated. Bluejohn Canyon- a tributary to Horseshoe Canyon- is the remote location where Aron Ralston's arm was trapped beneath a boulder during a canyoneering accident on a solo trip. Ralston survived by cutting his arm off, a story documented in the movie 127 Hours. There's no cell service anywhere nearby, so come with maps and directions and be sure to bring sufficient water and gas. If you come prepared, you'll be rewarded with one of the country's most fascinating and evocative hikes.