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Slickhorn Canyon offers an alternative
for those who are interested in the Anasazi Ruins of Cedar Mesa
but want more solitude than Grand Gulch can offer. The ruins
are not as extensive as those in Grand Gulch, but Slickhorn does
have one bonus: an almost perfectly preserved kiva, with the
original roof still completely intact. The BLM has even provided
a replica of an Anasazi ladder to give hikers access to the subterranean
room through the opening in the roof. Also, the Slickhorn ruins
do not appear to have been ravaged by Richard Wetherill and the
other pot hunters of the late 1800s who excavated so many of
the Grand Gulch ruins. Perhaps they didn’t know about Slickhorn
Canyon.
Like the Grand Gulch, Slickhorn
Canyon runs in a southeasterly direction from the edge of Cedar
Mesa to the San Juan River. There are a number of side canyons
which join the main canyon from the east side, and it is through
three of these side canyons, First Fork, Third Fork, and Trail
Canyon, that most hikers find access to Slickhorn. The hike described
here is a loop between First Fork and Trail Canyon.
From the parking area at the
top of First Fork, begin by walking down the bottom of the drainage
in a southwesterly direction. There are no signs and no maintained
trail, but enough hikers use this route that a primitive trail
is beginning to form. After a fifteen minute walk you will come
to a small pouroff that you can easily get around by detouring
a short distance into a shallow side canyon on the left. Another
mile down canyon will bring you to a much larger pouroff that
cannot be dealt with so easily. This time you will have to climb
up the south side of the canyon to a bench just below the top
of the mesa that you can follow around the obstacle. Many hikers
before you have taken this route, so look for the cairns they
have left behind to guide you.
While you are on the bench be sure
to look into the back of the short side canyon on the opposite
side of First Fork, and you will see a small ruin near the top
of the canyon wall. Also, take note of a large sandstone monolith
that stands near the opposite side of the main canyon, about
500 yards downstream from the pour off. This monolith is approximately
opposite the point where the trail again descends to the canyon
floor, so be sure to watch for cairns.
The monolith will also help you
find your second ruin. Look carefully at the opposite canyon
wall about 200 yards downstream from the monolith and you will
see a large alcove about half way up the side of the canyon wall.
The ruin is in the back of this alcove. Once you reach the canyon
floor, walk downstream for five or ten minutes until you see
a faint trail leading up to the right. This is the way to the
alcove. The ruin is not visible from the bottom, and there are
very few cairns marking the assent (perhaps removed by rangers?),
so it is easy to miss. Some scrambling is necessary, but the
climb is not difficult. You will certainly want to spend some
time checking out this ruin because it contains an extraordinarily
well preserved kiva.
The Anasazi kivas are of special
interest to anthropologists who study Indian cultures of the
Southwest. Every Anasazi community seems to have had one of them,
and the basic architecture has endured for centuries. Kiva-like
structures have been around for at least 1300 years, and they
still exist today in a few modern Indian cultures. The kiva in
First Fork, though 700 years old, is almost identical to a modern
Hopi kiva. Notice, for instance, the small hole in the center
of the floor. Similar holes appear in the seventh century pithouse
kivas of Mesa Verde, as well as in present-day Hopi kivas. The
Hopis, who call the hole a sipapu, or spirit hole, believe it
is an entrance to the underworld. They believe that their ancestors
entered and exited our world through a sipapu.
Below the kiva ruin the trail becomes
much less rocky, and after 1.6 miles it opens up into a large,
sandy meadow where it meets a large canyon coming in from the
left (Second Fork). There are two other ruins near the canyon
floor at this confluence. The one on the west side of the canyon,
a small granary, is particularly well preserved. 0.4 miles further
downstream will bring you to the confluence with Third Fork.
If you are interested in shortening your hike you can return
to the top of the mesa through Third Fork. Doing this will shorten
the hike by 2.0 trail miles and 1.3 road miles.
From the confluence with Third
Fork, it is 2.4 miles of easy walking to Trail Canyon. Along
the way you will pass at least one other ruin site on the west
side of the Slickhorn Canyon, and one other major side canyon
coming in from the east. There are no signs, so be sure you turn
into Trail Canyon and not the one before or after it. Just remember
that Trail Canyon will be the fourth major side canyon you encounter
coming into Slickhorn Canyon from the east.
About 0.6 miles up Trail Canyon
there is another pour off which must be detoured. If you see
the pour off you have probably missed the way, and you will have
to backtrack a short distance downstream to find a faint trail
that climbs about 100 feet up the south side of the canyon in
order to get around the obstacle. Again, the way is marked by
small cairns. As you pass above the pour off look across to the
other side of the canyon at three small ruins perched precariously
on a long, narrow ledge. These are the Big Ledge Ruins. Two of
them look particularly interesting because they are build primarily
of juniper logs rather than stone. What a chore it must have
been to haul all of those logs to the high canyon ledge.
After the Big Ledge Ruins the trail
again becomes very rocky as it climbs upward toward the mesa
top. Occasional minor scrambling may be necessary, and if you
are carrying a bulky backpack you will wish you weren’t.
Finally, after two miles, the trail breaks over the top of the
rim into a large flat meadow of sagebrush. Continue walking eastward
across the meadow and soon you will spot the corral where your
shuttle car or bicycle is parked. |
