IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

This last weekend Amanda and I decided to head for the Henry Mountains. I have skirted around them many times in the past, but for some reason I had never made the time to stop and check them out. This was my weekend to correct that little problem 🙂 Last week was very hot and sunny around here, so I thought the weather would be perfect when I started planning the trip. Unfortunately, there was a cold front that came through and screwed up all that nice weather while we were out exploring. We managed to still have a great time, even with the cooler temperatures, rain and snow.

We left home early Saturday morning and stopped in Hanksville to fuel up before heading to Starr Spring Campground. This was our planned camping location for the weekend. When we arrived, we were disappointed to find all the sites full. We decided to do some exploring and find a campsite later. Before heading out, we stopped to check out the never completed Starr Ranch house.

Starr Ranch house with Mount Hillers in the background

The stone cellar behind the house

We then headed west on Clay Point Road to reach the Bullfrog Road.

Mount Hillers in the background

Headed towards the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef National Park.

On our way back towards Bullfrog to loop back around, we took the side loop around Big Thompson Mesa to some overlooks of Halls Creek and the Waterpocket Fold

Great view of the Waterpocket Fold over Halls Creek

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I was on my own to find something to do on Saturday, so I hopped in my Jeep and headed north a little ways to Canyon Pintado to visit a few sites I didn’t make it to the last time I was there.

My first stop was at East Four Mile Draw where I would find the Sun Dagger pictograph.

Then I hiked to some petroglyphs nearby.

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On Memorial Day we packed up camp and headed a short ways down Comb Wash to check out some ruins in Lower Mule Canyon.

There were a few petroglyphs here as well.

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After a good night’s sleep, we headed out early on Sunday morning to hike to the Lewis Lodge ruins. While we made it down the first ledge, we were unable to make it down to the ruins because of the very narrow and steep trail with an 800 foot drop-off on one side. The exposure was just too much for us. We did manage to get some photos of the ruins from the opposite side of the canyon, though.

Spot the ruins high up on the cliff.

A shot zoomed in further…

We were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t make it out to the ruins, but after hiking back to our Jeep’s we continued on down the trail a little ways to stop at Hotel Rock for some pictures and lunch.

I took a number of pictures at Hotel Rock…

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On Saturday morning we headed out on our annual Memorial Day weekend trip to the Comb Ridge and Cedar Mesa area in Southeastern Utah. As usual, we would be meeting up with our friend Jared for the weekend and heading out to find some ruins.

After the drive down to Comb Wash and setting up camp, we headed out to check out some ruins that Jared had spotted along Highway 95 not too far from camp. We parked off the highway and made our way to the rim of the small canyon where we quickly spotted the ruins. We had to hike down the rim of the canyon to reach the bottom so we could hike back up a little bit in order to reach them.

We then hiked up canyon a little further and found a few petroglyphs.

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