Toadstool Hoodoos, Utah

This is the most accessible and easiest day hike within the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. 

It's only about 2 miles total (out and back) with little elevation change. The parking is along the paved road, meaning no worries about dirt road driving. Most trails start along dirt road  in Grand Staircase, so this is unusual. The downside of this hike is that you can't expect solitude, which is always the case for Grand Staircase. The parking lot had more than 20 cars when we were there, since it was mid-afternoon when normal people are out for hiking. For us this was 2nd hike of the day. 

Despite the easiness, the scenery is quite striking. I think that hoodoos are the most eerie shape in the naturally made things. Yes it is geologically explained how those were created by ice wedging and I believe it, but still I am like "How come this weird and strange shape can be made?!" 

For those who are not familiar with hoodoos, here is the Toadstool Hoodoo. 

Toadstool Hoodoo

I first saw hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park and those are I think most famous place for hoodoos. Actually hoodoos are not only there, they are everywhere in American Southwest. In other places you can observe hoodoos in more solitude way. During this 2024 winter trip in the West, we did three hoodoo day hikes. This Toadstool Hoodoos hike is the least solitude, but still great. Other two hikes, which were much remote, will be posted in the future. 

Despite the short distance, this hike has many things to see in addition to Toadstool Hoodoo.

Left picture has an interesting two color layers. How clear the line between brown and white colors is. Amazing. Beyond the Toadstool Hoodoos, there is no official trail but you can just walk around. 

There are at least 50 hoodoos in the area. It is really bizarre feeling and interesting to see how unique each hoodoo is. 

Another interesting color bands scenery. This is the very West view. The blue sky is terrific. 

After we enjoyed this mid-afternoon fantastic hike, we headed for the evening-sunset hike (third hike of the day) when normal people go to a restaurant for dinner. 

Wolfman Panel, Butler Wash, Utah

Wolfman Panel is really interesting petroglyph and special. 

There are several things often observed in petroglyphs and pictographs in the American Southwest including bighorn sheep, spiral, wavy lines, etc, but here in the Wolfman Panel is unique. 

Wolfman Panel

Picture above, I think that it contain the "Wolfman"

The main person in the middle with long fingers and big leg toes. He seems to have some power. Left and right bottom of the panel has distinct wolf footprint. They are much bigger than actual wolf footprints but there might be some meaning why it is big. I guess this combination of wolf footprints and a man makes the panel called Wolfman. Wolfman is pretty big. May 2 meters. Although the name is Wolfman, the panel is not only that. There are many unusual pictograph as you can see. I see a bird with big wing. Two big eyes? in the right, and so on. Sadly bullet holes are everywhere, but I just oversee it.

Wolfman Panel continues

Another interesting thing on the panel. The middle reminded me of "ObakenoQtaro", Japanese anime character. I am 200% sure the creator didn't mean it. Wikipedia for the anime is below. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obake_no_Q-Tar%C5%8D

Left is interesting figure as well. It looks to me a faucet but there was no faucet there where this was depicted. The right was a sort of plant? 

More interesting shape in the left picture, although highly damaged by bullet holes. It is a perfect circle and there is another shape inside the circle. It might be hard to guess the size by picture, but it is very big actually. Maybe bullet hole size helps to guess the size of petroglyph.

With harsh environment and limited food source and tough life, making this big panel is a lot of work I guess. Thus this panel must have ment a lot for Anasazi people. Why did they make this? To pray? For fun? Imagining their life is fun and never ending. 

Other side of the canyon from Wolfman panel, we noticed that there is ruin there. Also there is a used path to it. Why not check out?!

There are so many pieces of pottery scattered. Never have enough time to check  them all out, but we spent significant amount of time to enjoy each piece's pattern and colors. I wonder the Anasazi broke these potteries intentionally when they disappeared abruptly. 

Ruin is well preserved and really worth to check out by going down the canyon and up. 

Around the ruin, there are at least 100 pictograph. It is really interesting but can't put all the pictograph here. We enjoyed A LOT. Near the ruin, the item they curved were relatively common stuff, such as spiral, bighorn sheep etc as I put two representative picture in the left. 

Butler Wash area is relatively remote but it is good access from Bluff. From parking to the Wolfman panel is less than a mile of walk . Worth checking it out. 

Druid Arch/Chesler Park Loop, Canyonlands National Park

December 2024, I visited Canyonlands National Park in Utah for the second time.

First time I visited Canyonlands NP was in 2014 winter. This time is exactly a decade later in 2024 winter. Since this NP is huge, it never be a shortage of hikes. 

This time we did a big day hike: 15 miles including Druid Arch and Chesler Park loop.  Usually people go to only Druid Arch (10 mile hike) or Chesler Park separately but since the first 2 miles are overlapped, we decided to do in a single hike.

Elephant Hill region

The hike starts in the Elephant Hill area. Interesting round-shaped rocks can be seen. We started early in the morning and the rocks are pretty reflecting the first light of the day. After that, mostly the walk is in the wash. Only the last quarter mile is steep to the Druid arch. 

Arch. You might imagine an arch is more circular arch shape, but natural arch can be various shape. Look at Druid Arch! Isn't it a bit different than the arch you imagine? It is very cool shape.  

Druid Arch

We enjoyed the arch view for a while by ourselves! What a treat. Then we moved on going to Chesler Park. It is a quite unique park. If you are there, you can tell why it is called "park", because there is big field of green and it is surrounded by interesting tall rocks. The picture below you can get a sense. 

Chesler Park

Chesler Park

Many many rocks of combined spire continues. It was really pleasant walk in the Chesler Park. Great point about this hike is there is variety. After some time in the Chesler Park, the trail goes into slot canyon called the Joint. It is quite short, but fun. We took time to enjoy every nice view and had a great day! 

Chesler Park

Joint trail

Horseshoe Canyon, Barrier Canyon Style Rock Art

In Horseshoe Canyon I saw the most striking panel of ancient rock in my life. 

Since I got into American South West's ruins, I watched some cool Youtube videos and I learned that there is a distinct rock art style compared to Anasazi eras. It is called Barrier Canyon style and they are much older than Anssazi's. Barrier canyon style art is believed to be made between 2000 BCE to 500 BCE. In fact, habitant in Horseshoe canyon is predicted to start back from 9000 BCE. I really wanted to see Barrier Canyon style and that desire brought me to the Horse canyon. 

Descending to Horse Canyon

Horse canyon is a part of Canyonlands National Park. It is a separated small section in the remote area. When we drove to the parking lot, we didn't see a single car on the way, in the parking lot, the entire hike, and way back to the paved road far away from the trailhead. The hike starts going down into the wash of the canyon. We started early in the morning and the rocks are beautiful reflecting sun. 

First attraction is dinosaur track. It is hard to spot it, so likely National Park Service made a circle with rocks. Even with that, it was hard to see the track. In SouthWest, there are many places dinosaur tracks can be found, but for me sometimes even with sign it is difficult to find them. Anyway, we proceeded the hike. 

First panel

This hike is full of rock art panels. Total of 4 panels! The first one is a little high up. Many human(?) can be seen. My favorite is the bottom right, chubby one with circles inside the body. More dark color in the right and left side are rather fainted. It might be painted in a different times. What do the pictographs mean? We don't know, but fascinating. 

Second panel

Second panel is across the first panel. At the first panel, you can see the second panel across the river. It almost looks like to be made to be seen by far away. Overall image is in the above picture. Really big panel. 

More detailed picture. At least 2 colors are used and some are consisted of 2 colors. Some objects look like person raising both arms. 

Most dark color images in the left. I like the dog?/coyote? image with distinctive tows. Also one human has many lines inside. Interesting. 

Below 3 pictures are the third panel. Third panel is in the big alcove. When we reached this alcove the sun came to the alcove. It was freezing cold morning, but got warm with sun. It is amazing how sun quickly warms up alcove. In Southwest, I learned that sun in the alcove makes me possible to take off at least 2 jackets (when I am cold enough to have 5 layers).

This area has lighter color. Some pictographs has petroglyphs. I don't know that was done by Anasazi later in the time, or modern vandalism. 

This section was quite faint and we almost missed it. Luckily sunlight came and got easier to spot this. The way these people(?) lined up makes me feel kind of scared. I felt like souls from those people were looking at me. Hard to explain the feeling unless you experience in person. 

My favorite one is the one in the middle. Looks like peace sign. I am sure it is not, but I felt like that way. Clear vandalism in the bottom left sadly. 

The last panel, Great Gallery. This is the last one and really striking. The whole picture is in the below picture. You can tell why it is called Great Gallery. The most famous panel, Holy Ghost panel is painted in the alcove shaped. It is indeed an art. The tall "person" is about 8 feet (2.43 meters). Taller than anybody else in the world. 

BIG PANEL

Closer look of Holy Ghost panel below. The Holy Ghost is tallest and the others are shorter and surrounding it. What was meant by painter? No clue, but for sure I feel some soul from this panel. Story of life can be felt. 

Holy Ghost Panel

Although Holy Ghost panel gets most attention, other part of the Great Gallery is quite fascinating and very detail is well drawn and curved by the ancient people. For example below picture's part. The most left person has two animal inside. Below that, wavy lines and straight lines are depicted. Then the second to the left person has white and black dots neatly lined up in the chest part. Head has the decoration, too. Between the two, there is animal (big horn sheep?). Every one of them has so much detail needs to be observed. Thus we took quite a while to absorb these wonderful things. 

Great Gallery

Below picture the most left person's head has so many white line decoration. In the chest portion, there are decorations as well. Several small people between taller ones. Also small animal can be seen. 

Great Gallery

The below is the one located most right in the entire Great Gallery (you can check the entire Great Gallery picture). This is the tallest "person" in the Great Gallery. This one doesn't have any decorative stuff anywhere inside the body, but the color is very dark. Somehow this image tucked in my mind and I couldn't stop looking back this again and again. Definitely there is power to enter watcher's soul. 

Great Gallery

Intense. 

What do you think about this panel? How do you feel it?

Moon House, Bears Ears National Monument, Utah

 Moon House is one of the most impressive ruins by Anasazi (ancient Native American). The decorations of the ruin is very unique and interesting. These are thought to be used by Anasazi ~800 years ago. Due to possibly drought, they abandoned the area. Despite that, weirdly enough, when I was there I felt like as if they were there yesterday. Also I felt like their souls were still floating around there. I love to see Anasazi ruins and surrounding beautiful canyons in American Southwest. It is so exciting. 

Moon House is located in Cedar Mesa in Bears Ears National Monument. From Highway261, turn into dirt road: Snow Flat road. This road is bumpy. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) states that this is a 2WD road, but I think that it is a 4WD road. Not surprising since it is BLM. After ~8 miles, there is a 2WD parking lot. There is another 4WD (BLM says) road,  a little more than 1 mile to the 4WD parking. We parked at the 2WD parking lot.  No single other car at either parking when we were there. 4WD road is not bad, but quite tilted. 

To visit Moon House, permit is required. $5/person. 20 people per day is permitted to go. During winter time, there is no need to go to the ranger station to validate the permit, because Kane Gulch ranger station is closed during summer (too hot and few people hike in the area) and winter (too cold and few people hike in the area but crazy ones like us). During spring and fall, permit is needed to be validated by ranger at the ranger station. I read on the internet there was no permit requirement long time ago. I read a blog by Utah local saying that he didn't want to share the Moon House information in 90's. Words had spread and when the permit was enforced, he wrote that it was $2. Now $5. Time changes. By internet, more and more secret ruins are revealed. I am sure that before the internet era, only local people knew treasury ruin locations. 

Including 4WD road walk, the total hike is only 4.5 miles, but we took time to explore the main ruin, granaries, and kiva. There is a used path, but don't expect any signs or smoothed trail like National Park provides. The hike first goes down to the bottom of canyon, then goes up to the other side of canyon where Moon House resides. The below picture was taken before we went down to the bottom of the canyon. This is a great overview of Moon House. 

Moon house overview

Outer wall of Moon House

The left picture is the outer wall of Moon House. Can you see many holes in the wall? According to the BLM information, there are 27 holes. BLM call it loop hole, but other people say peep holes. When I actually peep from each hole, it is amazing. Each hole pinpoints the important direction. For example, one hole directs at the granary entry. The other hole to see the trail junction. One to see the ledge with corn grinding area. Some for canyon bottom of left, middle, and right.  Each hole is meaningful. 

Peep holes

The picture in the left is peep holes from inside. One in the right looks like mortar was added after making the hole in the right direction. If these holes were the defensive purposes, their life must have been a really tough one. Were they always being cautious and monitoring enemies? At the same time, considering some holes pinpoints their own balcony for example, I thought that it might be also not trusting their own clan. Looking at grinding area might be to monitor if everyone is actually working, not slacking off. Anyways the truth is unknown. Mr.N thought that these holes are for air ventilation. I disagree, because if they were for ventilation, there is no need to be directed differently. 

Inside of outer wall

It is allowed to go inside through the doorway of outer wall. The left picture is inside. There are 6-7 rooms inside. (BLM note says no entry to the inner rooms). You notice the ceiling is quite black. It must be from fire. Thus I think these rooms are the living rooms. Hiding smoke might be another purpose in addition to defense to have the outer wall, so that enemy don't notice their residency. 

More inner rooms

The above next picture is more inner rooms. At the edge of this picture in the right, you see a different color of rooms are connected. That is the one in the upper picture. Inner rooms might have been added, since colors are different. Maybe family members or tribe expanded? This room has Moon House's signature decoration. White line with double triangles pointing below and white dots above the white line. Also there are some holes at the bottom and top for air flow for fire. 

 

Inside the inner rooms

Inside the inner rooms have also the same decorations. White dots and white line with double triangles. The room in the left picture has white circle not painted in white within the line. Also inside of inner room ceiling is extremely black. Fire must have been used a lot here, possibly for cooking and heating. It could be really smokey! 

Inside room

Some of the wall of inner rooms are consisted of logs. They are neatly tied big and small logs by rushing. Amazing to see those work now. Even logs are all very black (but not burnt, meaning fire was not large). 

More inner rooms

The white dots are the really signature of Moon House. Not only painting, but also small white rocks are decorated in the mortar. It might be hard to see in the left picture, but white small rocks are neatly lined in the mortar in the wall. We never know what that means, but it must mean something and a lot of effort to construct the house in that way. These are the main living (assuming) area and surrounding area has many granaries on the same ledge. 

Granary near the main Moon House. Interestingly, the big flat rock is incorporated into the side. 

More granary. One of the peep holes focus exactly on the entry of this. Maybe important food was stored here?

Two granaries combined. Interesting. 

On the same ledge with main Moon House, but more than 5 minutes walk apart. Very big granary or storage. I assume these are not the living area, because the ceiling is not black. Interestingly only the 2nd from the left entry has small white rocks lined for decoration. 

kiva

On the same ledge with half mile walk, there is a kiva. Circular shape with big logs. Some people don't notice this when one finishes the main Moon house, but this is also worth visiting. 

Overall, Moon House is a great ruin to look at. The unique point is decoration that cannot be seen anywhere else. 

Cosmic Ashtray, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Utah

 Another premier day hike in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We have hiked many places in Grand Staircase Escalante, but there are tons more to explore. This National Monument is HUGE! We have been to Utah hiking trip (one trip is 2-4 weeks) now 3 times and I feel I would never finish all the hikes there even if I hike every day for the rest of my life. When I went to Utah second time, my coworker said that I had already been there. Yes that is the normal response. In reality, Utah is too large to explore enough. 

We have enjoyed many day hikes and backpacking in Grand Staircase Escalante and I wrote about these below blog entries. I looked back my blog and I realized again how exciting the Grand Staircase Escalante is. This area is really unique and every time I am there I always feel as if I was on the different planet or somewhere unreal world. 

 Hackberry Canyon
Red Top and Yellow Rock
Unnamed Hoodoo
Escalante Natural Bridge  
Lower Calf Creek Falls and Upper Calf Creek Falls 
Golden Cathedral 
Coyote Gulch 
Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Gulch 
Phipps Arch and Bowington Arch 
Devil's Garden

Upon completion of 2024 Winter Utah hiking trip, I will be adding several more entries for this Grand Staircase Escalante series. First one is this entry. Cosmic Ashtray was on the backup hike list of last year, 2023 Winter Utah trip, but we saved for another time. Since we decided to come back to Utah again, we tried it. 

To go to the trailhead, from Highway12, turn into Old Sheffield Road. It is dirt road, but not bad. Out and back hike with 7.6 mils total. It starts with sandy trail, then soon it becomes slick rocks. Sometimes cairns can be seen, but not always. Without GPS, the Cosmic Ashtray is very likely to be missed, because it is just behind a typical rock and nothing prompts a hiker to check it out behind it. But wow once you see behind the rock, an extremely unusual monument suddenly appears. Really really cool, isn't it?

Cosmic Ashtray

Is it blown water or sand or mud? To figure out, I threw a small stone and found the stone stayed on the surface. I don't know how muddy on the day we were there, but it seemed just sand. In fact, we went around and saw the monument from the other side (below picture, another with red circled marks), we realized small curved steps on the last part of the vertical rock. I pasted a zoomed picture below. I looked up on the internet later and found that some people go down to the sandy portion with rope. However, it is sketchy without rope (and even with rope it is not sure) and I am happy to enjoy the monument with smooth sandy surface without any footsteps!

Those curved rocks are found in Utah area made by Native American Anasazi but the curving here was way too big for Anasazi and clearly done by modern climbers. Anasazi's steps, called Moki steps are really small and minimal required curves (amazing how everything was minimal considering them not having any modern climbing gears). 

Cosmic Ashtray

I liked the view from both sides. I probably prefer the first one, because the viewpoint is much lower than the second one. Importantly, this hike is not only for the Cosmic Ashtray. The view on the way is all fantastic. Full day of view-packed day. 

view!