Exploring the Ancient Ruins of Kane and Grand Gulch

Posted On June 6, 2022

Trip dates: 5/29-5/31/2022

Backpacking season is finally ramping up, and my first Utah backpacking trip was one that I won’t soon forget! My ex-housemate/backpacking baby (although by now she has enough experience to be considered a backpacking teenager) Megan came out here so we could explore the desert on two short backpacking trips. This blog post will be about the first trip: two nights Kane and Grand Gulch.

Red tape: permits are required but were easy to get a couple of weeks before our start date. Reserve overnight permits at here. They cost $15/person + a $6 reservation fee.

We started our hike with a check-in for the most up to date water report at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station. The closest water was *probably* a stagnant pool about eight miles in up Todie Canyon (the ranger we spoke to told us it might have a nice umami flavor), and the next known reliable source was about six miles after that at Green Mask Springs. I thought we’d have no problem making the fourteen miles to camp at the reliable source, but I obviously didn’t account for how much time we’d spend stopping at the ruins along the way. Don’t be like me. Plan to GO SLOWLY and ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE of walking through areas where humans lived hundreds (thousands?) of years ago. It’s an incredible area that deserves your time.

After loading our packs up with what ended up being way too much water (we definitely weren’t exiting early because of lack of water), we started our hike down Kane Gulch around 11:00 am.

We got our first glimpse of Junction Ruin, the first ruins down Kane Gulch. I can’t describe how awesome it was to explore places up close that people inhabited so long ago. Holding their pottery shards and standing next to their rock art was such a unique way to feel a connection to them.

We came across quite a few side trails, most of which led to ruins that weren’t marked on our map.

After lots of exploring, we finally made it to camp. The day had been pretty windy, so we picked a somewhat protected spot under a juniper tree about 1/4 mile up Todie Canyon. We had our cold soaked couscous, which wasn’t the worst thing I’ve eaten. I’ve knocked cold soaking forever, but decided to give it a shot due to the lack of water on the trail.

I was wandering around camp playing with my camera while Megan did her nightly drawing in her journal when a couple of mule deer bounded out of the trees and hung out with us from across the dry riverbed.

The next morning, we hiked a bit further up Todie to find the stagnant umami water, which turned out to be not nearly as gross as I was expecting. We filled up our water, dropped a few bottles back off at camp on our way back down the canyon, and headed out for a day hike further up Grand Gulch.

We found more unmarked ruins that had some of my favorite rock art on the walls: negative handprints, bighorn sheep, and human forms. I have so much to learn about the art! We were also lucky enough to see and hear a pair of peregrine falcons going to and from their nest high up the canyon wall.

We eventually turned around to head back to Todie, pack up camp, and find a spot closer to the trailhead to camp for second and last night. We stopped just short of Turkey Pen ruins, mostly because we found a spot with a cute bench that someone had built.

The hike out the next day was HOT. We managed to get ourselves turned around at a giant impassable boulder field, then I managed to slip and fall in the mud immediately after making a joke about slipping and falling in the mud. I was actually grateful for my slip and fall, because the mud really cooled me off. Take a tip from pigs and roll in the mud when you’re hot.

I would LOVE to go back to Grand Gulch and explore more earlier in the spring or in the fall. Carrying so much water in in late May wasn’t the most fun experience ever, but it was absolutely worth it. The area feels like a living museum. Another bonus: we had the place to ourselves and didn’t see anyone else after Junction Ruin on our first day, which was the polar opposite of our trip to Coyote Gulch later in the week.