Nine Mile Canyon, UT - Part I

Nine Mile Canyon had been on my "bucket list" for quite a while, as it is an area known for some great rock art, and since it was "on the way" after leaving Park City we planned a few days in the area.

The canyon is truly a study in contrasts. Here, you can experience the very old and the very new, the quiet of narrow canyons and small gurgling streams, and the hustle and bustle of the natural gas industry and ranching.

Formed by layers of lake mud compressed over the eons, the sides of Nine Mile Canyon are built of layer upon layer of mudstone, shale and sandstone. Richly colored and sculpted by erosion, they are fascinating scenery and would be the perfect backdrop for a western movie. The towering sides rise to over 7,000 feet, more than 1,200 feet above the valley floor. The dramatic and awe inspiring  view alone is worth a trip to the canyon.

Over a span of about 8,000 years many successive cultures have called this area home. The earlier are grouped together under the term “Fremont Culture”, later the Utes roamed the hillsides. Following closely after them were pioneer settlers and a few world-famous cowboys and “bad guys” like Butch Cassidy and the “Wild Bunch”, as well as the U.S. 9^th Calvary (Buffalo Soldiers). Truly a microcosm of western history, there's a lot to explore in this narrow canyon.

Early ranchers established grazing areas for their cattle and judging by the ruins we can still see today they built some pretty impressive buildings and holding pens. Many of the homesteads were built up against the rocky cliffs, for a bit of wind protection perhaps. Most of those  old ranches now stand forlorn and forgotten, roofs caved in and doors hanging ajar, but nonetheless protected by law from destruction, as is the rest of the canyon.

The canyon doesn't seem lonely, however, as the various pipeline operations and working ranches generate a considerable amount of traffic, in addition to the tourists moseying along the road checking out the petroglyphs and scenery just as we were. There are still a few working ranches here, and cattle seem to think they own the road, but the picturesque abandoned ranches far outnumber the occupied ones.

You might say Nine Mile canyon is remote, if you consider its lack of services, and the approximately 22 miles one must drive to find a store of any kind.

There is no cell service here, no mail boxes, no newspaper delivery, but there are deer and a rushing creek, and those fantastic sandstone spires contrasting with billowy clouds, petroglyphs and Fremont culture ruins and pioneer cabins provide enough entertainment for us.

Nine Mile Canyon is actually about 40 miles long, the name coming from early days when John Wesley Powell was exploring the area. There are several side canyons worth exploring if you have the time and inclination, but plan for several days here in order to do so. The tour guides say you can “do it in a day”, but it took us two, and we didn’t get to everything we had intended to see, much less any of the inviting gravel roads leading off into the narrow side canyons.

Natural gas plant on the left

Several petroleum companies have been operating in the canyon for many years, and there have been some emotionally charged conflicts between them and the conservationists who seek to protect the petroglyphs, Indian ruins and historic pioneer buildings from the ravages of the dust and fumes produced by vehicular traffic. Dust, which damages the petroglyphs, is the major complaint.  Some compromises have been reached.  There are paved sections in some areas, and in others magnesium chloride is sprayed on the road as a dust inhibitor, though experience and research is now showing there are drawbacks to this treatment too.

Some sections of the road have been routed further away from petroglyph panels to give them a little more protection from dust and fumes.  As usual with compromises, probably neither side is totally happy but all the final ends are accomplished. . . jobs, energy, preservation, and access for the public.  We are just grateful for the opportunity to visit the area and appreciate both the need for energy and the need to preserve historic areas. We also noted that the roads used by the petroleum companies tend to be better maintained than in other areas, another bonus for travelers.

This canyon is famous largely for the petroglyphs, the number as well as the style. We'll share more about those in the next blog post. The younger, pioneer history is important too, and definitely worth experiencing.

The ghost town of Harper, as well as Nutter Ranch, are both locations with a number of standing buildings. Harper once had a stage coach stop, inn, school and postoffice. Now, mere shells of those buildings remain.

Much of the property along the canyon is privately owned, so watch for signs and respect them. It’s easy to get good photographs without trespassing (or annoying the cows).

Gate Canyon intersects Nine Mile Canyon at about the halfway point. Named for a stone arch that went over the road back in stagecoach days, the arch was demolished because of fears it would fall and crush the stagecoach or other travelers who passed beneath it.

Outlaw Point

Gate Canyon is also the location of “outlaw point”-
"Outlaw Point" is the sharp bend in the road where a group of outlaws intended to ambush the soldiers escorting the army payroll and Indian annuities.  The plan was to kill all 20 soldiers in the escort and leave no living witness.  While some members of the "Wild Bunch" allegedly participated in the scheme, Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid and Elza Lay did not.  They knew the army would hunt them relentlessly for such a bloodbath.  The army was told of the plan by an informant and the guard was double to 40 soldiers.  The Outlaws hiding on the ledges hastily called off the ambush as the heavy escort rode through.  There is speculation that Butch Cassidy was the informant when he realized that he would be blamed for the crime, whether he participated or not.

If you follow Gate Canyon to the summit you’ll be rewarded with a view back, north, to the snow capped Uinta Mountains. As you climb the canyon you'll be following the face of the Badland Cliffs, skirting the edge of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.  The road eventurally joins Hwy. 40, near Myton, but we turned around at the summit and went back down to Nine Mile Canyon.

Along Gate Canyon road you’ll see signs of the road build by the 9^th Calvary. The names of many of the soldiers are painted in black axle grease at the base of a cliff near where the road crosses a creek. They also installed a telegraph line in the canyon and many of the slim metal poles are still in place.The cabins that served as the telegraph office, and their bunk house, are still standing at Nutter's Ranch, down in the main canyon.

Telegraph pole

If you plan to visit Nine Mile Canyon do your research ahead of time as you’ll have no Internet service once you enter the canyon proper. Try to obtain at least two guides. We used three, one from Utah Outdoors and Climb Utah  as well as one the folks at Nine Mile Ranch handed us, produced by the Carbon County Travel Bureau and others. There's also good information available from the BLM on this site.  Each offers a bit of different information so you need to cross-reference. Mileages and gps readings vary and the road is constantly being altered, so take all the directions with a grain of salt.

The only camping in the canyon is at Nine Mile Ranch. The ranch has a few small cabins if you want to go that route. Everything here is rustic, but comfortable.

There are two camping areas and we chose the lower one, Cottonwood Hollow, as it accommodated the length of our rig a bit more comfortably. You can see a bit of white between the trees in this photo - that's us!

Nestled up to the creek we had a nice view, and privacy from the other sites. We stayed three nights, which gave us time to really soak up and enjoy the area. We celebrated our visit to the canyon the first night with a great stew and a new Dutch oven biscuit recipe, named in honor of the canyon. Check it out at The Cookhouse.

Our excursions kept us away from camp 4-5 hours each day, and though we did have to cover some of the same ground on the second day to get to the area we had designated as "day 2" it proved to be a good plan. There's no way we could have covered it all in only one day. The last day we were barely back in camp when a big (but brief) thunderstorm hit.  Trail weary but happy to have seen all that we did over the last two days, we relaxed over a nice steak dinner and prepared to break camp.

There are more pictures from the canyon here. . . . next post, the petroglyphs!