Desert hiking is said to be addictive, but I think it’s just another version of a pastime that offers a glimpse of something many folks don’t afford themselves the opportunity to experience.  Fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to visit our southwestern desert this spring with two guys who’ve spent considerable time over the last 30 years in this region, and between them I’ve managed 4 backpacking trips, giving me just a taste of what resources we have 3 – 5 hours from Durango.  Our local desert, which I always said begins on the south city limits of Durango (while the alpine high country starts on the the north city limits), is just the place to spend your pre-summer shoulder recreation season.

While it still can be cool at night even on these desert backpacking trips, the daytime hiking temps are superb. (I’ve finally ordered a 20° ultralight sleeping bag to take more advantage of the high desert nights in Spring and hopefully Fall).  The first March trips still had snow in the shadows and on some trails we were the first trekkers of the season, stepping on puffy humus trails swollen from a winter of hibernation under the snow.  As March rolled on we saw more and more folks making their spring break/cabin fever escapes and taking advantage of desert trails of the southwest just like us.  What is totally amazing to us was just how many hikers were from more than 2 full days away from these destinations.  Evidently the Pacific Northwest hikers take their Spring break in the American Southwest.  And while I’m thinking of it, it’s really worth noting that 96% of the desert hikers we’ve seen so far are over 60 years old, some well over.

The Grand Gulch of Cedar Mesa is so popular the BLM only allows 20 folks a day to enter the area.
Fortunately the groups are generally 2-4 and, like river trips, travel at varying paces and you might only see one or two groups a day, or even none as in our last two days on the trail.  Day hikers start on both ends of Grand Gulch trail as there is a popular ruin within 5 miles from each direction, so after the first major ruin the volume of hikers falls down to the 1 to 2 backpacker groups.  Of course the major attraction of Grand Gulch is the abundance of “ancient puebloen peoples” ruins, art panels, glyphs, and artifacts.  The Perfect Kiva is a wonderful example of a cliffside kiva community ruin that is totally accessible to any willing to trek down the 1,200′ entry of Bullet Canyon and hike the 5 miles to enjoy Basketmaker living at it’s finest.

You’re able to see some 800- to 1,200-year-old examples of our earliest American settlers just about every other mile of the 30-mile route we choose.  Grand Gulch has several access points and one can travel 50 miles if you take the farthest two points.  I’ve been most familiar with the southern-most terminus on the San Juan River where we always camp on river trips.  We’ve hiked up as far as three miles from the river but I’d never realized the cultural experience further up the gulch.  These days not much water travels down the canyons, except those rain- and thunder-storms that frequent the region during the summer and fall.  Torrents have been known to rip down these narrow canyons and evidence is rampant everywhere with leaves, branches and entire tree trunks high up on the canyon walls, above sand benches and river bed.  One notable point about 28 miles into our hike (and very near the western exit at Collins Springs Canyon) is The Narrows, a 10′ wide “pinch-point” for about 30 miles of south-flowing canyon.Of all the intriguing cultural Basketweaver artifacts we saw, the Big Man Panel is a larger than life-sized graphic of an ancient couple stationed promiently high up on a gooseneck bluff north facing wall.  Done in the “Fremont Man” style, this triangular torso’d couple (man with smaller head includes dangling genitals, woman has necklace, purse and waist ornementation) stands not unlike an ancient puebloen people billboard advertising who knows what.  Without the hinderance of formal archeological training and study, I’m wondering if these Fremont Man graphics aren’t just how they saw themselves in the spring morning low-light shadows on the canyon walls, rather than the Abercrombie & Fitch models of that era.