For most people, the name Grand Gulch won’t ring a bell. However, its Four Corners neighbor 80 miles to the east, Mesa Verde, probably will.
The two areas are alike in many ways. Grand Gulch contains petroglyphs and hundreds of archaeological sites, including cliff dwellings similar to those popularized by Mesa Verde and built by the Ancestral Puebloan people of the same era (commonly known as the Anasazi). Similar artifacts, such as potsherds, are also found in Grand Gulch, and close examination of them can reveal fingerprints that are at least 800 years old.
But what you won’t find in Grand Gulch that you may have encountered in Mesa Verde are the half million visitors it gets every year, an AM radio station you can tune to for park information, roads and signposts marking each upcoming point of interest and any modern convenience, such as potable water. Grand Gulch is a true backcountry experience. The region is being considered for designation as a wilderness area, and access can be gained only by permit.
Grand Gulch is a 52-mile-long drainage on Cedar Mesa that empties into the San Juan River. Due west of Blanding, Utah, on Utah Highway 95 towards Natural Bridges National Monument, you’ll turn south on Utah Highway 261, park near Kane Gulch Ranger Station, and leave behind the roads, the signs and all but what you can carry on your back. The rest of the way is on foot.
A learning excursion
Roaring Fork Valley residents Jennifer Long and Jim McMillian have each ventured into Grand Gulch, both on guided trips led by anthropologist/archaeologist Sandy Jackson and ecologist Dr. Jim Campbell from Colorado Mountain College.
Long visited Grand Gulch in the fall of 2007. The appeal of the trip for her was the opportunity to be where she loved – in the outdoors – while learning a lot at the same time. The fact that there are not any markers pointing to the ruins contributed to the sense of wonder. All along the way, “you are always looking…and discovering things yourself,” she describes.
For McMillian who holds a life-long fascination with archaeology, the opportunity to travel with an archaeologist to the remote Grand Gulch was a chance not to be missed. Because the remnants of many inhabitants are plentiful and unidentified by any kind of marker, it can be a bit of a mystery to know exactly what you are seeing.
“With an untrained eye,” McMillian explains, “you can walk right over the top of (an archaeological site) and not even know it.”
In contrast to taking a trip to enjoy the simple beauty of the outdoors, a trip to Grand Gulch has to be more than just a pretty hike. Especially in an area of such great cultural importance, interpretation is a big key to the experience.
“I like to emphasize the idea that we’re going on these field trips as travelers, not as tourists,” instructor Sandy Jackson says. Distinguishing between them, she describes, “Travelers are learning and experiencing, not simply observing or taking a snapshot.”
Borrowing a phrase from author Fred Blackburn, Jackson calls Grand Gulch an “outdoor, living museum.” Its precious and irreplaceable artifacts are not encased in glass or roped off from entry. McMillian believes that visitors gain an appreciation the fragility of the area. In this backcountry setting, he says it’s essential to learn “how to take care of yourself, how to take care of the environment you’re in, and how to take care to respect what you’re seeing.”
Uncovering the Grand Gulch story
Grand Gulch was occupied by many different societies over thousands of years, some of whom were nomadic, leaving no permanent structures, and most all of them leaving behind no written record of their lives. The obvious dwellings of the later Anasazi occupation were discovered in the late 1800s, and since then, archaeologists have been piecing together the Grand Gulch story from other clues that speak about its many chapters.
Excavations done shortly after its discovery revealed evidence of much earlier inhabitants. Underneath several hundred years’ worth of soil deposits were found simpler pit house structures and artifacts such as baskets, earning this society the name “Basketmaker.” Where the artifacts are located in the stratigraphy, or layers in the soil, gives us an idea of when these people lived in Grand Gulch – approximately between 1000 B.C. and 750 A.D.
There have been no recent excavations in Grand Gulch, so not all of its habitations are evident to the visitor. Noticing certain features of the land, “such as a depression where there shouldn’t be a depression,” Jackson illustrates, may well indicate the presence of another archaeological site buried below.
A big part of Grand Gulch’s story is told by the environment itself. Given the extremes in temperature and the absence of much water, McMillian says it’s obvious to ask, “How could anyone live here?”
Indeed, one of the major concerns in traveling to Grand Gulch is water. Not only did Long and McMillian rely upon their guides’ expertise and interpretation of cultural artifacts, they also depended on Jackson and Campbell’s familiarity with reliable sources of water to drink. In a 52-mile gulch, you don’t want to make the mistake of looking in the wrong direction for water.
Though southeastern Utah has currently been in a drought for a long time now, the climate was very different when people inhabited the Gulch. One of the things you might least expect to find in Grand Gulch would be a corncob, yet sizeable granaries filled with cobs speak to an era of successful agriculture.
Tree-ring dating yields a great deal of information about climate, particularly about the moisture levels. The wider the ring, the more moisture there was in that year, and the more successful the crops. These tree rings also likely expose the fate of the Anasazi – periods of drought that had them struggling to survive. Around 1200 A.D., their only viable choice was leaving Grand Gulch.
Lessons for us today
One of the critical conversations of Jackson and Campbell’s field course to Grand Gulch involves the comparison between powerful and efficient societies.
“Powerful societies are ones that tend to gobble up their resources,” Jackson explained, while efficient societies utilize a full range of ecosystems to support their survival.
Campbell, who co-teaches the Colorado Mountain College course, focuses upon how societies lived off the land and how they dealt with environmental challenges. Examining how a past society either dealt or did not deal with these challenges and limited resources can have great implications for us today.
“We live in the world, we can’t escape living in the world and we can’t escape the consequences of what we do in the world,” Campbell explains. “The Anasazi existed for centuries. Our society is going to exist for centuries as well, as long as we keep in mind certain basic facts, (one of which) is that we cannot outstrip our resources. That’s what happened with part of the Anasazi…That will not happen with us,” Campbell predicts, “because, perhaps, we’re going to learn from the past.”
An opportunity
A visit to Grand Gulch gives many insights and, perhaps, even more questions to ponder. Long recalls that “one night I didn’t use a tent, and it was brilliant, just looking up at the stars and into the canyon, and you think how that would have felt the same 700 years ago. You start imagining how it would have been to live back then.”
If you’re looking for a fall trip with an element of discovery, if you want to avoid the crowds, if you want a backcountry experience and you want to learn something, Grand Gulch is a destination, within a reasonable travel radius of the Roaring Fork Valley, that will more than satisfy.
Colorado Mountain College offers this guided trip October 12-17, with pre-trip meetings beginning October 2 at the Lappala Center in Carbondale. The course is limited to ten participants, so early registration is advised. The cost is two hours of tuition (the in-district rate is $49 per credit hour) plus a supplemental charge of $149 that covers all permit fees and transportation.
Both Long and McMillian concur that the hike itself is not too strenuous or technical. The primary requirement is that participants be able to carry a 40-pound backpack for a total of 25 miles – about five miles per day.
Call the CMC Lappala Center in Carbondale at 970-963-2172 for more details or how to register.