Round Trip Distance: 0.4 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 5568 - 5649 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: Lower Gulch
Fee: none
Attractions: granary
The Gulch Granary is located in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument about 11 miles southeast of Boulder, Utah. Other than the missing lid to the opening on top of the granary it is pretty much in perfect condition. When we made our visit we discovered 2 eagle eggs inside of the granary.
For turn-by-turn directions to the trailhead enter The Lower Gulch Trailhead into your driving app. From Boulder, Utah it will have you turn onto the Burr Trail Road where it is only about 10 miles to the trailhead.
At the registration box at the trailhead there is a trail on the left that is the beginning of the Lower Gulch route that leads all the way down to the Escalante River. To get to the granary take the trail behind the registration box that heads up the canyon to the west.
This trail follows along a bench until it comes to a point where it drops down into the wash almost across from a side canyon on the left.
Once you get into the wash there are a lot of confusing trails going off in different directions. The granary is on the west side of the short side canyon on the left.
On the way to the granary we took a higher route that crossed the side canyon right above a large spillover. On the return trip we followed a trail at the mouth of the side canyon that crossed below the spillover. Either route will get you to and from the granary.
At some point you will need to do a little scrambling to get higher up on the west side of the side canyon before leveling out at the same level of the granary.
Once you get up to that level you will find the granary on a ledge beneath part of an overhang.
It is easy enough to admire the granary from below but a little more minor scrambling will get you right up on the same ledge.
It is interesting to see how they laid wood across the top of the granary and held it all in place and made it water tight with mortar.
We happened to look inside of the granary and saw a couple of eagle eggs inside. Since we were there in July we figured the eggs must have been abandoned for some reason before they hatched.
Before we left the area we noticed a cave in the next side canyon over that from a distance showed signs of habitation. We were unable to find a good route to the cave on this trip but will try again at some other time.
The granary here at the top of the Lower Gulch trail is a nice excursion if you happen to be in the area, maybe exploring the Lower Gulch where it seems that pretty much every cave and alcove was a habitation site and where there is also some good rock art.
As far as the Gulch Granary goes, if you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
