Round Trip Distance: 1 mile
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4910 - 5071 feet
Cellphone: 0-2 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: Road G mm 0.7
Fee: none
Attractions: pueblo ruins, petroglyphs
West of Cortez, Colorado, and about a mile before the Utah border, there is a bench on the south side of Cannonball Mesa that overlooks the perennial McElmo Creek. Numerous large boulders are scattered all over the bench. Many of these boulders have sheltered overhangs that make for good habitation sites. This post cover more than a handful of such sites as well as a few petroglyphs.
The unmarked trailhead is on Road G about 28 miles west of Cortez, Colorado. If you are coming from that direction measure 25.3 miles after turning off of US-160/491. If you get to the Ismay Trading Post then you went about a half mile too far.
After parking it is easy to see the trail leading up the side of a shallow draw.
The largest ruins are along the right fork near the top of the draw.
Mortar was used in the construction of this particular ruin which has helped at least parts of it remain standing. Be sure to keep away from the walls and the rubble pile to avoid causing any damage.
Short walls from another ruin can be found on top of the same boulder. From below these walls appear to have been made of dry stacked stones.
The rest of the sites are scattered about the bench. Most of them are along a trail that runs from boulder to boulder but not all of them.
Most of the boulders with overhangs facing the sun will have some sort of ruin. These ruins will have very little remaining in the way of walls but they are still interesting to contemplate.
Petroglyphs are on some of the boulders that aren't associated with ruins.
Graffiti can be found but most of it is from long ago. One inscription has a date of 1893. Be sure not to add any of your own even if it is on a boulder without any images.
It is interesting that most of the shards of pottery that we saw weren't in conjunction with ruins. That led us to wonder whether people had been pocketing what had once laid around those sites and along the trail. If you see any be sure to leave it. Not only is it illegal to remove artifacts they are of no value anywhere else but here and that is for others to enjoy.
There are a handful of wild horses in the area around Cannonball Mesa. They should be especially watched for crossing or grazing along side of the highway. If you don't try to approach them they probably won't run off and you can take all the pictures you want.
