Round Trip Distance: 11.74 miles
Difficulty: Strenuous
Elevation: 4839 - 5452 feet
Elevation gain: ~2K feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 7 hrs. 30 mins.
Trailhead: McCarty
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 7 hrs. 30 mins.
Trailhead: McCarty
GPS coordinates: 38.73764, -108.26732
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs
Palmer Gulch is located in the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness between Delta and Grand Junction, Colorado. This post covers a long strenuous, but not entirely unenjoyable, hike across McCarty Bench to 5 petroglyph sites that we have identified within the gulch. The hike avoids the private property of the Escalante Ranch by remaining the entire time in the wilderness area. Advanced route finding abilities and hiking skills are recommended.
For turn-by-turn directions to the trailhead enter 38.73764, -108.26732 into your driving app. (On my cell phone I can enter 'McCarty Trail' but for some reason that doesn't show up on my computer). From the turnoff on US-50 it is about 4.8 miles to the trailhead which is on the right.
From the trailhead the McCarty trail climbs steeply up the drainage. Just under the half mile point there is a large cairn where the official McCarty trail continues to the left. At this point take the right fork.
In another 800 feet or so the trail to the right approaches a deep wash. Go to the left and continue climbing the hill on this side of the wash.
Someone has placed a few cairns along this part of the route that are reliable enough to set your course by. Most of the this part of the route looks like a faint game trail.
Just past the 1 mile point the route makes a big drop and crosses the wash on some slickrock at a spot marked on maps as the Falls.
From the falls on you will need to take advantage of your advanced route finding skills with the object, of course, to get over to Palmer Gulch, which is another 2.7 miles away, with the least amount of effort as possible, and without trespassing. To do that you will want to stay high enough up on the bench so that you aren't continually climbing in and out of washes. The way that we accomplished that was to stay high up on the shoulder of the mountain as we rounded the point above the falls and then using our GPS to more or less follow the 5,400 feet contour line.
We started bending our course a little toward the mouth of Palmer Gulch at some very large boulders that we marked on the map as 'Sheltered Rocks'. There are actually a score or more rock shelters on this upper bench where you could easily get in out of the rain. Only one of them, which was one at Sheltered Rocks, showed any signs at all of previous habitation. That one had some campfire soot on its back wall. If you decide to camp up here make sure you don't stay in one that may have been an archeological site.
Fee: none
Attractions: petroglyphs
Palmer Gulch is located in the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness between Delta and Grand Junction, Colorado. This post covers a long strenuous, but not entirely unenjoyable, hike across McCarty Bench to 5 petroglyph sites that we have identified within the gulch. The hike avoids the private property of the Escalante Ranch by remaining the entire time in the wilderness area. Advanced route finding abilities and hiking skills are recommended.
For turn-by-turn directions to the trailhead enter 38.73764, -108.26732 into your driving app. (On my cell phone I can enter 'McCarty Trail' but for some reason that doesn't show up on my computer). From the turnoff on US-50 it is about 4.8 miles to the trailhead which is on the right.
From the trailhead the McCarty trail climbs steeply up the drainage. Just under the half mile point there is a large cairn where the official McCarty trail continues to the left. At this point take the right fork.
In another 800 feet or so the trail to the right approaches a deep wash. Go to the left and continue climbing the hill on this side of the wash.
Someone has placed a few cairns along this part of the route that are reliable enough to set your course by. Most of the this part of the route looks like a faint game trail.
Just past the 1 mile point the route makes a big drop and crosses the wash on some slickrock at a spot marked on maps as the Falls.
From the falls on you will need to take advantage of your advanced route finding skills with the object, of course, to get over to Palmer Gulch, which is another 2.7 miles away, with the least amount of effort as possible, and without trespassing. To do that you will want to stay high enough up on the bench so that you aren't continually climbing in and out of washes. The way that we accomplished that was to stay high up on the shoulder of the mountain as we rounded the point above the falls and then using our GPS to more or less follow the 5,400 feet contour line.
We started bending our course a little toward the mouth of Palmer Gulch at some very large boulders that we marked on the map as 'Sheltered Rocks'. There are actually a score or more rock shelters on this upper bench where you could easily get in out of the rain. Only one of them, which was one at Sheltered Rocks, showed any signs at all of previous habitation. That one had some campfire soot on its back wall. If you decide to camp up here make sure you don't stay in one that may have been an archeological site.
Anyway, there were some deer in the area on our trip, and knowing that they have to go down to the river to drink on a regular basis, we found a good game trail that led down to the mouth of Palmer Gulch.
The route that we took brought us into Palmer Gulch just inside of the wilderness boundary. From there it was only a few hundred feet to the first panel of petroglyphs which are under an overhang on the left side of the wash.
Here there are a few anthros, a lot of game animals, at least one bear paw, and what looks like a guy with the tail end of a rattlesnake in each hand.
There is also this image of what looks like a coiled rattlesnake.
About another hundred feet up the wash, under a short overhang on the opposite side of the wash, are a couple more panels of petroglyphs.
The route that we took brought us into Palmer Gulch just inside of the wilderness boundary. From there it was only a few hundred feet to the first panel of petroglyphs which are under an overhang on the left side of the wash.
Here there are a few anthros, a lot of game animals, at least one bear paw, and what looks like a guy with the tail end of a rattlesnake in each hand.
There is also this image of what looks like a coiled rattlesnake.
About another hundred feet up the wash, under a short overhang on the opposite side of the wash, are a couple more panels of petroglyphs.
Here you can count at least 8 bear paws of various sizes.
At least one of the bear paws looks like it might depict a grizzly bear.
The next couple of panels are around a bend in the wash under an overhang on the left. This panel looks like a group of anthro's acting out some story.
Around the next bend after that, and also on the left side of the wash there is this square image that has various scratch marks around it.
To the right of that square image there is another one of a different style about 10 feet away on the other side of a juniper tree.
We investigated every alcove on both sides of the wash for the next mile without finding anything. At that point we had come to where Gunnison Gulch connects on the right. Staying in Palmer Gulch we came to one last panel on the right side of the wash on a darkly patinated cliff.
The images here were mostly big game animals.
One interesting thing to note is that the lower part of the panel disappears into the ground. It's illegal to do any of your own excavating so naturally we didn't disturb anything.
Our downloadable GPX track for Palmer Gulch includes the private property boundaries. We've been putting off visiting Palmer Gulch and Leonard's Basing for a long time because of the private property, knowing that the alternative to driving there would be a very long hike. When we read that the BLM had acquired Escalante Ranch we decided to look into it once more but found out that at present nothing has changed. There are still all of the same locked gates and no trespassing signs.
Tired of waiting we opted to go ahead with the hiking option. We spent one full day hiking about 12 miles researching a route across McCarty Bench that stayed within the wilderness boundary. The next trip was the 12 mile hike that gave us the photos for this post. It would have been nice to hike another mile up Palmer Gulch and to have also explored a little of Gunnison Gulch but that would have been pushing our endurance, knowing that the return trip requires another 1,000 feet of elevation gain.
Anyway, if you would like to see Palmer Gulch for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
Anyway, if you would like to see Palmer Gulch for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
