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Published: February 12th 2009
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The Peekaboo Springs Trail is a 5.0 mile route from the Squaw Flat Campground Trailhead east and south to Peekaboo Springs in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park in southeast Utah. Peekaboo Springs can also be reached by hiking along the 2.5 mile Salt Creek Trail. This area has Rock Art pictographs, arches, and Ancestral Pueblo Ruins.
The Peekaboo Trail is part of an extensive network of trails that passes up and down on the carved rocks of this part of Canyonlands, giving long views from up above and passing through the desert environment and sometimes riparian down below.
There are three well marked trail junctions along the way. After the trail junction with Lost Canyon, about halfway through the hike, the rest of the way seemed like a high wire act, passing along fairly narrow ledges along the rims of several canyons in a row.
The trail passes through a small arch window in the massive rock at one point. There was one spot with about one mile to go that I thought was particularly treacherous. A very narrow and slanted ledge over a very severe drop off was scary enough that Looking back at this
spot it is hard to see any trail over there, but everyone seems to get past it. This was a spot that I think needs a bar or something to hold on to. Otherwise, the route was easy to follow but had the typical difficulty that Canyonlands offers.
There are two ladders on the trail, the second one is right at the descent into the Peekaboo Springs area. It is situated in a narrow crack and is about 20 feet high. A thrilling finish to this somewhat dizzying hike. You want to finish this hike if you can. There is a large pictograph panel at the very end. It took me 2:15 hours to cover this 5.0 mile segment.
The Rock Art is the work of Ancestral Pueblo people who lived here and abandoned the area by 1300 AD. This panel resembles two turtles to most observers but may also represent shields. Below the white images there are some faint red images that are thought to be much older, perhaps thousands of years old.
To the left of the small arch and the turtle like images is a panel of hand prints. The Salt Creek area in Canyonlands
was an area of year round water and has other ruins and evidence of farming activity. Further to the left are some white images that are similar to the red hand prints, though a little vague. Instead of retracing, you can continue hiking using the Salt Creek Trail with the Horse Canyon Trail as an option.
The Salt Creek Trail is a 4WD and hiking route along a creek bed that can be accessed near the Cave Springs Trail in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park This route has a lot of water in the spring but is reasonably dry in the fall. Even in the fall there was some water in the area of Peekaboo Springs. The creek bottom area is very thick with brush and it is hard to stray off the trail.
Along the route there is a 4WD road junction into Horse Canyon leading to Paul Bunyan's Potty Arch and Tower Ruins. Near this junction there are two cave formations on the west side of the route that appeared from a distance to be possible small ruins sites. There are also several small formations that appear to be arches. In some cases these
might just be notches but there are at several definite small arches.
Along the Horse canyon route there is an arch that I thought was Paul Bunyan's Potty but it actually belongs to someone smaller and doesn't seem to have a name. Paul apparently has a two holer. It took me about 1:10 hours to get to this point coming from the Salt Creek Trail Head near Cave Springs. The canyon floor here is fairly dense with vegetation and there appears to be a project of reducing the invasive Tamarisk trees.
It is possible to get off the trail and down into the wash for a closer look. This area has a lot of alcoves and cave formations that look like possible ruins sites. The ruins sites in this area mostly appear to be small storage sites.
About 15 minutes past the first arch there is a small granary storage ruin right at eye level along the sandy trail. These sites usually seem to be placed higher and are more hidden than this one. The interpretive information at the Roadside Ruins site indicates that this region may have been used seasonally for farming but not so much
for year round habitation.
The Paul Bunyan Potty arch is looming just above the small storage ruin only a minute further away. There is a sign making the identification clear. Hiking past the Paul Bunyan arch toward Tower Ruin, both of the arches can be viewed at the same time.
There is a short side trail from the small loop parking area to get up under and get the clear sky view through the arch. It took me about 1:30 hours to get here hiking starting at Salt Creek. This is a somewhat tiring route due to the sand. I was always searching for a firmer surface to walk on. From the Paul Bunyan arch it is about 40 minutes further to get to Tower Ruin.
The Tower Ruin Trail is a side route to a small ruins site off of the Horse Canyon trail. The trail junction is about 1.0 miles past the Paul Bunyan Potty arch and is marked with a small sign. The Horse Canyon Trail continues for several more miles to the south. It is about 0.7 miles more to arrive at the ruins site.
The Tower Ruin is a small site
but is in a towering position. It appears to be a storage site but someone may have lived there also. The Tower Ruin overlooks a broad grassy area surrounded by steep sandstone walls. This area looks somewhat like nearby Chesler Park but without the Needles. The trail to the ruins site was a little more firm and a relief after the sand of Horse Canyon. The ruins site appears to be a tricky place to get up to and doesn't have much room, but it appears to be well preserved with some roof beams still in place.
On the return hike, further to the south, a large arch is visible about a mile away. The park map shows Gothic Arch to be in that area. It took me 2:30 hours to hike to Tower Ruins with stops at the Paul Bunyan arch and the smaller arch before it. The return hike took 1:40 hours for a total hike of 4:10 hours for this 8 or 9 mile round trip from Cave Springs.
More about Canyonlands Trails at http://4cornershikescanyonlands.blogspot.com
Four Corners Hikes-Canyonlands
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