Carved into the sheer rock of Cedar Mesa in southeastern Utah, Grand Gulch offers hikers spectacular scenery and an exquisitely preserved record of human history dating back thousands of years.

With four experienced, expert guides, you'll explore rarely visited archaeological sites, including Archaic rock art panels, Basketmaker habitation sites, ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) cliff dwellings, and cowboy camps. This hiking adventure includes two day-long hikes in Grand Gulch, one day-long hike on Cedar Mesa, and a half-day hike in Natural Bridges National Monument.

Explore the history of human occupation in the Grand Gulch region, including the exodus of Pueblo Indians in the late A.D. 1200s

Compare rock art styles and designs through time, from the Archaic through Pueblo III periods

Investigate the impact of the "Chaco phenomenon" on Pueblo Indians living in southeastern Utah in the eleventh and twelfth centuries

Discover the role of early explorers, like the Wetherill family, in the history of Southwestern archaeology

Scholars

Winston Hurst is a prominent archaeologist and native son of southeastern Utah who has conducted research in the Four Corners area since the early 1970s. Currently field director for the Comb Ridge Survey Project, Winston is an expert on ancestral Pueblo pottery and on Chaco influence in the Grand Gulch region.

Jonathan Till, formerly a laboratory archaeologist at Crow Canyon, has conducted research in the Four Corners area for more than 20 years and is currently a project director for Abajo Archaeology in Bluff, Utah. His specialty is the Chaco-era monumental architecture and landscape archaeology of the ancestral Pueblo Indians.

Benjamin Bellorado has conducted archaeological research in the Four Corners area for more than a decade, with a particular focus on rock art, agriculture, and climatic, ecological, and social changes in the northern Southwest. He is currently conducting fieldwork at early ancestral Pueblo sites in southeastern Utah.

Joe Pachak is an archaeologist and artist in Bluff, Utah, who for several decades has recorded and interpreted ancient rock art using contextual analyses and Pueblo ethnography. Joe's original artwork is widely exhibited, including at the Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding, Utah.

Summary Itinerary

A detailed itinerary is available in the program brochure (PDF). Itinerary subject to change.

Please read the description of each hike carefully in the detailed itinerary!

Sunday, September 26
Arrival in Cortez, Colorado; introduction (D)

Monday, September 27
Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum and Pueblo in Blanding, Utah; camp (B, L, D)

Tuesday, September 28
Hiking in Grand Gulch (choice of one of two hikes): Collins Spring Canyon (rock art sites, cliff dwellings, cowboy camp) or Kane Gulch (Junction Ruin, Turkey Pen Ruin, Stimper Arch); camp (B, L, D)

Wednesday, September 29
Hiking on Cedar Mesa: Chaco-era great house, great kiva, ancient "fortress"; camp (B, L, D)

Thursday, September 30
Hiking in Grand Gulch (do the hike you didn't do on Tuesday): Collins Spring Canyon (rock art sites, cliff dwellings, cowboy camp) or Kane Gulch (Junction Ruin, Turkey Pen Ruin, Stimper Arch); camp (B, L, D)

Friday, October 1
Natural Bridges National Monument: Sipapu natural bridge, Horsecollar Ruin; return to Cortez (B, L, D)

Saturday, October 2
Departure from Cortez (B)

B = breakfast, L = lunch, D = dinner