Archive of Past Programs

Note: This program is no longer available. Please see Domestic Trips and International Trips for currently available programs.

Backcountry Archaeology
Exploring Slickhorn Canyon, Utah

October 2–8, 2011

 

$1,995 (member*)
$2,120 (nonmember)

Deposit: $400
Balance due: August 2, 2011

*Minimum $100 level
(see Membership)

Carved deeply into the banded sandstone of Cedar Mesa in southeastern Utah, the twisting gorges of Slickhorn Canyon and its tributaries reveal their surprises only to careful and persistent hikers.

Awaiting discovery in this outdoor educational adventure are ancient rock art panels and exquisitely preserved kivas, rooms, and granaries hidden in high alcoves—silent testament to the ancestral Pueblo Indians (the Anasazi) who for more than 2,000 years made their homes in this western frontier of the Pueblo world.

Includes three nights of camping on beautiful Cedar Mesa.

View rock art galleries with images spanning at least two millennia, from the early Basketmaker period to the Pueblo III period

Explore a Chaco-era great house and segments of a prehistoric road

Traverse the dramatic "Moki Dugway" as it climbs the southern face of Cedar Mesa

Hike spectacular red-rock canyons in search of some of the best-preserved archaeological sites in the Mesa Verde region, including kivas, towers, and fortresses built in the final decades before the Pueblo migration in the late thirteenth century

Scholars

Jonathan Till, formerly a laboratory archaeologist at Crow Canyon, has 25 years of archaeological research experience in the Four Corners area of the American Southwest and is currently the director of a multiyear excavation project on White Mesa in southeastern Utah. Years of hiking the backcountry of the Cedar Mesa area have given him an intimate knowledge of its rugged terrain and remarkable archaeology.

Dr. Ricky Lightfoot, former president and CEO of the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, conducted fieldwork in the Four Corners region for nearly 30 years and played a leading role in the development of Crow Canyon's research program. Ricky's research interests include ancestral Pueblo social organization and thirteenth-century competition and conflict.

Summary Itinerary

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

Sunday, October 2
Arrival in Cortez, Colorado, for dinner and introductions; lodging at the Holiday Inn Express in Cortez (D)

Monday, October 3
Drive along the San Juan River to Bluff, Utah, stopping en route in Skull Valley and Cottonwood Canyon to view rock art panels and a Chaco-era great house and road; lodging at the Recapture Lodge in Bluff (B, L, D)

Tuesday, October 4–Thursday, October 6
Drive to base camp on Cedar Mesa via Moki Dugway, and for three days participate in canyon and mesa-top hikes (Perfect Kiva, the Causeway site, Casa del Torreon, and Fortress Ruin); camp Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights (B, L, D)

Friday, October 7
Morning hike on Cedar Mesa, followed by return to Cortez, Colorado, for farewell dinner; lodging at the Holiday Inn Express in Cortez (B, L, D)

Saturday, October 8
Departure from Cortez (B)

B = breakfast, L = lunch, D = dinner

The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center's programs and admission practices are open to applicants of any race, color, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, or sexual orientation.

Registration as a seller of travel does not constitute approval by the State of California
CST 2059347-50

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