On 29 Apr 06, Tracy and I hiked the Grand Gulch Trail (Google Map) in south-eastern Utah.

The trail is on BLM land near Natural Bridges National Monument.  We started at the ranger

station, where you have to pay $2 per person, and hiked down the Kane Gulch Trail to Grand

Gulch.  We then went about a mile and half south down Grand Gulch.  We checked out the

Turkey Pen Ruins and Stimper Arch.  The highlight in Grand Gulch is the high concentration of

Anasazi ruins.  We saw ruins at the Kane and Grand Gulch junction, and then about a half mile

down Grand Gulch at the Turkey Pen Ruins.  The ruins were really neat.  It was interesting

thinking about people living here, and looking out over the canyon from their ledge at what they

would have seen.  The Kane Gulch Trail is about 4 miles down to Grand Gulch, and then it's

about half a mile to Turkey Pen Ruins, and then another half a mile to Stimper Arch.  We did

about 11 miles that day.  We were going to backpack, but we just kind of decided we didn't

really like desert camping.  Maybe it will grow on us, but for now the desert is really cool for

short time periods...if we spend too much time there it just gets old.  Who knows...  The trail

only loses and then gains about 600 feet, so except for the desert sun, it's a nice hike.  You

can check out my track log with maps and GPS data for the hike.