Cane Wash

We have driven Cane Wash several times, but have never taken the time to explore the Calf Mesa Uranium mine. Our trip is now complete, we finally found the bulldozer. BTW the view from the top of the mesa is one of the best in the swell.

Calvary 4-Wheelers ran Round Knoll as part of our annual Spring Break trip to Utah. Along for the ride were me and my wife, Missy, in our stock TJ, our daughter, Leona, and her boyfriend, Steve, in our stock WJ, Karen in her stock JK, Mike and Jessica in their nicely built LJ, my nephew, Jon and his dad (my brother), Richard, in Jon’s lifted XJ, and my niece, Kiyanna, and her mom (my sister-in-law), Kirsten in Kiyanna’s lifted TJ. After completing Round Knoll to Oil Well Flat, we made our way across the Cane Wash cutoff and began the bottom half of Cane Wash from Waypoint 6. There had been some rain the night before and I was expecting wet and muddy conditions but the wash had mostly dried out already and the going was smooth. We made our way down the wash keeping a steady pace and enjoying the scenery. We stopped at the “hut” and some of us got out to explore but the weather was turning colder and the wind was picking up so we didn’t stay very long. Some of us wonder if there may be a mine tunnel behind the plywood of the back wall. It seems like a lot of structure for such a tiny hut. We made the turn off to the Calf Mesa Mine but it was continuing to get colder and windier so nobody wanted to get out and explore. We did enjoy the abandoned vehicles, especially the truck. My dad had an old International when I was growing up. I don’t think it was quite that old, probably early 50s and it was red but it did bring back memories. After we completed the trail, as we headed down Buckhorn Draw back to I-70, the weather turned and we got rain, hail, sleet and snow, fairly heavy at times, enough to cover the ground but not enough to effect driving, other than visibility. It was a spotty storm, like a summer thunder shower only colder. It would let up and almost stop and then start dumping again and continued off and on all the way down the highway to the San Rafael Reef.

Cane Wash: An easy, scenic and fun trail. After descending the Reid Nelson Dugway we entered the wash at the Cane Wash/Fix-it-Pass junction and took trail, #643 to the Buckhorn Draw/Cottonwood Wash road, a distance of about 17-miles. It took us about 1 ½ hours, plus another 45 minutes to explore the Calf Mesa Uranium mine. While not a challenging trail the scenery is impressive. The wash is sandy with a few rocks and it is wet for about 2+ miles. The salty water appears to be from springs, coming out of the cliffs, that border the wash. The exit road to the Calf Mesa Uranium mine is fairly rough, the road is almost a continuous series of ruts and dips until reaching the mine. From the mine it is a little over 2-miles to Buckhorn Draw/Cottonwood Wash road.

I was actually quite surprised with this trail. I figured it would be a boring wash road just used as an access road but I was wrong. Although there are no challenges along this trail, it was very enjoyable and it covered quite the distance. The trail did have a few wet spots from a recent storm but it was generally dry. Still one of my favorite areas to wheel!