The trail head is at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station a few miles south of the junction of Utah routes 95 and 261. Natural Bridges National Monument is nearby to this area. This is one of the canyons where the BLM charges a small fee for use of the trail.
The trail descends along the canyon floor with the sandstone walls gradually becoming deeper and massive. There are springs and water pools and some riparian habitat along the canyon floor and Pinon Pine and Utah Juniper and other desert vegetation along the canyon sides. A few of the narrow shady areas have some tall Douglas Firs.In the first four miles I only saw one granary ruins high on the canyon side. Compared with nearby Arch Canyon near Comb Ridge, the canyon sides here are steeper and offer fewer sites for small ruins, at least in this upper section. The canyon floor seemed to be narrower and rockier.
At the 4.0 mile mark there is a good ruins site at the junction of Kane Gulch and Grand Gulch, known as the Junction Ruins. From the distance the upper level structures are visible. The wide lower alcove shelters several small structures.
It is a short climb up to view the low structures. The midden trash area in front of the site is more obvious than at most sites and has a chain around it to deter visitors from walking over it. The midden area has many pottery shards to view and a surprising amount of small corn cobs. I looked closely for rock art along the walls but didn’t find any here. The terrain at this deep canyon junction is wide and flat and very scenic and shady, a pleasant place to linger.
The Turkey Pen Ruins site is only 0.7 miles past the Junction Ruins. This is also a multi level site in a large elevated alcove. There is a squarish kiva like structure right at the entrance to the site, with several small structures pressed against the sandstone walls. During my visit the far half of the site was closed.
The Turkey Pen Ruins site is rich in pictographs, featuring many hand prints, with some big horn sheep and some humanoid figures. At least three colors are used here, white and red for the hand prints and brown for one of the broad shouldered humanoid figures. One of the big horn sheep was two toned in brown and white.
From the elevated area of Turkey Pen Ruins, it looked like there was a small arch visible across on the other side of the canyon, but it may have just been the light. The map I had mentions Stimper Arch 0.3 miles further around a meander on the canyon. After viewing Stimper Arch, I turned around here, at the 5.0 mile mark and returned to the trail head.
The Turkey Pen Ruins site is rich in pictographs, featuring many hand prints, with some big horn sheep and some humanoid figures. At least three colors are used here, white and red for the hand prints and brown for one of the broad shouldered humanoid figures. One of the big horn sheep was two toned in brown and white.
From the elevated area of Turkey Pen Ruins, it looked like there was a small arch visible across on the other side of the canyon, but it may have just been the light. The map I had mentions Stimper Arch 0.3 miles further around a meander on the canyon. After viewing Stimper Arch, I turned around here, at the 5.0 mile mark and returned to the trail head.
My total hike was 5:20 hours for the 10 miles I hiked. The going is uphill on the way back and I noticed the sandy sections more. The trail is a little harder to follow going uphill. Trail segments that aren’t part of the main trail can lead you astray. I carried three liters of water on a 70 degree F. mid April day and had a few swallows left at the end.
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