Day 20: Bluff day 2: hike to Wolfman panel and a sunset hike

We woke up excited for our next day of exploring. We decided to try out 2 of the places that Drew and Carrie told us about. Both of these places were a lot closer to the main highway, so we had a bit more time. I can’t believe how long it takes to drive on those rough roads. Boy is it worth it. As a reminder, these places are not listed, but seem to be passed on by word-of-mouth. I sure hope we're not pissing off Drew or Carrie by writing about these places, because we are so indebted to them.
We slept in, which was great for us, but also giving time for the November desert air to warm up before heading out. We headed towards the Wolfman Panel; which is tucked away in the BLM Cedar Mesa area. The dirt road we followed today was easier driving than the dirt road the day before. We made our way from where we left the car to a small canyon and followed small cairns, stacks of rocks, towards a small trail which led directly to the panel.

The panel consisted of several different petroglyphs of all different sizes. Just across the canyon we saw the remnants of a small dwelling. Similar to the Moonhouse, but much smaller and easier to access. After checking out the many petroglyphs for a while we made our way down a small trail to the other side of the canyon to check out the dwelling. This was really an amazing start to the day. One, we were really excited to find the Wolfman panel with relative ease. Two the petroglyphs were amazing and in such good shape. Three, we didn’t know that there was also going to be a dwelling at this particular panel. Four, we were the only ones here. I wish I could describe some of the petroglyphs, but I would probably embarrass myself with my remedial petroglyph knowledge, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking for me. We made our way down the canyon and had only one real scramble spot, nothing like the intense scrambling that it took to get over to the Moonhouse dwelling. We got to the base of the canyon and had to cross a small creek with some standing water to get to the other side of the canyon. The way across was via a small game trail, there were human footprints so we knew it was the way up, but it was a tiny trail that went through some really low branches and a bunch of scrub brush. As we approached the water I heard the delightful sound of buzzing. Then I saw the wonderful sight of a bunch of hornets coming out of the ground. I considered turning back for about negative 2 seconds. Lauren and I discussed the fact that we were probably crossing over a hornets nest, but both agreed that we wanted to see the dwelling and unfortunately this was the only way across the canyon bottom. We decided to go slow and hope for the best. The night before we ate probably the worst backpacker meal either of us have ever encountered, this Chana Masala dish, which ordinarily is delicious, but not this one. Luckily for us, after suffering through such an awful meal, apparently it was a natural hornet repellent because the hornets wanted nothing to do with us and let us pass unscathed. We excitedly crawled up the canyon bank towards the dwelling. Immediately I found two arrowheads on the trail. After excitedly looking at them for a while and finally picking our heads up to look around we saw that there were fragments of pottery all around us.




People had found these pieces and left them behind for others to view. We were blown away by this and got even more excited than we already were, which I didn’t think was possible. Amazing to think that the potter pieces we were seeing were from hundreds of years ago, and that other people had obviously found them, and even further had the self control to leave them behind for others to view, rather than looting the whole place for themselves. This was incredible. We took our time heading up towards the dwelling, checking out ancient pieces of pottery and arrowheads the whole way. It was the craziest experience. Seeing what you would typically see in a museum, but these were literally just outside of a mud walled hut built into the side of a canyon.



The dwelling was impressive, very small and simple. It was reminiscent of the Moonhouse, but much much smaller in scale and as I mentioned before much more accessible. We hiked all around this side of the canyon looking at more pottery remnants and even some mortar and pestle pieces that were fully intact. The pottery was really incredible. There were several different designs on the pieces we were seeing. Some were straightforward and simple looking, while others contained more intricate design work with layered ripples, while others were painted with alternating color and stripe patterns. Again, see photos, as I’m not going to be able to give a very educated description.

We hung out for a while and just soaked up the sunshine and checked out the area with just the company of a raven the entire time. We both realized we were ravenous as we hadn’t eaten and it was already lunch time; almost 1 o’clock. We scrambled down the hill and past the hornets nest and back up the other side to the Wolfman panel and then up out of the canyon and back across the slick rock to where the car was parked. We then made breakfast for ourselves just outside of the car. I made an egg sandwich with cheese and avocado and hot sauce on toast, while Lauren had a peanut butter and honey sandwich with banana. After eating we felt revitalized and got back on the dirt road and continued further into the middle of nowhere. The road began to get a bit rougher, but just in a fun way, not super technical. I was just commenting on how I couldn’t believe that nobody else was out there when all of a sudden a crazy in a jeep came bombing around a blind curve in the middle of the road doing 45 in an old jeep. I slammed on the brakes and yanked us hard to the right as he just flew past us seemingly barely in control. Crazy driver.
Anyhow, we continued down the road a few more miles before finding our creek that we were going to park at and make our way up to the top of Comb Ridge. The plan was to hike to the top of Comb Ridge to see the sunset. On the way we would be looking for the Procession Panel. Another panel of Petroglyphs, way out in the middle of nowhere. The directions from Drew for this one were really tricky and even stated that he hadn’t actually found this even after looking a few times.


We were excited for the challenge and even feeling like luck was on our side since we had just had such an incredible time a the Wolfman panel. We were taking our time and trying to look for every single detailed landmark in the directions when we suddenly realized that we were on a trail with fresh footprints and even started seeing a few random cairns.

We dropped into a wash bed, climbed up the other side, went down a super small game trail, again through very low brush and vegetation. Made our way down another steep wash bank and up over the next side, as we found our way to the slick rock which led up to the top of the ridge.

We were blown away by our luck in finding cairns and fresh tracks, we knew we were on the right track and definitely going to locate the procession panel. Unfortunately we lost the trail on the slick rock, and neither myself, or Lauren, already a world class Cairn locator, could find the trail we had been on. We continued up and were never able to locate the panel. It was unfortunate, but we were quickly so excited at the view from the top of comb ridge that we didn’t have to be disappointed for long.

We set up the hammock and enjoyed the late afternoon warmth of the sunshine.

We had carried the backpacker stove and quickly heated up some chili and hot chocolate to enjoy the sunset with. The view was incredible.

Comb ridge is sloped on one side, and completely vertical on the other side, dropping several hundred, if not a thousand feet to the ground below.

This ridge line runs for I think roughly 100 miles or so; don’t quote me on that, but I think that is roughly accurate. The sunset was incredible and we were glad to see it. As darkness quickly descended upon us we turned on our headlights and made our way back down to the car. It took about an hour to get back to the car, as we took our time so we didn’t fall or run through a bunch of prickly pear cactus on the way. We made it back to the car safe and sound and were soon back to the comfort of our hotel room. Reflecting on the day we were both blown away by the condition of the Wolfman panel and how many pieces of artifacts still remained at the ruin. Definitely left us both feeling like there are good people in the world, as we would have both assumed before this experience that there isn’t much left like what we were just able to see left in the world. Then the hike up Comb Ridge, we were both so excited at the thought of finding the Procession panel. It’s OK that we weren’t able to find it; this gives us a reason to go back and look again. I’m positive we were hot on the trail and that we could find it if we spent a few more days looking. Maybe that’s being overly optimistic, but would love to try for it again. And finally the view from the top of comb ridge, it was incredible. Just all in all an amazing day. I think definitely one of the favorite days of the trip for both of us.