7) Meeks Mesa (map disabled)

Please read the Introduction

Meeks Mesa forms the skyline on the north side of Highway 24 from west of the Park boundary to Chimney Rock, a stretch of four miles. The top of the mesa is smooth and rolling in some places and cut up and rough in others.

Steve Allen reports that "William Meeks was one of the first to see Rabbit Valley while on a military reconnaissance in 1867." "He later moved to the valley and brought with him a large herd of cattle." "The Meeks brothers were to become one of the largest cattle raisers in the area."

Two routes to the top of the mesa are described here. The second is a historic constructed cattle trail. Though now badly washed out, it is an example of the amount of work the early ranchers were willing to do to get cattle to a place to graze.

First Route - the quick and dirty one.

Follow the stock trail up over the red/brown shale and the gray shale then up over a few small sandstone layers and benches to the major bench 350 feet above the parking area. The trail narrows to work through the sandstone forming the floor of the bench. A few yards after the trail tops out on the bench look north at the highest point on the skyline. (M) The route goes straight to the top, climbing the boulder field.

Walk to the base of the steep slope (Stay left (west) of the little ridge that juts south) and look up. Two large boulders with a space between them now form the high point on the skyline. By whatever route you think best, go up and walk between those boulders.

Walk through the gap between the boulders and again look up at the skyline. From the high point look to the left past the gap and on down the skyline to the first tree. The route goes to a point 50 feet below and a bit left of that tree. To get there walk around behind the left (west) boulder then go toward the main cliff wall.

Climb a few feet up the first wall you come to then climb up to the right (east). Half way up an easy switchback takes you up to the left (west) to the top of the wall. From there, go toward that tree on the skyline.

There will be a relatively flat spot twenty feet wide just in front of the main cliff wall. Cross that to the wall and there are two separate, slightly sloping rocks going west. Walk those and at the end of the second one the route makes a sharp switchback (C) up a crack to the right (east). Climb that crack until a break on the left (north) goes to the "guide tree".

Explore!

The second route - The historic stock trail as shown on the map.

Follow the stock trail up over the red/brown shale and the gray shale then up over a few small sandstone layers and benches to the major bench 350 feet above the parking area. The trail narrows to work through the sandstone forming the floor of the bench.

Once on top of the wide bench follow the cairned trail as it goes slightly north, then sweeps left (west) to follow the bench for two miles. The terrain makes the trail somewhat difficult to follow for the first half mile but there may be enough cairns to follow. Unlike off-trail routes, trails tend to be marked by cairns. Unfortunately the people building cairns may not know where they are going or they may be going somewhere you do not want to go. In any case just follow the bench west and the trail will show up.

After a few minutes the trail goes up a small hill of purplish gray dirt. On the way up a bush with silver/green leaves hangs out into the trail. The bush is Silverleaf Buffaloberry. The purplish rock is common on this route and is a soft rock layer in the Chinle Formation. Starting at the skyline, the red/brown cliff forming rock is the Wingate Sandstone. At the bottom of that there is a very sharp line where the sandstone ends and the Chinle begins. The Chinle Formation is composed of many different types, textures and colors of rock, the purple being only one of them.

After about fifteen minutes the trail goes close to the edge of the bench and there is a view down into a colorful basin. The gray and red/brown, smooth, rounded hills in the basin are part of the Chinle Formation as is all the rock from there up to the bench.

Five to seven minutes farther along the bench the trail again goes close to the rim. Below there are many cliffs visible. Most are just below the smooth, rounded layers. These cliffs form the bottom of the Chinle Formation and have a separate name - Shinarump. The Shinarump sandstone layer was the major producer of uranium in this part of Utah. Careful searching should reveal one or more old bulldozer tracks or roads just above or below those cliffs. Those prospectors of the early 1950's did not find enough uranium to mine in the area below you, but they dozed miles of road while looking. This stock trail preceded the uranium boom by fifty years or more but was of little use to the prospectors since it is well above any potential uranium bearing layers.

Eventually the trail (and rim) swing slowly to the right (north) following above a side canyon and ten minutes later the trail may completely peter out. Look to the right (east) and there will be a break in the canyon wall. As shown on the map, the old trail went up through that break starting up on the left (north) side, then swinging to the right (south) and on up to the top. For the most part, the trail is gone, so take whatever route looks easiest and go to the base of the break in the wall. The wash coming out of that break will get there but it is a difficult go.

The base of the break there are old drill holes in the rock and some steel remaining to indicate construction but runoff has wiped out the trail. From there on up there are drill holes, cut posts, wire, and metal posts in places along the trail route but they are difficult to find. Just pick a way to the top and marvel at the determination and work necessary to get cattle to the top of the mesa.

23June2017 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.	Email: