22) Ponderosa Loop (map disabled)

Please read the Introduction

A broad Ponderosa lined valley between rugged Navajo Sandstone walls is the goal of this hike. The route in is a bit challenging and traverses a seemingly endless canyon in the Carmel Formation. The route out is slightly more challenging, offers water holes (with or without water) spends more time in the sandstone. A part of this trip that should be considered is the potential to explore. The valley opens at the upper end and leaves lots of domes and small canyons to check out.

From the vehicle walk west to the main wash then follow it or the cattle trails up stream. In twelve minutes there is a narrow bedrock section to go through. The rock is a part of the Salt Wash member of the Morrison Formation and is, here, composed of sandstone and conglomerate. The rock is made up of stream deposits.

Two hundred feet after the narrow portion widens out some, the main plant along the wash is Rabbitbrush. There is also a lot of old cut juniper wood in and on the north side of the wash, which was placed there along an old cattle trail or to stop cows from going down canyon. Just beyond that, on the right (north), there are a number of Apache Plume bushes growing around a small (7 foot high) Cliff Rose tree. The Apache Plume has a delicate three-lobed leaf while the Cliff Rose has hardy (and odoriferous when crushed) small multi-lobed foliage.

Where the canyon widens more and the wash splits, take the right fork (north). There is Tamerisk in the wash just upstream of the junction. At the next major junction go left (west).

Just past that junction there are two species of Mormon Tea plants on the right. Continue to the low saddle overlooking South Desert and you are at The Notch. (N) An old, still discernable and easily walkable, cattle trail goes down to the edge of South Desert.

Observe the slope forming the north (right) side of the saddle you are in. The Morrison Formation is at the top of the hill. Just below that is the thin bedded red-brown Summerville Formation. Next down is the lighter colored gray Curtis Formation.

Before leaving The Notch, look at the Waterpocket Fold and find the low point on the Horizon that is almost due west. Follow the slope straight down toward South Desert. There is a significant red-brown formation that ends near the valley floor. Looking to the right, that layer seems to end at a canyon mouth, then farther right, there is another, much smaller, tongue of the red brown formation which ends at another canyon mouth. The route goes up that second canyon (B) so from here pick out a way to get there.

At the bottom of the trail, head out across the sand. Unfortunately cattle grazing is still allowed in parts of Capitol Reef National Park and South Desert is one of those parts. You will eventually get beyond the grazed area.

At the mouth of the canyon you have been aiming for since leaving The Notch, you will see that the red-brown rock (Entrada Formation) ends near the mouth and a much lighter rock layer forms the canyon. The lighter colored rock is the Carmel Formation which has many different colors, textures and types of rock. As you walk up the canyon the walls build slowly, and for a short time you seem to be walking through a layer cake made up of gray, green and red brown layers. At all junctions go up the main one.

This small canyon comes to an end at the rim of a larger canyon after weaving through a lot of gypsum to get there. When you reach that rim, walk it until you can get down to the bottom of the larger canyon (L), then head upstream. It could be about two hours from the Park boundary to this point.

Near where you enter the larger canyon there are a number of vertical, narrow, black bands of rock cutting across the other rock layers. These black bands, which can be seen in the wash and up both sides, are igneous dikes.

Ten minutes past the dikes there is a pour-over that must be climbed right at the contact between the Navajo Sandstone and the Carmel Formation. The Navajo is the light tan rock at the bottom and the yellow brown rock at the top of the pour-over is the bottom of the Carmel. The next pour-over can be circumvented to either side though the left is easier.

After about half an hour in this wash the canyon starts to widen out and Ponderosa Pines (P) begin to appear. The canyon continues to widen to a sizable open area with rolling vegetated sandy soils ringed by vertical sandstone cliffs that are carved and weathered. Along the wash and on the vegetated slopes some of the common plants are; Little Leaf Mountain Mahogany, Service Berry, Prickly Pear (jumping) cactus and Indian Rice Grass.

The soils in this area are very fragile so any walking out of the main wash should be done on bedrock or while following the tiny water courses.

From the open area head toward the base of the highest hill on the horizon due west of you. (Marked on the Fruita quad as 6669T). That is the long smooth topped hill with the rugged, jumbled sandstone to the right (north).

At a point where the main wash makes a significant bend to the left (south) (C) and you are almost past the last of the major high points on the right (north) side of the wash, there will be a jagged (J) sandstone hill with a smooth overhanging cliff face off to the northwest. Leave the wash and head toward the base of that hill. From the base of the hill walk west a few steps until the closest hill to the north is visible. It has a top of crossbedded sandstone. The next hill on the horizon to the northwest is a nearly triangular hill with a sheer face on the east side. Walk toward that triangular hill.

Below that sheer face, on the east, there is a wall that drops a long way to the bottom of a drainage. Walk north along the ridge (R) on the east side of that drainage while keeping the triangle in view.

The ridge is easy to walk and will go all the way to where the drainage turns east (right) in front of you (E). At that point turn right (east). The going is fairly easy for a while, then the slope steepens considerably. There, stay to the left (north) and walk down to the wash below. The canyon will go, with a few little tricks, back to South Desert.

WATER: There is usually water in waterpockets in the upper section of this canyon.

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