26) Cottonwood Canyon North Rim from Notom Road (map disabled)

Please read the Introduction

An enjoyable trip with tremendous potential for exploring at the end of the described route. Plan to poke around.

The described route follows a drainage all the way with detours around pour-overs. It is one of the less interesting routes described but is included because of the unbelievable areas beyond the end of the described route.

TIME:3-4 hours to the end of the described route.
ELEVATION GAIN:1300 Feet.
DIFFICULTY:Easy route finding. Moderate scrambling.
MAPS: Notom, Golden Throne
GEOLOGY:Great view and chance to walk lots of Navajo Sandstone.
CIRCLE TRIP:No.
ACCESS:From the Visitor Center drive 9.2 miles east on Utah Highway 24 to the signed Notom Road. Turn right (south) and drive 8.9 miles to signed Cottonwood Wash (S).

Just over one mile up the wash from the Notom Road an old two-track climbs out of the wash on the left (west), goes past some trees where someone did some tree and lumber work at one time, then goes back into the wash for the last time. Canyon walls start to build just a few yards beyond. Across the wash from where the two-track ends a side drainage comes in from the north. This described route merely follows that drainage to the top.

About 40 feet below where the side drainage comes into Cottonwood Wash there are two large reddish barked Serviceberry bushes. Just downstream of the first one, walk up the slope a few feet and turn left (west) on a game trail.

Go up hill, almost parallel to the drainage, to the top of a shoulder where gray rock and red brown rock meet. That shoulder is no more than 100 yards from the wash. A game trail follows close to the contact of red-brown and gray rock for ten minutes upstream. Follow the trail and where it gets to within a few feet of the wash, stay on the trail and do not enter the wash. The trail goes around a small drainage from the right, then climbs high above the wash again. Follow the trail until it drops directly into the wash, then go up the wash.

There are two main bushes growing along the wash after the game trail enters it. One is Serviceberry, the other, Cliff Rose, has loose bark on mature branches. The other main woody plant in the area is the leafless Mormon Tea.

After ten minutes in the wash there is a narrow section that has a Pinyon Pine tree on a bend in the wash. Just before passing the tree notice the shrub touching its branches. It is a Skunkbush. Upstream of the Skunkbush and touching its branches there is a fuzzy Rubber Rabbitbrush. Across and twenty-five feet up the wash there is a Singleleaf Ash tree and upstream of it a Barberry bush. On the upstream side of the Barberry, almost touching it, there is a tall flower, Prince's Plume, an indicator of selenium in the soil. Five feet up hill from that, at the base of the rock, there is a Fringed Sage.

All the rock layers walked since leaving the main Cottonwood wash are in the Carmel Formation.

Another five minutes up the wash there is a small climbable pour-over with a Cottonwood Tree overhanging it. Fifty feet beyond the pour-over on the right there are some recognizable plants behind a new one, Dwarf Yucca.

Just beyond the pour-over there is a wash junction where the route goes to the right (northwest). Not far above that junction there is another pour-over to skirt around. The quickest way is to the left (south) side but the slope is quite steep. The other option is to go back just past the previous wash junction and walk up along the right (north) side.

Above that pour-over a different plant with silvery green leaves will start to show up. It is Buffaloberry. A few minutes farther up there will be bedrock to walk in the wash, and after a bend to the left a couple hundred feet of dark smoothish bedrock walking. After a short break, more bedrock but not as smooth this time.

After three more small pour-overs there will be a large one (25 feet) that consists of a long undercut rim of sandstone. The route has left the Carmel Formation and entered the Navajo Sandstone. The pour-over is in the Navajo and can be easily passed by climbing the right (east) side.

A few minutes farther there is a slickrock ramp that starts off flat but then slopes down to the left. The boulder at the top of the ramp is easy to get around and seventy-five feet above it, in the wash, there is a bright green leafed Manzanita bush.

Soon after passing the Manzanita, the wash rounds a bend and there is a much more distant view ahead. Follow the main wash past the opening to the left (south) and all the way up until upon rounding a bend to the left (south) the first Ponderosa Pine shows up.

Continue up the wash past individual or small groups of Ponderosa pines until near the head of the wash there is a larger vegetated area with a number of larger trees. Go up the roll-over behind the trees, or around to the right (north), to the next line of stunted Ponderosa. There, look to the left and walk left (south) to the notch where there is a good view to the south over acres and acres of Navajo Sandstone. The described route ends here (E) but it is an easy scramble down from that notch to the area below for hours of exploring.

By crossing just one low ridge to the north the view, or walking, is in the Burrow Wash drainage.


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