Day 5 - Leaving Grand Gulch

We had made enough progress in Friday that our Saturday hike should be short enough to be back at our vehicle by noon.

Part of Turkey Pen ruin area

Our camp was by Turkey Pen ruin. Eight years ago we could wander the area freely and visit the turkey pen, but sadly in 2022 the BLM had to close off the entire area because of erosion from foot traffic. Given this is the closest ruin to the ranger station, I suspect folks were also getting too handsy.

Hiking through a mini slot canyon

The hike out of the canyon was a bit more challenging than I remembered (we went opposite way last time) but still beautiful. Rock scrambling to climb over ledge pour offs.

Back at the trailhead

At about 11:20 we made it back to the ranger station. Mike’s rental car awaited us there. After giving our reports to the rangers there, we drove back to the trailhead (45 minutes or so with plenty of offroading) to fetch the van. While navigating a steep rock climb in the van coming out from the trailhead area I had to back up a bit to put the van into 4wd low and bumped the back left into the sandy bank. We didn’t notice until 25 minutes later that we had snagged off a piece of the black trim in the rear left panel. So an extra 50 minutes of driving for Julie and me to retrieve and re-attach.

Hotel, laundry, burgers, and beer awaited us in Green River. An amazing and challenging adventure.