Cottonwood Wedge Buckhorn 2.0

​Begin this trip by visiting 1950's uranium mines and Smith Cabin on the Cottonwood Wash Road.  Make quick visits to the site of the never completed Spirit Railroad and an overlook of of Little Grand Canyon on the San Rafael River.  Finish by viewing fantastic rock art in Buckhorn Canyon.

There is a GPS - gpx track file at the bottom of the page.
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Rock art in Buckhorn Canyon
There are close to a zillion uranium mine shafts at the beginning of this trail.  I believe the one pictured here to be one of the "Incline" mines by Atlas Minerals Corporation.  See this map of Mines in Western United States.
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Cover over mine shaft
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Looking down the shaft
Follow the track to the end of the spur for an overlook of the san Rafael Reef.

Continue north along the track up Cottonwood Wash and take a short spur to Smith Cabin.  After they were married in 1933, Wayne and Betty Smith settled down to start a ranch in the San Rafael Swell. They chose a site near a spring, which would supply them with water necessary for survival. However, artificial seismic activity in the region, caused by drilling for water, destroyed the natural spring. Wayne and Betty later moved to Green River. Today at Smith’s cabin, there are several ranch buildings and corrals still standing. Though some of the cabins and cattle yards are currently in various states of decay, enough is left of this scenic ranch to give you a feel of frontier life in the San Rafael Swell.  Smith Cabin
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San Rafael Reef from end of spur
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Smith Cabin
The road up Cottonwood Wash beyond Smith cabin is not very interesting.  I included it to make this a through trip instead of an in-and-out.  There really are better ways to reach Wedge Overlook and Buckhorn Canyon if those are your main interest.

​Cottonwood Wash Road ends on the Green River Cutoff Road.  Turn left and you will soon see a sign directing you to Historic Spirit Railroad site.

In 1881 the D&RGW railroad company decided to extend their line through the San Rafael Swell. The line was planned to leave Green River, UT, travel up Cottonwood Wash, across Buckhorn Flat, and to a junction near Huntington. From the junction, the line would split and go north to Price and south through Salina Canyon to Salina.

Though the railroad was never completed, hundreds of locals worked on the project and an impressive amount of railroad bed was prepared. Ties were even cut in Tie Canyon near Huntington and floated 20 miles down to sell to the railroad.

There are a few places in the Swell to see the railroad remains, though the Spirit Railroad Complex site that SITLA developed in 2016 is an excellent place to start and offers a lot of railroad remnants in a small area. Highly recommended for history buffs and railroad enthusiasts.  RoadTripRyan.com
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Spirit Railroad fireplace.
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Spirit Railroad foundation
Little Grand Canyon on the San Rafael River is quite impressive.

One of the highlights of the entire San Rafael Swell is the mysterious Buckhorn Wash pictograph panel spanning over 130 feet. A pictograph is painted onto a surface, and a petroglyph is carved or pecked into the stone. There are some faint petroglyphs here, but the red pictograph figures are the stars of this site! The main panel was painted well over 2,000 years ago by a Indian culture archeologists have named “Barrier Canyon Culture”. The Barrier Canyon people were an archaic age hunter-gatherer society, living in caves or brush shelters.

​The red pigment was created using powdered hematite, and possibly mixed with animal fat, eggs, or some other fluid. For a brush, they may have used fingers or brushes made from animal fur or slender grasses. When painted on freshly exposed sandstone, the stone absorbs the pigments, thus preserving them for thousands of years. The images here are fascinating, and defy interpretation.  San Rafael County
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Wedge Overlook
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More Buckhorn rock art
Buckhorn Canyon is a beautiful ride.  The road from the canyon to I-70 is much more open with wide views.  You may see burros.
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Headed for I-70
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Burros south of Buckhorn Canyon
Page updated 2017.
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