Buckhorn Draw Road

Trail Run on May 23, 2015
Report and photos by Monica I., Trail Leader

Walt S.

Gold 2004 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

Monica I.

Red 2010 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

Matt K.

White 2016 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon

We were looking forward to checking out Buckhorn Draw Road, simply because of the pictures we'd seen before we left Colorado. We didn't expect such an easy road, though. It was a bit of a bummer, but it was good because we made really good time. We actually started down The Wickiup by accident at the start, but then corrected ourselves and started north after passing the end of Black Dragon.

We had to swing by the Sinkhole, of course. It was marked with a sign and surrounded by a fence. However, it was just a big hole. We didn't get out to check it out. It was really starting to rain hard.

And it kept on raining hard. We saw a few vehicles coming the other direction, but passing was always easy on the wide, maintained road. The big rock ahead of us was the Limestone Bench, and as we got closer to it and the obvious canyon, the weather started clearing up. We could see sunshine hitting the white stone through the rain we were under. It was really pretty.

We went between the big, scenic peaks and then we were surprised to find such a nice campground. We drove through it and found a spot to park next to a pit toilet. We wanted to get out to stretch our legs and it was lunch time, so we ate there. It was raining a bit off and on, so lunch wasn't a long break this time.

We headed across the road to the old San Rafael Bridge and parked. There were lots of other people there, but we eventually ended up with the place to ourselves. The sun came out, and that was the last of the rain for the day. It was a beautiful spot, and we really enjoyed exploring the bridge. We walked across to the other side, appreciating the history. We also liked seeing the San Rafael River again after spending so much time in the mud with it the day before on Fuller Bottom. It was good to be above it this time, though.

Though we were enjoying our stop, we soon headed north again. We saw lots of people for the rest of the day. We stopped at the Buckhorn Wash Pictograph Panel and spent quite a while checking things out. Though we'd seen quite a few of these panels with fencing in front of them, this was the first we'd seen something like this one. It was very developed and maintained. Someone had even restored them after so many decades of vandalism. It was really nice to see, and we really appreciated the effort.

The rest of the trail was a nice trip through and out of the tight canyon. We were in happy moods when we got to the Green River Cutoff, and we found ourselves in a wide and empty patch of dirt. Then we started driving around in a big circle together, being weird. We had a few laughs and talked about the trail we'd just been on. Even though it was easy it was a great trip. We were anxious to see The Wedge, so we headed over to the Buckhorn Information Center and more of our day.