Snake Gulch Pictographs & 
West Bench Pueblo 
Snake
Gulch is located in the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona. It's
a wide, gently sloping canyon bottom that was once a major
route for Indians who moved back and forth between the plateau
above Kaibab Creek on the north rim of the Grand Canyon and
the south rim's Havasu Canyon. Over the many centuries
of their travels, the Indians have embellished the sandstone
cliffs with a variety of striking polychrome pictographs. The
time period represented here is from the Late Archaic through
Basketmaker and Pueblo eras and includes Southern Paiute ,
who continue to live in the area.Niki
and I drove up from South Orange County in California to Kanab
in under eight hours, and then rested up for an early
start next morning. To see the best of the pictographs,
the ones with yellow, white and black colors in addition to
the common dark red, you need to hike down the canyon for about
seven miles. So this is an all day affair. The
hiking is easy, and the scenery is fantastic. You will
see pictographs, and a few petroglyphs, after the first hour
or so of hiking, so there is plenty to keep you occupied. Just
wander west down the canyon and look for trails that lead to
the panels on the north side of the canyon walls. You
might want to take a camera with a zoom lens for those pictos
that are up high. We did the trip in May; apparently
in the summer it can get very hot down in the canyon.
Our
trip started off under blue morning skies. Within a
few minutes we saw an old stone cabin ruin off
to the right. Our first find was an alcove to the right
where the smoke blackened walls of the cliff had been decorated
with some very old looking petroglyphs. Niki's digital
camera stopped working and we grumbled our way along with
only my 35mm point and shoot cheapie. The hike was
like an Easter egg hunt. Our rewards were a variety
of shapes and figures painted in one or several colors on
the canyon walls. Those panels protected by overhangs
or that were in shallow caves had the most vivid colors. I
guess we were too focused to notice that the weather was
beginning to look really ugly. The sky had turned a
nasty purplish blue, the wind had picked up, and soon the
flash of lightning and crack of thunder echoed in the canyon. We
had come about five miles, but as the rain pelted down we
knew that we could go no further. We took shelter under
a rock overhang, admired the pictographs that were looking
down on our plight, and had lunch. Our rain gear was
safely in the car back at the trailhead. We had decided
that the blue skies of the morning would last all day! At
almost 6000' the temperature plummeted rapidly. We
decided to put on our midweight tops and jackets, seal the
camera in a zip lock, and hike the five miles back to the
car. We knew that we would be warm if we pushed the
pace, and we had dry clothes and a car heater waiting for
us. This turned out to be a good plan. We actually
had fun slogging along! Only the lightning caused us
to take shelter every now and then.
The next morning we headed over
to the Vermillion Cliffs and worked our way up the
Paria Plateau to explore the West Bench Pueblo. The
scenery was absolutely spectacular! At the
pueblo site you can still see rock wall foundations. The
ground is littered with a variety of pottery shards in
different colorations and styles. A short hike
takes you to an area of rock caves that show signs of
ancient habitation. Once again, though, a clear,
brilliant sky turned dark and brought thunderstorms and
lightning to put an end to our explorations. If
you like rock art and hiking, then these
are both great trips! As far as directions go, you're
on your own. We found them, so can
you. We don't mean to be flippant, but if we respect
a site we show that respect by making it just a bit harder
for the potential vandals to find. Hope you understand. Click
on the link below to see the pics from our rain-shortened
trips!