Email this article

Canyonland's National Park

The Maze District

story and photos by Lori Lee

"You'd never steal a horse. Uh, uh! Nobody did! Nobody! There wasn't any horse thieves in that country. They might borrow one. In fact I got a picture here on a horse traded to the Chaffin family. And the Chaffin family didn't know about the trade until they started tryin' to find this ol' mule and couldn't find the mule. Mule was gone. And the horse was there."

- Ned Chaffin, ran cows Under the Ledge from 1920 to 1944

Getting Started

Season: Late March through April and late September through October are best.

Group Size: A mazimum of 5 people are allowed on a permit. The trailhead is small, so plan to leave as few vehicles as possible. The only requirement for backcountry campsite selection is that once your are in the Maze you must be outof eyesight of Maze Overlook.

Permit: Permits are required for all overnight trips in the Maze District. Reserve permits by calling 435.259.4351. Pick up permits at the Hans Falt Ranger Station.

Getting there: On UT I-70 find exit 147 toward Hanksville. Go south for 25 miles. Between mile posts 136 and 137 is a dirt road taking off to the E. Follow for 24 miles to a Y in the road. It is signed. Following the fork to the right will take you to the
Hans Flat Ranger Station and following the fork to the left will

take you to Horseshoe Canyon for a day hike to the four additional petroglyph panels mentioned above.
To continue on to the Maze, take the right fork. In seven miles, the road forks, stay to the left. The road is a generally well-maintained dirt road to The Hans Flat Ranger Station. A toilet, books, and maps are available, as well as your permit. Get your permit and then continue 14 additional miles to the top of the Flint Trail. Descend three miles and 1,000 feet down the Flint Trail, backing up as necessary for the switchbacks on this narrow exposed road. At the bottom you will head out across the Elaterite basin for a scenic but rough ride. It is 15.6 miles from the top of the Flint trail to the Maze Overlook. Follow signs toward Maze Overlook when they are present.

Publication: For additional help in planning a trip to The Maze District, the book Wild Weekends in Utah, written by this author, is available at Amazon.com or from local bookstores.

You've seen them, the ol' Western flicks: John Wayne astride his horse chasing cow rustlers through a maze of canyons, dust thick behind the galloping horses, the land a mix of impenetrable canyon walls, a hundred side canyons, buzzards circling in the hot air, dry stream beds and the occasional solace-giving spring. Names like Red Benches, Sweet Alice Canyon, Waterhole Flat, and Deadman's Trail dialogue between John and Lil' Jo as they figure on which way Jack and his gang were headin'. That's Maze country - where stealin' cows was just what was done, but stealing a man's horse or his wife was a whole different story.

Considered to be one of the most remote areas in the Lower 48, challenge, wonder, and history lure modern day explorers to the roughly 100 square miles of the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park. Once outlaws hid in the labyrinth of canyons in an attempt to escape the law, and cattleman grazed their herds and shuffled cows, branding another's for their own, or just taking over what one could get his hands on. Today this area claims the title of the most-difficult-to-access area of Canyonlands National Park, and when the five major canyons on the west side of the Green River (the Maze) branch into hundreds of smaller canyons, isolation and challenge become the game.

Just to get to the Maze Overlook (a popular point from which one drops into the Maze) from the Hans Ranger station requires 3-4 hours by 4x4 vehicle, but if you're a four-wheeling fan then the road trip to the drop-in ledge smacks of adventure. And, if you mountain bike, find your thrills down the Flint Trail and across Elaterite Basin on your way to the drop in. The roads demand slow going - 29.6 miles in 3 to 4 hours.

The Maze is map and cairn country. Limited by deep canyons, GPS reception often blanks and one must be prepared to orient themselves in other ways. Cairns mark the few established trails. From canyon bottom to the view-giving ridge that allows an unprecidented perspective of the labyrinth, cairns will be the friends that take you out and lead you home.

Within the Maze Pictograph Fork sits amid prickly-pear cactus and juniper, while Cedars that no doubt lent shade to Native Americans, and cowboys before us, now lend shade to hikers. The Harvest panel, the pictograph site for which the canyon is named, contains hunting, animal scenes and ghost-like images that date back an unbelievable 8,000 years. The quality of these drawings have led archeologists to proclaim the Archaic People surprisingly sophisticated. Collectively known as the Barrier Canyon Style, their art can be found in other nearby canyons outside the Maze. Horseshoe Canyon, where the Great Gallery is found, holds four more panels.

True cowboys and Indians roamed, lived, died, and left stories in and on the rocks of the Maze. Prospectors and oil companies left chunks of rusting equipment, cowboys left trails, place names, and old wooden troughs, and the Fremont Indians and Ancestral Puebloans left pots, cobs of corn and a ruin or two before they disappeared.

A few family names haunt the Maze or "Under the Ledge Country" - families like Chaffin, who ran cattle from the 1920-40's, Tidwell, Hoffman, and Bittlecomb. These were the men and women who named the canyons, found the springs, knew the trees, rocks, and canyons like the back of their hand.

In an oral history interview conducted with Ned Chaffin, he said the naming of Sweet Alice Canyon happened during the Nequoia Arch survey while looking for oil.

"And we had camped there at that tank in the canyon. And, dad went over to get water. Ya had to bail the water out of the tank to water your stock with�? And dad was one of the world's worst singers. He couldn't carry a tune in a sack. He didn't know a flat from a sharp�? He was the only guy I ever saw that couldn't even hum a melody. And anyway, he was trying to sing �?Do you remember Sweet Alice Ben Bolt?' And old man Prommel hollered down to him, god Lou, why don't you shut up you're driving us crazy. Well I was just singing about my beautiful wife. And Prommel says, yes I know you were. So that's how that canyon was named. It was named by H. W. C. Prommel. And he called it Sweet Alice Canyon. And we called it that ever since."

Considering the amount of isolation the Maze affords, if the urge to sing hits you, it seems only right to let it fly. And who's to know? Perhaps the worst that could happen is that someone might overhear and name a canyon after your bad singing. It's all history in the making.