Tour and Hike This 1,000 Year Old Untouched Area

Enjoy a weekend of discovery among the artifacts left behind a thousand years ago by a once prominent Fremont population. Range Creek is hidden in the Book Cliffs of Eastern Utah and contains some of the best preserved Native American sites in the Southwest. Recently featured in National Geographic Magazine, this amazing valley and piece of pre-history was until recently privately owned and closed to the public. The Utah Division of Wildlife and BLM now carefully limit and manage access.

Waldo Wilcox, former owner and donor of Range Creek to The Trust for Public Lands.

CFI Naturalists and DWR Representatives will help narrate the story of this unique landscape, the people who lived here, how they lived, and why they eventually left.

The trip includes a visit to the ranch house and stories about the cowboy who previously owned the land, and knows it almost as well as the Fremont Indians that preceded him.

Weekend Overnight Camp Tour

Our weekend overnight tour features a small group and plenty of time to explore and enjoy the canyon. We meet in Green River, meeting at John Wesley Powell Museum at 9:00 a.m. Park your vehicle here and travel on with CFI Naturalist-Guides to enter the Bookcliffs at Horse Canyon. We follow a steep rough road for about an hour, stop at a fabulous overlook while our guides provide a geological overview.

We reach locked gate protecting the canyon and meet our Division of Wildlife escort to tour the lower part of the canyon including the old homestead, now research headquarters at Wilcox Ranch. After setting up a comfortable camp in a meadow by the gate and under lovely Ponderosa Pine trees, we explore by foot rock art sites nearby and learn more about Fremont Cultures, preservation issues and area history.

The next day, after breakfast, we see another section of the canyon with DWR and do more hiking to sites. We depart Range Creek early afternoon and arrive back at Green River about 4:00 p.m.. Delicious healthly meals included from dinner through lunch the next day. Participants should beable to hike 4 miles round trip on mostly level surfaces, with some optional scrambling to get closer to sites. We use binoculars often to view more remote sites. Please call if you have questions about nature of trip; bring your own tent and sleeping bag or rentals are available from CFI. Camp chairs provided.

Minimum 5, maximum in group 8

Please note that due to remoteness and unpredictable road conditions and DWR permit and individual requirements for securing the right to enter the RMA, if we are forced to postpone a particular trip, you will receive a "raincheck" gift certificate and be given priority seating in the next available Range Creek trip that CFI offers or if you have a group of 5 or more, we will work to arrange a custom date trip for you. Due to the desire of most participants to "see Range Creek" CFI has chosen not to offer an alternative tour on the original date. To support our training, staff and supply commitments, we reschedule rather than provide refunds and make every effort to insure you get this incredible opportunity. The roads may be impassable due to early or late season snow or for heavy rains at any month. Call if you have questions before signing up.