Delores Point / South Beaver Mesa

By Jerry Smith

March 22, 2017, the team of Tom/Connie and Jerry struck out for the Delores Point and South Beaver Mesa trails.  These trails are in the neighborhood of Gateway, CO.

After a quick stop in Gateway, we proceeded up the John Brown Road through John Brown Canyon.  It is a steep grade up a well-maintained county road through a deep and narrow red canyon.   

The Gateway Canyons Resort from Delores Point

After passing the Whirlwind Uranium mine, we proceeded out the Delores Point Mesa to GPS the routes that would be run for Rock Junction 2017.  Rock Junction is the Grand Mesa Jeep Club’s annual three-day trail event held the three days before the first Saturday in June.  That day is reserved for the Rocky Mountain Off Road Expo.

Up until we turned and started along the east rim of the mesa, all was good.  The rim section has severely overgrown trees reaching out well into the trail.  This slowed progress to a crawl and was very noisy as the branches screeched across the paint and top.  This will require several hours of trimming before we can offer this trail to our guests.

The Grand Mesa Jeep Club must annually pre-run no less than five trails before Rock Junction.  Winters and Spring can be very hard on many area trails.  Downed trees, rock falls, overgrown brush, and erosion can 

put a trail out of commission until we come along with the necessary maintenance.  Our guests come to drive the trails, not to do maintenance.

This is the Sheep Creek Trail.  The road easily seen in the bottom winds its way to just below the vertical cliffs at the top of the picture.  This narrow, steep shelf road can be a challenge in the spring due to erosion and rock falls.

 As it was, we picked up a hefty gunny sack full of cans and bottles along the trail and winched a large fallen tree from the trail.

The grand highlight of this trail comes at the end.  The views of the surrounding countryside are to die for.  Spectacular scenery greets your eyes in every direction.  If you are remotely familiar with the area, you will recognize many landmarks.

We could point out the Delores Overlook and the newly christened “Top II” trail where we had driven last Sunday.  Top II is the southern end of the up thrust mesa that graces the Top of the World trail of Moab fame.  From some viewpoints on Top II, you can see the terminus of Top of the World like nowhere else.

These spectacles from Delores Point made our lunches much more enjoyable.  Other trails seen from there include Sheep Creek, South and North Beaver Mesas, Polar Mesa, and the region around Rose Garden Hill.

Returning back from Delores Point, we continued to the South Beaver Mesa turn-off.  The South Beaver road starts out fairly mild and scenic.  But once you reach the hairpin turn, hold on to your seat --- tightly!!

Tom climbing the South Beaver Mesa trail.  Notice the severe erosion.

 From here, if you don’t like steep, narrow, loose rock, washed out with 2-foot deep channels, class 7 or 7+ shelf roads, now is a good time to just park and enjoy the scenery.  For the next mile or so, you WILL be paying close attention to your driving.

Off-camber, steep, and full of loose rock and sand, this trail WILL make you pay attention to your driving.  The scenery is over the top as well, IF you take a moment to notice.

 At the bottom of the steep part, there is an old shack and dugout cowboys or shepherds used -- we think.  It is set on the rim of the Beaver Creek Gorge in a beautiful setting.  In the dugout, you can still find bottled water and a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup that have been on the shelf for at least 7-years.

Stocked shelves in the Great American BackCountry are a rare find.

This is the "cow camp".  The small shed has a bunk bed while the dugout is stocked with bottled water and a can of soup.  A corral is to the right of the gate.

The dugout had a wood stove and bed springs for a short man.  Crutches still hang on the wall.

The road continues out So. Beaver Mesa, but is not very exciting as Jeep trails go.  So we began the slow, rough and rocky climb back out.

The trail is littered with fallen and erosion exposed rocks of varying size.

 At an intersection, we turned off the trail onto another faint road that brought us to another cabin and dugout.  This one was built mostly from area Juniper.  This is an unusual building material for a cabin.

Cabins built of Utah Juniper are rare finds.  That is cactus growing on the roof.

The dugout is also Juniper and a sod roof with cactus growing on it.  This would have been a pretty cozy place on a cold night.

The road continued in the general direction of the Gateway to Moab road, so we crawled along hoping it would take us all the way through.  Following my nose has often resulted in good things happening, and after quite a long time, we came to a familiar road that took us out to the road back to Gateway.

A herd of Mule Deer allowed a quick photo.

 Another superior day in the Great American BackCountry and another reminder of why I live by Yogi Berra’s “Yogi-ism”;  “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”  That is where the adventure begins.

Copyright Happy Trails 4wd, 2017.  All rights reserved.