Range Creek – A Wonder of Preservation

Join us for a rare opportunity to visit Range Creek archaeology sites and prehistoric Fremont rock art in this two day / two night vehicle trip with interpretive hikes, overnight camping, and plenty of time to explore. Includes vehicle tour, hikes, and camping, evening program, all meals. Located in the Book Cliffs between Green River and Price, Utah, Range Creek canyon has been recently opened to research and restricted vehicle access after careful protection by local ranching family for many years. Small group, comfortable vehicle supported camp, longer trip allows quality time for exploring, hiking, discussion.

– Van & Short hikes from Overnight Base Camp
– There is moderate hiking, up to 2 miles round trip

CFI Naturalists will help narrate the story of this unique landscape, the people who lived here, how they lived, and why they eventually departed. The trip includes a visit to the ranch homestead, stories about early day settlers as well as information about canyon geology, flora and fauna. We almost always see a “big mammal” of some sort on our trips!

A good pair of binoculars is a must!

This 2 night/2 day tour allows plenty of time to explore and enjoy the canyon. We’ll meet in Green River at the John Wesley Powell Museum at 1:30pm on Friday and see a display with artifacts from the region. Park your vehicle here and travel on with a CFI Naturalist-Guide to enter the Book Cliffs at Horse Canyon. Once there, we’ll follow a steep rough road for about an hour, stop for a geology overview at an 8,500’ pass, then drop into Little Horse Canyon and continue on until we reach the locked gate protecting the canyon.

Here, we set up a comfortable camp in lovely meadow under pine trees. By foot, we’ll visit a rock art site near the camp.  After a delicious dinner, we’ll learn more about the area’s preservation issues and geology. Our tour the next day takes us 14 miles to the Wilcox Ranch homestead and a visit with the University site staff. We’ll visit several other sites on our return to our campsite.  The next morning, we will return into the canyon to visit more sites and depart Range Creek about 1:30, and arrive back at Green River about 3:00 p.m.

Delicious healthy meals are included from dinner on Friday through lunch the last day.

There is a four-person minimum to run the trip. CFI will refund payment if the minimum is not met one week before the trip.

Participant review:

“The entire experience, from being picked up at the motel in Moab to being returned to the John Wesley Museum in Green River, was the highlight of the trip. Our two guides, Rebecca Martin and Meghan Montgomery, were knowledgeable, complemented each other extremely well with their different expertise (cultural anthropology and environmental biology), and were experienced campers which made our stay in camp superlative. The camping experience was exceptional with delicious food! Both guides went out of their ways to ensure all in the party had their most rewarding experience: locating and pointing out the artifacts, knowing the best way to view them, and providing background information to enhance the visit to the Fremont culture and the Range Creek Canyon site. We certainly got more out of the visit that we had anticipated and thoroughly enjoyed our trip. Being able to take advantage of CFI’s vehicle pass surely enabled us to see more of the site than we would have been able to without it, and seeing the original Wilcox ranch brought everything into better context for us.”

A satisfied participant, Pennsylvania, USA

 

Discover how Range Creek is a field school for the University of Utah’s Department of Anthropology.

Read the Smithsonian Magazine’s article Secrets of the Range Creek Ranch.

Learn about the Range Creek Research Project at the Natural History Museum of Utah web site.

Here’s a National Geographic Explorer article: Waldo Wilcox: Range Creek’s Fremont Artifacts