Picket Wire Canyon,
Comanche National Grassland, CO

Comanche National Grassland
Distance: 11.5 miles
Traveled: Withers Canyon Trailhead into Picket Wire Canyon

“In Shoshone, there’s a saying. It’s a long one, and it doesn’t have an English equivalent, so bear with me.

Sutummu tukummuinna. It means, I don’t speak your language, and you don’t speak mine. But I still understand you. I don’t need to walk in your footsteps if I can see the footprints you left behind.”
– Rose Christo, Why the Star Stands Still

As I mentioned in my previous post, the weather of this February has been nutty. It’s been in the 60’s, I’ve had the windows open, I’ve moved on from any romantic thoughts about snowboarding and snowshoeing and cuddling by the fire. It has become irritating that it’s this warm out and everything is still brown, leafless, and soggy. Despite the tease – the change of season, and the buds of spring are still many months away.  Many. Months. Away.

If it’s gonna be winter, be winter. Bury me in snow, chill me to the bone, make me want to stay inside and be productive for at least a few months of the year. Don’t give me this shit.

I had to get out of the mountains; I had to go somewhere that would be unbearably hot any other time of the year other than right now. I needed to get in some big miles – none of this 5-mile crap. Somewhere I hadn’t been. I couldn’t swing a Utah trip right now, and I needed somewhere I could get away with only a day-trip to. Time to pull out the maps and the books.

My scouring of maps and books landed me firmly at Picket Wire Canyon in the Comanche National Grasslands.

This canyon and hike would check off so many items on my “favorite things to experience when hiking” list:

• Canyon landscapes
• Petroglyphs
• Wildlife
• Archeological wonders
• Seemingly endless miles of wilderness
• Paleontological and prehistoric treasures (I will walk for many, many, miles to see anything dinosaur-related – and this hike would end up raising the bar quite a bit)

I left for the 200-mile drive at 6:00am, looking forward driving 3.5 hours through to the southern prairie of Colorado – an area I had yet to explore.

The grassland was the vast expanse I expected it to be, and turning from the highway onto the back dirt roads I rolled down the windows and let the 70-degree breeze roll in.  70 degrees in February felt like a nice change of pace.

Driving on the dirt roads through the unblemished expanse of prairie, a canyon seemed like one of the least-likely things to stumble-upon in the landscape. Yet, arriving at the Withers Canyon Trailhead parking lot, suddenly the landscape transforms and it’s easy to forget the hundreds of miles of grassland that surround you.

Heading out on the trail you immediately drop 350 feet down into Withers Canyon, a side canyon of Picket Wire Canyon, and the views open up.

Withers Canyon

Withers Canyon

Withers Canyon

Withers Canyon

This descent is really the only significant elevation gain/loss on the trail (and it’s not much). Once you reach the canyon floor, the trail is mostly flat for miles and miles.

I was off.

After about a mile, the trail arrives in the valley (otherwise known as the Valley of Lost Souls in Purgatory) of Picket Wire  Canyon. The canyon floor is very wide and flat, and the Purgatoire River far from the trail.

The ruins of an old homestead are not far down the trail from here. When I arrived at the homestead site there was a large group of boy scouts prowling the area and yelling and screaming like groups of young boys in the wild are apt to do, so I opted to continue on and stop on the way back to the trailhead.

Further down the trail at 3.7 miles, is the site of an old Spanish mission, and I decided that I would also pass up visiting that site for now and investigate it on the return trip.

The trail was fairly uneventful for miles, and though the temperature was completely reasonable today, I imagine that being down here in the summer would be dreadful.

I was keeping my eyes peeled for petroglyphs as I had heard there were some in the area. So as not to ruin the fun of others in searching them out I won’t post their exact location – but if you look you will find them. It’s unlikely that this canyon was ever settled by Native Americans, and it’s speculated that the petroglyphs in the area were created by nomadic hunters passing through the area. From what I have read the petroglyphs in the canyon date between 400 and 4500 years old.

Replica of an Apatosaurus Shoulder Blade

This is a great New York Times article  on the current paleontological efforts in Picket Wire Canyon.

Finally after a little over 5 miles I reached the sign and register marking the dinosaur track site. I was giddy, and despite my assumptions, I still had no idea how cool it would actually be.

The tracks stretch on both sides of the river, and to truly experience the size of the site you have to cross the river. Fortunately, being it was winter, the river was quite low so crossing was no big deal. I can imagine that in the spring and early summer the crossing can get quite dangerous.

I removed my shoes and trudged across the river and found myself in a heightened state of awe at the tracks in the bedrock on the other side. Perfect paths preserved in stone.


The perfectly orchestrated chain of events that occurred to preserve this site blows my mind.

I sat by the river to have lunch and take it all in. The river and this area was truly beautiful and unique.

As the sun fell low the valley came to life. Bluebirds were everywhere, and sparrows buzzed in and out of the rocks and cliffs.

I stopped at the Dolores Mission and cemetery site on the way back. The mission was built in the 1800’s by Mexican pioneers. The graves were particularly interesting and I loved the style of them.

Dolores Mission

Pronghorn on the way home