I did this trip in late May of 2006, over three days time. I parked at the drill hole at the end of Road 2311, which is accessed off of Highway 95. On the Kane Gulch mapsheet Road 2311 is just south of where Harmony Flat is noted. Drive to the very end of the road and you will be at the drill hole.

To get to the entrance of Green House Canyon requires traveling over the mesa top for about 3 kilometers. From the drill hole, I shot an azimuth that brought me just above the head of Green House Canyon so I could take a look in Pine Canyon first. From there I headed straight for the head of Green House Canyon and made my way in. The entrance into Green House Canyon was challenging, with a series of pouroffs which took a couple of hours to negotiate. I had to climb nearly out of the canyon and back in at one point. If you do not climb in immediately, and stay to the south, you can avoid this by entering about a kilometer down from the head of the canyon. Once in the canyon the walking was fine.

There are countless ruins, granaries, and amazing rock art all along the walk. Some of the ruins you might encounter are Totem Pole, Two Story Ruin, Quail Panel, Water Works and Pine Canyon Ruin. There are many others that I found but could not associate with a name from the literature, including some kivas in a cave and another cave with what appeared to be hearths or ovens and historic occupation as well.


















Two Story Ruin, Grand Gulch


















Detail from Quail Panel showing some of the colors used in the pictographs found there


The hike out took me up Step Canyon to the junction with Pine Canyon, and out Pine Canyon. I walked up Step Canyon about 2 kilometers beyond its junction with Pine Canyon just to take a look, then returned. It is an easy walk out all the way if you choose to exit Step Canyon. (I verified that you can walk all the way out on another trip- coming down to this location from Dripping Point.)

The exit out Pine Canyon was also a nice, easy walk with plenty to see. You will come to an impassable pouroff, a couple hundred feet high perhaps, about 2 kilometers or so after seeing a big ruin on your left. Backtrack about 1 kilometer and look for an easy exit on the south side of the canyon. Look for an obvious, ugly trail going up the slope. When I hiked this in 2006 I found two fresh sets of motorcycle tracks, not more than a week old at the most, entering the canyon by the ruin mentioned above. The tracks went upcanyon to the pouroff, turned around and came back to a point where the riders did some obvious trail building to ride out. They spent some time on the trail- boulders were tumbled out of the way, rocks were stacked and dirt was moved so they could ride out. Their tracks went right up the side of the canyon and out onto the mesa top. These new tracks followed an older set of tracks, from the '80's I was told by one of the rangers. I am happy that I didn't meet these folks when I was in the canyon. After exiting I walked around the pouroff and dropped back into the canyon to walk another couple of kilometers further before heading back across the mesa to my starting point.

There was plenty of water available on this trip- there were potholes near the junction of Green House Canyon and Grand Gulch, just below the junction of Step Canyon and Grand Gulch, and potholes at numerous locations upcanyon in Step and Pine Canyons.




















Pine Canyon Ruin