Ever since I first came across Cedar Mesa, with Ely to Natural Bridges National Monument in 2001, I've been enchanted with the place. I've been going back to Cedar Mesa several times a year ever since, mostly for dayhiking. I first entered Grand Gulch, after driving past the Kane Gulch trailhead many times, in 2004 on a backpacking trip. It wasn't until 2006, however, that I was able to get back to that amazing place. Even in only two years, I noticed some differences.
I'd been trying to talk Ely into a dayhike on Cedar Mesa for some time, especially after our March 22nd-23rd trip with Aaron, Anne, Sean, Buster and Ben. Finally she agreed, and accompanied by the ever-adventuresome Beth and the unstoppable Buster, we set out from Page early, driving into the rising sun.

Kane Gulch Ranger Station trailhead group photo.
It took a lot of convincing for Ely to believe that the trail really was pretty easy. Despite reassurances that I'd been down it before (with a heavy pack), I eventually had to enlist other sources to back up my story. Such is the stigma of our visit to Lightning House. Will she ever forgive me? Buster set a brisk pace down the trail, and with that we began winding our way through the confines of Kane Gulch, heading for The Junction.

Buster in the lead in Kane Gulch.
The trail is pretty flat to begin with, but as it loses its alluvial bottom and begins carving sandstone, the trail steepens. That's of course part of the appeal - the giant, swooping sandstone formations that make up the cliffs of The Gulch. None the less, we soon found ourselves stopped at the famous "holy boulder" about midway down Kane Gulch.

The group stops to examine the scenery near the "holy boulder" in Kane Gulch.
We'd seen several Anasazi ruins on the way down the canyon, but I wanted to push on down the Junction Ruin. We'd hit up the other sites if there was time left, but I knew Junction was do-able, while the other sites required some scrambling, and Ely wasn't game for that. So down we went.

The northern kiva at lower Junction Ruin.
And sure enough, Junction was neat, and they were excited about it. So was I - it was good to be back. But things weren't the same. People must be natural-born thieves. Hardly a sherd of black on white, black on red, or polychrome pottery was left in the main ruin area. Even two years ago, there were still small to large size black on white sherds scattered across the ruin.

Compare the upper photo, taken in 2004, and the lower, taken on this trip, of the same room. The large B on W sherd, which was eight inches at maximum, has disappeared.
In addition to theft of artifacts, more damn goody piles, museum rocks, and display stones have cropped up. What the hell!? People are piling up all sorts of sherds (mostly plainware and corrugated now) on high surfaces. That totally destroys their utility to science. Apparently the people who do it don't care. They want to rob others of the thrill of discovery, like feudal kings who would kill a bard after a song, so no one else would ever hear it.
Despite such asinine actions by previous visitors, some cool bits of prehistory remain for those with sharp eyes and a knowledge of Anasazi sites.

The midden, off limits to hikers due to its fragile nature, obviously has the highest remaining concentration of pottery.

This sherd was an odd piece. Redware, rounded, thick, with a hollow center. I think it might be a ladle handle.

This piece was cool! I found the right piece first. Beth was nearby so I showed it to her. We agreed it was cool, and I put it back in its ancient resting spot. She turned around, and there, three feet away in a natural shelter was the left piece. We couldn't believe that they were part of the same vessel, but the designs were so similar that we tried to fit them together, and ta-da! We placed them both back where they were found, and pushed some sand over them. Hopefully they'll remain where they lay, but if someone finds one or both, I hope they'll leave them where they found them like we did.

Painted hands on the wall behind Junction Ruin.
One thing that I was happy about, however, was that there was almost no new graffitti on the alcove wall. I've been to enough backcountry sites to be completely sick of seeing reetching, tracing, chalking, bullet holes, and general mindless writing on the rocks.

Upper Junction Ruin.
We enjoyed Junction Ruin, but before we returned to the trailhead, there was something else that had to be done. We collected Buster (who wasn't allowed to go into the ruins) and headed off to a nearby Grand Gulch tributary to scope out a ruin I'd seen on my last trip.

Decorated House from the slope below it.
This was one of the few ruins that I've seen that I hadn't given a name to. It wasn't on any maps, and since I couldn't see much from below I couldn't decide on a good name. All that changed when Beth and I got up there (Ely decided to stay down with Buster). I'd soon begin thinking of it as Decorated House.

An apparent tower at Decorated House.
The only indication of the ruin from below was one wall, curving towards the cliff. As we approached the ruin, it became clear that that wall was possibly a tower structure, and there was much more to the site than that.

Ancient cribbed roof at Decorated House.
Next to the tower was a small structure that I first thought was a kiva, because of the surviving cribbed roof logs. A closer examination seemed to show that, even if all the room fill was removed, it wasn't deep enough to hold more than one person. What it was for, I can only guess, but it just the begining of the findings.

A small, enigmantic room near the cribbed roof.
Next to the cribbed roof structure was a small room masoned into an overhanging boulder. It may have, during the occupation, been a granary. Now its impossible to tell - no corn cobs remain in it. Some people, however, had decided that its nook would make an excellent "goody pile" location. One of the coolest artifacts I've seen in my wanderings was stashed in there - I'm guessing it was put there by a hiker, but I could be wrong.

The "Hoop Shrine" with modern leavings of pottery around a strange willow implement - part of a hoop?
I have no idea what the heck the wooden item is. I can't even begin to make a good guess. Beth suggested it was a bow. I think its too slight, but the closest I can guess would be part of a hoop. It seems intact, though, so I don't think its really a partial hoop. Who can say.

A Black-on-White sherd.
Despite being off the beaten path, hikers before us had left their unfortunate calling card - "treasure rocks". Not many, thankfully, but still enough to make me upset. Fortunately, the majority of sherds were undisturbed it seemed.

Zig-zag PIII pictograph over older Basketmaker pictographs.
The rock art behind the ruin was totally unblemished, and the colors were still very crisp. There were bighorns, people, and lots of zig-zags. There were also a couple spirals located on a slab at the back of one room. I couldn't tell if the slab was there when the ruin was built, or if the slab fell post-abandonment. In other spots, the PIII walls overlaid some Basketmaker petroglyphs.

Petroglyphs in the stones of one structure.
What gave the name to the site, however, was this. Along the front wall of one structure, the ancient inhabitants had pecked bands of motifs into the building stones. The effect was quite striking, and while I had heard of similar (and seen a similar effect with spalls at Moonhouse), I'd never been to a site where it was actually done. To make matters even cooler, the same structure still had a doorway stone in its doorway. Decorated House was an astounding place - well worth the tough access. I glanced at the sun, and knew it was time to go. We looked back at the ruin, sighed, and headed back down to rejoin with Ely and Buster. From there we found our way back down to the main trail out of Grand Gulch and headed back towards our car, and the Sonic at Kayenta.

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