Cedar Mesa, west of Blanding, UT on UT95 is 3 or 4 hours west of Capitol Reef National Park. It's a big mesa that sits 1200 feet above Valley Of the Gods and includes Natural Bridges National Monument.
I passed the northern section of Lake Powell on the way. What a sad site that is. No lake at all. The last time I was by it was all mud flats. Now its all grasses and bushes. I had hoped all the rains we got this past winter in Arizona and western Utah would have had an impact... but nada.
I've been scouting out new places to go and things to do for next year. One of the things will be to walk the roads along northern Lake Powell. UT95, from the UT276 junction east of Hanksville, is either surrounded by towering canyon walls or has enormous walls on one side and Lake Powell on the other for 30 miles or so. I also found several access points to what I think is White Canyon along UT95 on the way to Natural Bridges National Monument.
Stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument and hiked down and up the trails to all three bridges; then decided to do the entire loop the next day.
Hiking Kane Gulch (9 miles round trip):
I'm camped at the junction of UT95 & UT261. The Kane Gulch Ranger station is mile 39 on UT261. BLM charges $2 per day per person or $5 per week per person. I threw in the $5 but temperatures in the 90's may change my mind about that.
You pick the Kane Gulch Trail right beside the outhouse at the ranger station. The next 1.5 miles or so you wade through cow crap and fight off stampedes. Apparently they don't like slick rock because they're gone by mile 1.5. The ranger said the gulch drops 800 feet over 4 miles. He must include all the ups and downs coming and going because net elevation change is only 400 feet or so. Most of the gain loss is in the 2nd and 3rd miles.
Kane Gulch is typical of the back country canyons with beige sandstone walls rising from 100 to 800 feet. Much of the trail is over slick rock along the sides of the canyons because giant boulders frequently clutter up the Gulch floor.
4.0 miles brings you to the Junction Springs Ruins. You can't miss it because of the large cottonwoods and a couple of nice campsites. The ruins are easily spotted too on the back wall. 4 or 5 structures, including a kiva, are on one level and 3 or 4 more on the next. The first level is easily accessible with pictograph and ruin information available in an ammo box at the top of the approach trail.
Turkey Pen Ruins can be found .7 miles farther on. 5 or 6 structures are easy to get to on a very large ledge. They even had 1/2 dozen pottery shards and a couple of tiny ears of corn laid out on a small flat stone. It's amazing they are still there.
I didn't bother to go another .3 miles to an arch. I could feel some strain in my legs and knew I'd be getting all I wanted on the way back.
Hiking Road Canyon (6.8 miles round trip):
Except for a steep drop of 120 feet, this was an easy hike. The drop occurs a couple hundred yards from the trailhead. This no name canyon then joins with Road Canyon in 1/2 mile.
Canyon walls rise up 300-400 feet as far as I went. 4 different ruins could be seen high above after the first mile or so. If I saw 4, there must have been 10-20 more up there I either missed or were set farther back on ledges. A couple of nice hoo doos made the nice looking canyon even nicer.
I went down to a large pour off and chose not to go any farther. More ruins are supposed to be farther on. I missed (forgot) the turn into no name canyon. Took me a while to figure things weren't right. The GPS got me out of that predicament after climbing around some big boulders for 10-15 minutes.
Hiking Government Trail (6.4 miles round trip):
This hike proved to be something of a disappointment. I parked 1/2 mile from the trailhead because of rocky drops I chose not to negotiate. Two cars belonging to backpackers were parked along the road and a VW camper belonged to a couple doing the same day trip I was.
The first 2.7 miles is along an old road through a mesa with nothing but brush. There were great views in the distance though. That brings you to the edge of Grand Gulch and a 700 foot drop into the canyon. The saving grace to the hike is if, at the edge, you look directly across the canyon you'll see a nice set of ruins. Very early morning sun (8am?) would be best for viewing and pictures. Shadows were creeping in around 9am.
I followed the switchbacks down to the canyon floor and then turned right for 1/4 mile. Willows and small cottonwoods were closing in pretty tightly blocking any views so I turned back. The other direction seemed pretty much the same so I headed up the switchbacks. It's been in the 90's the last 3 days at 6000 feet so its time to find some place cooler.