It was around 9:30 before I finally headed out. I went west along the Escalante Route which begins on the downriver side of the Tanner Canyon drainage. It starts off very nicely as its sides have been lined with small rocks to mark the trail. The trail quickly heads away from the river and climbs up a small drainage at the other end of the beach. It goes over a small slope, crosses another drainage and then heads up into the next one, which is right above the bend in the river. The trail ascends the other side via a rocky and sandy slope about 20-30 yards back into the drainage. From the top of this climb you a rewarded with a very nice view of the river and the delta on the other side.

At about 10:00 I reached a small rapids that was right below Basalt Canyon on the other side of the river. On my side of the river there was an enormous bed of red Dox Sandstone that slanted right down into the river for maybe a couple hundred yards. There were some small rapids on this side of the river as well that I think may have been caused my pieces of the Dox breaking off and falling into the river. Beyond this there is another bend in the river and a spot where you can really see the kind of erosion that the river was capable of before it was dammed. There is a very large beach that has been carved out of the same slanted beds of the Dox. The beach has been reclaimed by various types of vegetation now and it has probably been a long time since the river has run that high. After passing this beach the trail climbs away from the river. It soon comes to and crosses a huge drainage coming down from Cardenas Butte.

At 10:25, after crossing the drainage, the trail started across a series of small hills. At 10:40 I crossed another medium sized drainage and from the top on the other side I could see a small rapids on the other side of the river. There was also a very nice view of the Unkar Creek overlook up ahead of me. The trail then proceeded through a number of drainages with multiple channels which take some time to traverse. Most of these require you to descend into and climb out of the drainage multiple times before getting to the other side. I kept looking at the sky and hoping that it wouldn't rain anywhere near where I was. Being caught in one of these things during a flash flood would be interesting but not exactly a great deal of fun. After going over a small hill you come to a series of drainages that seem to grow on each other, first a small one, then a large one and then and enormous one. This last was one of the biggest (widest) drainages I have ever seen. It had to easily be 100 yards across. There is an a drainage on the topo map that does not have a name and I guess this was it, though I don't understand why something this big didn't have a name. After crossing that drainage the trail heads across a very wide area (1/2 mile) that is fairly heavily vegetated with what appeared to be mesquite trees. At 11:20 I reached the other end of this and encountered another good sized drainage which I believe was Cardenas Creek. After crossing Cardenas the trail starts to climb up to the Unkar Creek overlook. It follows another nameless drainage for a good part of this climb.

I reached the top around noon. From the top of the overlook there is a spectacular view looking west along the river. I remembered this view from the last time I was up here, 2 years ago, that time coming from the other direction, from Red Canyon and Hance Rapids. With this hike I had finally completed the Escalante Route. I started looking around for the ruin that was supposed to be up here but there was nothing obvious. I guess it's no fun if it's too easy.

I found what appeared to be a trail heading over to the high point on the overlook but there was no obvious way of getting from my trail to that trail. After wandering around for a while I found a drainage that was leading in the right direction and followed that down and over to the trail. The trail then heads up and away from the drainage and brought me right out to the cliffs above Unkar Creek Rapids.

This must be the real Unkar Creek overlook though it is not obvious at all how to get here from the Escalante Route. The view of the cliffs from this vantage point was spectacular. Looking over the edge is not for people who have a fear of heights as you are looking directly down on the Unkar Creek rapids 4-500 feet below you. If you are not afraid of heights the view of the rapids and the delta is wonderful.

I scampered up and down and all around but there was still no sign of a ruin. I was wondering if today was going to be a repeat of yesterday. I still had plenty of time as it was only 1:30 and all I needed was a couple of hours to get back to camp. There was no better place to have lunch than right on the edge of the overlook so that's what I did. After lunch I scanned the area again with my binoculars but I was running out of places to look. Heading back down to the drainage I discovered another trail (actual two, one faint and one real faint) that headed further out onto the overlook. This trail descended a little bit and seemed a good possibility so I started to follow it. It led me to a rocky outcropping that looked like a good place to build, but alas no ruin to be found here. I followed the fainter trail going back and deduced that these were animal and not human trails, at least not anymore. Back at the drainage I was able to make out an actual ascent out of the other side of the drainage and up to the Escalante Route. It was not visible at all from the top looking down and there was no cairn marking it.

I had run out of ideas and it seemed that this day would be a failure as well. I started heading back along the trail towards my campsite at Tanner. I hadn't gone more than 40-50 yards before I came to a fork in the trail. I thought it strange that I hadn't noticed it on the way up. It was not very obvious and some stones had been placed along the right fork - possibly in an effort to obscure it. I knew that the left fork went back to camp as I could see the footprints that I left on the way up. There were no footprints on the other fork, so off I went.

I didn't have to go very far before I saw it. The ruin is on a ridge on the opposite (east) side of the drainage from the cliffs overlooking Unkar Creek delta. Some of the pictures included here are one of cliff ruin sitting out on the end of the ridge.

There is also a photo of the Colorado River that I took by shooting over the western wall and through a opening in the eastern one.

I also took pretty much the same photo from standing inside the ruin. The only real difference between the two photos is that in the prior one you can see the eastern wall of the ruin and in this one you can't.

The last photo of this set is one of how the ruin appears when you first approach it along the ridge.

I spent maybe an 1/2 hour wandering around the ridge and photographing the ruin from various angles. It was not the most impressive ruin I had ever seen but it was one of the most wonderful settings. The thought of it sitting up there on that ridge all alone still gives me a chill. I asked some park rangers about it when I climbed back out to the rim but no one seemed to know very much about it. It seemed an unlikely spot for an actual dwelling and I wondered if it had some kind of religious significance. The walls did not appear to have had any doors or windows so the only opening was more than likely through the roof, when it still existed. This could mean that it might have been a kiva of sorts?

I headed back to camp at around 2:40 and was back at my site at 5:00. The whole day had been pretty dreary weather-wise. The temperature I would guess was only in the mid to upper 40's with some breezes that were even cooler. There was no sun except for the time that I was at the ruin itself. Thank you Great Spirit!