Leslie and David's Wanderings: 16 May 2021 Thompson and Sego Canyons

With everything close to Moab overrun with people, we decided to explore a bit closer to home. David was talking to the neighbors that told him about there excursion into two canyons just north of the RV park. So he checked with the office and they provided him a map. We had hoped we could rent an ATV from the RV Park, but they stopped renting their ATVs a couple of years ago due to the cost of liability insurance. But they assured him we could do the roads in our Behemoth. So we headed out this morning for Thompson canyon and then Sego canyon (they intersect five miles into Thompson canyon. As we drove through the small town of Thompson Springs, we were surprised at just how run down the town was. The Ballard RV park was definitely the highlight of the town. Thompson Springs was the main railroad stop for the area from 1883 through the 1920s. The stage stop was saw yesterday on Cotter Mine Road was the halfway point for the stagecoach from Moab to Thompson Springs. It served as a refueling point for the steam locomotives through the mid 1950s. Its interesting that this section of tracks has been carrying trains from the 1880s through today. Our first stop was several panels of Petroglyphs and Pictoglyphs about 3.5 miles from the railroad crossing. The area to the west of the road is BLM land and as such, not very well maintained. There is a mixture of Pictoglyphs and petroglyghs on panels on both sides of the road. Some of the art dates back before 2000BC, some of it is more recent (1200-1600AD). There is newer graffiti as well. BLM has installed a couple of motion activated cameras to attempt to catch people defacing the panels. On the opposite side of the road, there is another panel with almost life size pictograph figures, but it is on private land and given the numerous no trespassing signs, we could only admire from a distance. We continued up Thompson Canyon to Sego Road. We headed up Sego Canyon just a little ways until we reached a old graveyard. The graveyard was fenced all the way around to keep the public out. We walked around the perimeter and tried to read the few headstones. There were a lot of unmarked graves, which were apparently associated with the mine up the canyon. The most recent we could headstone discern was in 1996. It’s a very quiet location. We then drove further up the canyon to the ghost town of Sego. This town at one point was home to over 500 people. The town was the primary support for the coalmine. The coalmine and surrounding lands changed hands several times. Coal was first mined here in the late 1890s and grew in size in 1911. In 1914, the railroad built a spur up to the mine to help move the coal faster. The spur crosses the creek flowing down the canyon 13 times. It supplied coal to the trains coming through Thompson Springs until the mid 1950s when the trains converted to diesel electric. The only two builds left visible are the rock walls of the American Fuel Company Store and the American Boarding House. The town shut down in 1955 when the coal mine went bankrupt. The road up to Sego was in great shape so we decided to continue up the canyon. We eventually reached the top of the canyon at 8500 feet where there was a locked gate at the Ute Indian Reservation boundary. There were pines and birch trees everywhere and the air smelled so fresh and clean. We were surprised to find three trucks with large horse trailers parked up there. Reading the signs, we learned this was a jump off point for the Sego horse trail into the road less Book Cliffs wildlife district. Apparently there is excellent elk hunting in the Book Cliffs but it is rugged terrain and several horses and mules die each year on the tough trail. The views from the top of the canyon are incredible and we were not in any hurry to leave. We headed back down Sego canyon until we reached the junction with Thompson Canyon road. We turned up the canyon and followed the road until we reached the end, not far past the ruins of a 1960s communal town with a communal bread oven. One of the “homes” was built with railroad ties from the closed spur (We also saw several ranches had used the abandoned ties as fence posts). There was a pipe sticking out of the ground with water flowing out of it into a little creek with a sign warning not to contaminate the drinking water. Before the little communal town we crossed a low spot with a little water on the road and a large flat area with wild grasses and bushes. We learned later that is the water source for the town. A series of French drains catch water here and pipe it down to the town. Sure glad we have a good water filter on the Wanderer! It was a fun day of exploring.