Ride to the Secret Corrals

Went for a great ride on Saturday. We had a group of about 14 riders, including Jon Tanner, who always takes me to great places to ride.

This time he directed me to the Cottonwood Canyon trailhead, located just off of the Gooseberry Exit, I-70, about five miles or so east of Salina, Utah. We all met at the trailhead and were on the trail by about 10:30am. Take the Gooseberry Exit, turn south, then take an immediate left just south of the exit. Take that road about a mile, until you pass under the highway. You will find the trailhead gate and parking area just past the underpass tunnel. This is ranching area, so please close all gates.

Our goal was to ride up to the “Secret Corrals”, which are a couple of ancient corrals, made of cedar logs. These corrals were once used by the infamous (or famous, depending on your viewpoint) Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch to conceal horses so he could refresh his mounts. They would arrive, saddle new horses and turn theirs into the corrals, then set a watch on a hill and wait until the posse passed by. Then they would ride out and make their escape.

The Cottonwood Canyon trail takes you up a pretty steep climb to a summit just over 7500′ elevation, then makes a loop back to the access road about 1/2 a mile east of the trailhead. The entire loop is about 10 miles, all through rocky country full of cedars and oak thickets.

If you keep a sharp eye out you will pass a small “kiva” built up on the side of a rock as you pass up through the canyon. Must have been a native American village there at some point.

We came upon the corrals, just off the trail on the east side of a saddle, probably six or seven miles into the ride. The GPS coordinates are approximately N 38*54.7565′ W111*39.8122′. I’m not too worried about them getting overrun with traffic, because getting there was tough. Nobody but the local ranchers and a few die-hard trail riders ever make it up to the corrals. It’s no wonder they have remained “secret” all these years.

The trail is not for beginners. There are parts of this trail that I consider to be quite challenging for both rider and horse (and I’m no novice). Also, there are areas where the trail is not very obvious and if you have not been over the trail before you are pretty sure to get lost, at least for a while. Getting off the trail is not particularly fun, as the oak thickets are unavoidable. However, if you get lost, just head south and you will eventually get to the highway.

I have the Earthmate app on my iphone and the topo map of the area downloaded, so I was able to see the trail on my iphone, complete with an arrow indicating my position. Be aware, however, that trails change over time and sometimes the line on the map is not precisely located where the trail is actually located on the ground.

We arrived back at our vehicles about 5:30pm or so. It was a nice, challenging, fun ride, and we were all pretty well pooped-out when we got back to the trailers.

Unshod horses with good feet will be fine on the trail, but shoes are recommended. Unshod horses will be tender by the end of the day.

Here are some pics I took. Enjoy