[John Morrow]

"To Do in 2021" for me had included backpacking in the Saddle Horse/Virgin Spring canyon system. Well, it'll have to wait as we got a bit of summit fever with light daypacks as an alternative. That is Abert's good influence on me as it had been far too long since we last spent some days exploring the desert. These canyons are part of an interesting area north of Interstate 70. It is now home to several Congressionally Designated Wilderness Areas from 2019 legislation. We were mostly in and around the Sids Mountain Wilderness. Wilderness, canyons, summits, and rock art...my kind of place. Maps help out (full size for printing in Flickr):

Overview

Bottleneck-Cane

Sids Mtn

Pinnacle WldHP

April 10: Bottleneck Mesa followed by a hike to Cane Wash along the river. Bottleneck Mesa has two short scramble pitches. Mostly it is chinle slope. However, the Mossback member forms a short vertical wall that has to be surmounted. A scree slope leads intuitively to the shortest bit of Mossback. A Class 4 move is required to get up it. There was a fixed rope dangling. A couple vertical imbedded rock flakes aid as foot perches. Then the second is a lesser issue, getting through the Wingate at the summit where it is thinnest (Class 2-3). Matt Lemke has a good description on his site.

Bottleneck Mesa

With the Bottleneck

The route left once above the Mossback vertical step

final scramble

Window Blind Peak

Canyon walls

descending

With time left in the day and no shade in camp we opted to hike the river trail to Cane Wash.

Along the River

San Rafael River

Little Grand Canyon

Headed to Cane Wash

river bottom

returning

trail turns

Buttes

April 11: This turned out to be a big day of 14 miles. We could not quite make it to the official TH in my Subaru (or could walk it as fast) when the access road went through endless chinle rivulets. A really nice old cattle trail makes it up onto Sids Mtn from Cane Wash. It begins as an old mining road. Kelsey calls it "No Man's Mountain Trail". Udink has good info on it I believe. Then it was a loop on top connecting any number of Class 2 breaks in the west slope of Sids Mountain proper, then onto Swazy BM, exploring the head of Long Hollow, returning across the flats. Lots of rock art to be found.

Trail to Sids Mountain

Switchbacks up

breaking through

Sids Mountain

Crazy pinnacle

Saddle Horse Canyon below

rim

Sid's Country

descent route

pasture and remnant fence

on to Swazy BM

Kofford Cabin area

David ascend Swazy BM

Virgin Spring Canyon below

vastness of Sids

Head of Long Hollow

Swazy and Sids on return

tomorrow's objective: 7010

April 12: Having such a good view of Pinnacle and of a potential route up the north slope of the Highpoint of Sids Mountain Wilderness, we decided to give these a go. Same issue presents itself: get through the Mossback Member (accomplished by finding scree slopes covering the underlying band; and get through the Wingate of the summits: see Canyoneering the N Swell, S Allen for Pinnacle). Both were very fun and on the HP there were several Class 2 weaknesses in the Wingate. Pinnacle:

ascend to wingate base

Sids Wilderness HP distant

turn the north corner

traverse to west and climb

looking south

looking north

looking northeast

crux (on descent)

Sid's Mountain Wilderness Highpoint:

Up the chinle to wingate base

traverse the base

a broad walk

Sids Wilderness HP ahead

arch!

David finishes final scramble

looking north

looking south

another time, perhaps

[trent]

Thanks for posting. I always look forward to your desert reports!