Nine Mile Canyon Road Summit
This very shallow summit possesses many aspects typical of
a summit in the Book Cliffs area: uniform layer cake
canyon geology with a myriad of gas wells in an isolated
area. What is special about this pass is the lower canyon
on its western approach. The thirty some mile long canyon,
mysteriously named Nine Mile Canyon, has a wealth of
Indian petroglyphs from the Fremont period, as well as old
homesteads from a period when the route was part of the
main road between Price and Vernal. For the most part this
is an elaborately engineered all weather dirt road that
lacks the scenic intimacy of other MTB routes, like the
ride over Bruin Point
summit(u) , but is perfectly ridable in a fast aerobic
style. Parts of it may be quite bumpy. Older state maps
mark this summit with a pass symbol.
01.(5400ft,mile00) START-END WEST:
junction US6, Nine Mile Canyon Road
02.(7501ft,mile18) TOP: Nine Mile Canyon Road
summit(u)
03.(6930ft,mile21) road from Minnie Maude Creek
joins from left
04.(6810ft,mile23) road from Sulphur Creek joins
from left
05.(6600ft,mile25) road from Cow Creek joins from
right
06.(6090ft,mile32) road from Argyle Creek joins from
left
07.(5800ft,mile39) road from Gate Canyon joins from
left
08.(5440ft,mile44) road from Dry Canyon joins from
right
09.(5430ft,mile44) Daddy Canyon Complex petroglyph
area
10.(5380ft,mile45) road from Cottonwood Canyon joins
from right
11.(5320ft,mile47) START-END EAST: gate over road |
 |
Approaches
From East. Paved Nine Mile Canyon Road, on maps also
referred to as Soldier Canyon, leaves from US6 a short
distance east of Wellington and heads for the Book Cliffs to
the north. The road is used by double trailer coal trucks that
are typical for this part of Utah. But in my case traffic was
so light that this did not present a problem. The road climbs
between shallow ravines to moderate height at the entrance of
the Book Cliffs, where they seem about half as high as seen
from US6. The pavement ends about 5 miles further at a second
coal mine. The canyon becomes shallower and crests in a wide
plateau valley while turning north.
From West. The route is described in a downward
direction. A short shallow descent leads to the first labeled
group of petroglyphs. The road descends further through
various old homesteads, gas wells and pictographs. Close to
the bottom, the Daddy Canyon complex is a strange combination
of an organized hiking trail between pictographs, adjacent to
a gas processing facility and parking lot big enough to serve
a convention center, usually with less than 2 cars parked. The
short section of road from here, downcanyon to where it ends
at a private gate, is by far the most scenically interesting
section of the road. Just when it gets interesting you
have to turn around. Considering the isolation of this road,
it can have a surprising amount of traffic on some weekends,
consisting of gas well traffic, archeological tourists, and
locals using the road as a shortcut between Carbon county and
the Vernal, Duchesne area. All pictures, except for the second
one, are taken in the last few miles of the lower descent on
this side.
Tours
Dayrides. An out and back ride starting at a
campsite near the area where the road enters the Book Cliffs
to the end of Nine Mile Canyon road and back, going over the
summit twice, measured 76 miles in 7 hours. The cyclometer
measured altitude gain of more that 7000 feet was wrong
because of a passing weather front (m3:06.5.25).
A ride beginning on US6, climbing through Sunnyside to Bruin
Point summit(u), descending through Dry Creek Canyon, then
climbing over this summit back to the starting point measured
89 miles with 7500 feet of climbing in 8.2 hours
(m3:06.05.27).
|
