
Canyonlands National Park
Fort Bottom Ruin Trail
The Fort Bottom Ruin Trail is a moderately difficult trail that descends two miles to the Colorado River from White Rim Road. The destination of this route, abend in the river named Fort Bottom, has been inhabited by by humans for thousands of years. An abandoned cabin from the mining era of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth century still stands at the end of the trail. An Ancient Puebloan structure also lies near the end of the trail in Fort Bottom. (Camping is not permitted in these structures.)
The track leading to the above described structures follows an arm of the canyon that extends into the riverbed. To avoid this durable rock the river makes a wide meander. Fort Bottom is the flat, sandy flood plain created by the river as it avoids the arm of the canyon. The trail descends steeply 500 feet to the sand bar on the eastern bank of the Colorado River. The route is rocky and covered with rotten rock in some places. It makes a good half-day hike.
Canyonlands National Park, 2282 S. West Resource Blvd. , Moab, UT, 84532-8000, Phone: 435-259-7164, [email protected]
Directions from Island in the Sky Visitor Center: Drive northward along Utah 313 9 miles to Mineral Bottom Road. Turn left on to this unpaved, high-clearance road and follow it to White Rim Road, approximately 14.5 miles. Turn left on to White Rim Road and follow that four-wheel drive road 10 miles, past Hardscrabble Bottom, to the Fort Bottom Trailhead.
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