Saturday, May 30, 2020

Chicken Corner: On the way

Talking to Tami and Chris a few days ago they had never been to Chicken Corner so with few guests at that moment we headed out.

In the first creek bed on the way is this artifact site with a dwelling. Can see the stairs cut in the rock leading into the dwelling.
A ways further before the intersection to Lockhart Basin just off the side of the trail is a natural bridge.
This is a mystery. Previous ownership told me that one day he found a horse in the camel pen and followed it's tracks back to this spot where someone had fallen off his horse and died. He told me that each year around New Year's somewhere that the wife would come out and they would jointly go out and mourn at the site. To expect here each year and give her a ride out. The first year around New Year's somewhere a lady came and ask for the previous owner. I told her that he had sold and moved and it was me now but I knew why she was here. We went out to the site. I stayed in the Jeep. After 15 minutes or so she came back, I took her to the lodge, she left and I never saw her again. Bill and I had put a rock for a headstone out there and Bill put a cowboy rope around it.

Then a few years ago this showed up at the spot. So who was the lady that I drove out there with?
This is false chicken corner. All the professional maps show it as Chicken Corner but they are wrong. One day some guests called and ask how long the motorcycle and helmet had been at the bottom of the cliff. On the walkie I told them "Never." They said they were there now so I called SAR and they came out to the site. As everyone was getting ready to repel over the side they took a radio call saying a guy had just walked into the Grand County Sheriff's Office and said just in case somebody saw his motorcycle and helmet at the bottom of the cliff he got off before it went over and he was fine. A few days later I was out hiking with Kobae and saw a trailer go by with a bunch of rope and a winch on it. Next time I drove out to this spot the motorcycle was gone but the helmet stayed down there for a few years before it disappeared.
Chris and Tami at False Chicken Corner where the dirt bike went over.
The snake fossil on the back side of the trail around Chicken Corner.
The view towards Needles coming out at the end of the trail around Chicken Corner.

Looking up at Dead Horse Point from Chicken Corner.
Looking at the river bending around just beyond Chicken Corner. At the top in the distance is the White Rim trail. Behind the large wall in the river bend is The Grotto and if you want the best echoes, sometimes nine or ten, aim your voice at the black section of the wall about half way up.



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