Honaker Trail to San Juan River

Overview

San Juan River originates in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. On its way to join Colorado River, San Juan River carves a 1300 ft deep canyon in southeastern Utah. The canyon is best seen at Utah’s Goosenecks of San Juan River State Park. Parallel bands of cliffs separated by steep slopes go down all the way from the rim to the bottom of the canyon making it appear impossible to reach the river. Honaker Trail is a well-defined but unmarked trail that sits a few miles to the northwest of the Goosenecks. It somehow takes you down through the cliffs to reach the river.

Hike Statistics

Elevation at start of Honaker Trail: 5160 ft
Elevation of San Juan River: 3940 ft
Length of Honaker Trail: 2.75 miles one way
My hike including dirt road and hike along the river: 8.8 miles roundtrip

The GPS track and elevation profile for some reason registered inaccurately.

Trip Report

Left the rental house in Bluff, UT at 6:40 a.m. and drove to Route 316 where I turned on dirt road #244. I had looked at satellite photos and knew where I needed to go. After more than 2 miles, I reached an unmarked dirt road on the left where there was a water tank in the middle of the desert. Turned south onto that road. I had AWD but was still concerned that the road might turn out to be too rough. Once I got on it, I noted that it actually seemed passable by 2WD high clearance. After a mile, I reached a turn and saw that the road went down and looked a little rough. I knew I was only a mile away from Honaker Trail so I decided to park at that spot.

I was on a beautiful desert plain with colorful cliffs rising to the north. It was 43 degrees F and I was at 5211 ft of elevation per my GPS. Started to hike the road at 7:25 a.m.



Glimpses of the upper slopes of the canyon began to appear.



The trail was unmarked but I had entered the coordinates of the start of it into my GPS. Once I reached the edge of the canyon, I was pretty impressed. The earth had cracked open. I was about to go to hell, into the dark interior of the earth. I still could not see how a trail could possibly take me down those cliffs and nasty slopes.



Got on the trail and started to hike down. I was on a west facing slope and remained in the shade for most of the day. Once down to around 4650 ft of elevation, I saw a prominent rocky protrusion known as Horn Point. It had a flat surface where you could go to get better views of the canyon. I left the picture taking for the return trip.



Beyond Horn Point, the trail meandered its way down the cliffs, sometimes over large ramps created by stacked rock.

Ramp

Ramp

I thought I would have the river to myself but saw a number of rafts and people by the river. They must have rafted to that spot and overnight camped.



The trail then made a number of long traverses along bands of cliffs before it switch-backed to the lower level until it finally reached the river at 9:15 a.m. I spoke to some of the rafters. They had started upstream in Mexican Hat, Utah and had made it to that spot last night. I found a private spot by the river where I sat to rest.



It was still hard to believe that I had hiked down those walls.



I then began to walk upstream along the banks of the river. After a turn, I reached sunlight and it actually felt rather hot. I decided to go back up the trail before the sun rose on it.

Hiking back up the trail.

The long traverse sections.



Steep drop to the river from the trail.



Looking up at Horn Point.



Views from Horn Point.

From Horn Point

From Horn Point

Above Horn Point, I got in the sun. It was only in mid 60s degrees F and a pleasant breeze blew.



I could then barely see the rafters on the river.

Zoomed view of rafters

Unzoomed view of rafters

Finally reached the top.



Hiked the road and was at my car by noon. Zoomed view of Abajo Mountains.



Then drove to Goosenecks of San Juan River State Park.

Goosenecks of San Juan River

Goosenecks of San Juan River

Images

View Honaker Trail to San Juan River Image Gallery - 42 Images