Robbers Roost is an area in Southern Utah where the outlaws in the 1880-1900 used to hide out. As a group they were often called the Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy and Sundance were part of this group of outlaws.  As a hideout it was never penetrated by the law. It is in a very remote canyon that is very difficult to  enter, The possees would chase the outlaws close to rim of the canyon and turn around.  More than the difficulty of the trail was the fact that one armed outlaw could defend one of the entrances into the canyon against 100 men in a possee.

I had the opportunity to join West Taylor or Extreme Outlaw rides to explore this area this past weekend. West is extremely knowledgeable about the old outlaws of that error and has done a lot of research to located their old Outlaw camps and routes they used to get in and out of the canyon.

First off this is a very remote area of Utah, even today. We turned off hiway 24 and it was 32 miles of dirt road that more than 90 minutes to travel to get to Blue John Springs were we camped. Some of you may remember the name Blue Joh, as this was the canyon that Aron Ralston got his hand trapped under a boulder and had to amputate his own hand to survive. We camped at the same trail head he parked his car in.

From camp we had to ride east several miles to the rim of Horseshoe Canyon. This is the canyon that the actual outlaw camps existed in. Typically Horseshoe canyon has two known entrances into the canyon that are used by folks wanting to see the canyon. West has read a lot about the outlaws in old journals and other historical literature and felt that there had to be another route into the canyon. In March of this year he found what he believes is that secret route that the outlaws used to enter the canyon. We were fortunate enough to follow West down this route into the canyon.

This area see very very few people.  You don't cross tracks of other horses or hikers, And seeing any kind of garbage or litter just doesn't exist. There are a few Mule deer and wild donkeys in the canyon and various smaller animals. It's high desert and most all of the residents have to get water from the two springs in the canyon,  Both of the two Outlaw camps were located just above these two springs.

The ride from where we parked our trailers to the Horseshoe canyon  crosses Blue John and a couple of other smaller canyons. These areas did have cattle grazing that the area ranchers tended on the various grazing permits. As we reach the rim of the canyon, West steered up toward a point and lead the way as we started to descend into the canyon

As it got steeper, West suggested we get off and lead our horses/mules down over the rougher areas. We were following a small shelf down off the side of very steep canyon.  If a horse stumbled, there was no room for error.

Here is where we were getting off the horses and looking at what was ahead.

You can see a rider by the dog just starting down and another ride part way down in the middle of the photo.

This is a view from the bottom looking up at the lower section of the area we walked.  Having lead my horse down, I may just try and ride it next trip.

And you can watch the youtube video here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlQek9sFmoY

Once you are down, You are in what is called Fortress Canyon. It had a lot of Slick rock

Even down off the really steep mountainside we had several descents down steep hills. There really is no trail to follow, We just wandered to find our way.  Here my horse is considering the route down

After we got to the canyon floor of Horseshoe Canyon, We rode up canyon until we found the spring. We ate lunch there and then climbed up onto the shelf above the spring where we found the remains of the old Outlaw Camp  Most a collection of tin cans, Tobacco tins etc that had not totally rusted away.

After discussing the ride, There were several in our group who didn't want to take the same route out as we had come in, So we rode down the canyon to the other access point. This added about 6 miles to our total ride.  This location is a steep climb up a large sand hill.

All in all we rode 21 miles. Saw some new country that I'd never seen.

The next day we headed the other direct and rode into the Cowboy Cave.  This is a very large cave. You could easily park your truck and trailer in the opening and it goes way back into the mountain. They have found a lot of ancient indian ruins in the cave as well as stuff from the outlaws.

Water was scarce, but we were able to find enough to water the horses. We carried all out people water. The hardest place for water was at camp.  There were cattle grazing in the area, and they pretty well drained all the water coming from the Blue John spring.

very cool

The old camp was kinda disappointing.  Just a few rusty old cans that we found scratching around in the dirt. Some of the old fashion tobacco tins.  It's been 110 to 120 years ago that the outlaws used that camp.

There really are no trails in the area.  What little we did follow are more deer or wild donkey paths leading from the grazing areas to the water.

This is where you park your rigs to begin this adventure. It is at Blue John Springs.  Nobody seemed to know where the old shack came from. West and his kids sleep inside it. He brought a couple of dogs along to chase the pack rats out so they didn't have rats running across their sleeping bags as they slept.

Here is one of the old corrals in the area.  The old ranchers had collected cedar trees and stacked them form a fence. It shows just dry this area is that the old trees have not decayed in over 100 years.

The horses got a serious work out. It was 21.x miles for the day's total mileage. But a lot of it was over large ledges, up and down steep hills etc.  This is a wild mustang that they are working. It didn't have too many rides and blew up 4 times during the day. The fellow riding it, won twice and hit the dirt twice. I teased him a bit about what it was like to ride a horse that was going to explode every two hours. But you can see he didn't avoid asking that horse to do work needed.

One of the Outlaw camps was on the flat just above this hill, It was one of those places we just looked down and hoped for a nice trail to follow and ultimately just had to bust off the top and slid down the hill

In our group was 6 folks down from Montana for some Spring riding while their country is still under snow and mud. There were several folks who were nervous about going back out the way we came in and preferred to normal route even though it added 6 miles to our ride. So we rode out the lower portion of the canyon. Which required us to ride down Horseshoe canyon to the point where the large sand slide comes in and we scrambled up the big sandy hill.  A little farther along we had to climb out another ledge that had a few folks walking and leading their horses. Again you can see the young fellow working that green mustang by riding it up the ledge.

And folks walking

Hope this gives you an idea of the area. How difficult it must of been for law to chase outlaws in the country and in general how tough folks who settled this area really where. And maybe some ideas for a late winter or spring time ride for those of you looking for a challenging trail.