Box Flat and Prickly Pear Flat Cowboy Camps

Sometimes, you just feel like driving on some wide open dirt roads.

I went out to the Utah desert hunting for a few pictograph sites. Instead, I came across two cowboy camps.  Not much is left at either of them: a broken stove, bed springs, dishes, and utensils, but I found them interesting. I don’t know their age or history but they are fun to visit and ponder lonely life on the range.

Box Flat and Prickly Pear Flat Cowboy Camps

51 photos

On the road

Along the two track

Our road gets a little rougher

And rougher

Some sandstone steps drop into the flat

If you look carefully, you might spot a bighorn sheep.

Another bighorn

I hike up a canyon

Tinaja

I stumble across an old cowboy camp.

A nice line of stones

Some debris

Beat up stove

And a bed frame

Stove

Home on the range. This old stove has quite a view.

I spot a cave across the flat and head over to investigate.

It is a small shelter with some firewood.

On the road again.

Getting closer

Some artifacts

Bed springs

A campsite

Another bed

Stove remains and rock alignment

Stove parts

Fireplace

Capital Universal No 268-16

Wash bucket

I found a wire cage around a juniper tree.

Storage?

This might have been to keep animals out rather than lock them in.

The camp had a great view.

Another wire mesh cage

In the canyon is a concrete dam

Little dam

I climb up on top of the mesa

This is a lonely country.

Last Modified on August 1, 2020 by Guy Starbuck