False Kiva is not on the park map; I don’t think that the trail is officially sanctioned or maintained by the Park Service. But I had read about the site in “Photographing the Southwest, Volume 1 – Southern Utah” by Laurent Martres. He provides a very good description of the trail and directions to the site. It is just a paragraph but very useful. Rather that carry the book on the trail, I snapped a quick photo with my phone for easy reference. The directions in the book were dead on and lead us right where we were hoping to go. But the trail was also very well marked as well we well worn; there were scores of cairns lining the way as well as plenty of boot prints from previous visitors. We were on the trail at 2:10. The hardest part of the hike was finding the start of the trail. Per the book, we parked at the Alcove Spring parking area, then walked back down the road to find the trail. The trailhead is about 250 yards from the parking area on the opposite side of the road. There is a fence of sorts made of old juniper branches. Just walk to the far end of the fence to find the unmarked trail. Once on the trail, we had not problems following the route to our destination. Honestly I was expecting a much more difficult time navigating to False Kiva as well as a tougher hike, but the directions from the book and the unusually high number of cairns made it a breeze to find our way. The trail itself is not overly difficult, but there is a steep hill to negotiate to get into the canyon then a final uphill bit and a little scramble to get into the alcove that conceals False Kiva. We did not see anyone else on the trail until we were started down the steep hill and could see the large alcove. There were four other folks down there, seemed one pair was coming our way and the other was heading into the large alcove an up the trail to access the kiva. We talked to the couple coming back our way for a bit (we found a shady spot to take a rest, so the timing was just right). He was from New York and his wife was from Columbia and they were hiking here as part of their 20th anniversary trip. They said that the spent a lot of time on the trail today adding cairns as they did not think the trail was marked well enough. Well that explains all the cairns and certainly was a big help for us. The trail runs down to the front of the big alcove and then turns sharply up the slope into the alcove. There are a couple switchbacks, but the trail is well worn here and takes you to up to the back wall of the alcove then along the wall toward the higher and smaller alcove with the kiva. There is a easy scramble over the rocks at the end of the climb to access smaller alcove containing False Kiva. What a view! It is sort of a surreal image standing in the back of the alcove looking out over the sandstone formations in the canyon beyond with the ring of rocks perched in the foreground near the edge of the cave opening. We explored the alcove a while and of course snapped a few photos. The sky was almost clear blue with just one little puffy cloud floating by, so decent light, but lacking a little in terms of interest (some of the photos I’ve seen had interesting cloud play in the background, but then again, I’d rather give up a little in terms of interesting clouds rather than risk an afternoon thunderstorm). The hike back was uneventful. We took our time climbing up the slope and made a couple observations on the way. First was heart-shaped formation above the big alcove. We also spotted some interesting “fossils” in the sandstone along the trail, perhaps from ancient plants (this is a total guess). Anyway, we were back at the parking area about 4:10 so roughly a 2-hour excursion. We saw maybe eight other folks on the trail, some on the way in, and some on the way out, and another group just starting in when we got to the trailhead. I was a bit surprised to have seen so many hikers as the description in the book indicated that generally there is no one on the trail. But we were alone while at the kiva, which was pretty special.

Hiking/Backpacking

Hiking, Canyonlands National Park, ruins, Moab, Utah, OhioHick, iconic view

Utah, United States

time : Sep 23, 2014 2:06 PM

duration : 2h 2m 52s

distance : 3.2 mi

total_ascent : 1273 ft

highest_point : 5692 ft

avg_speed : 1.6 mi/h

user_id : OhioHick

user_firstname : Allen

user_lastname : Arrington

False Kiva is not on the park map; I don’t think that the trail is officially sanctioned or maintained by the Park Service. But I had read about the site in “Photographing the Southwest, Volume 1 – Southern Utah” by Laurent Martres. He provides a very good description of the trail and directions to the site. It is just a paragraph but very useful. Rather that carry the book on the trail, I snapped a quick photo with my phone for easy reference. The directions in the book were dead on and lead us right where we were hoping to go. But the trail was also very well marked as well we well worn; there were scores of cairns lining the way as well as plenty of boot prints from previous visitors. We were on the trail at 2:10. The hardest part of the hike was finding the start of the trail. Per the book, we parked at the Alcove Spring parking area, then walked back down the road to find the trail. The trailhead is about 250 yards from the parking area on the opposite side of the road. There is a fence of sorts made of old juniper branches. Just walk to the far end of the fence to find the unmarked trail. Once on the trail, we had not problems following the route to our destination. Honestly I was expecting a much more difficult time navigating to False Kiva as well as a tougher hike, but the directions from the book and the unusually high number of cairns made it a breeze to find our way. The trail itself is not overly difficult, but there is a steep hill to negotiate to get into the canyon then a final uphill bit and a little scramble to get into the alcove that conceals False Kiva. We did not see anyone else on the trail until we were started down the steep hill and could see the large alcove. There were four other folks down there, seemed one pair was coming our way and the other was heading into the large alcove an up the trail to access the kiva. We talked to the couple coming back our way for a bit (we found a shady spot to take a rest, so the timing was just right). He was from New York and his wife was from Columbia and they were hiking here as part of their 20th anniversary trip. They said that the spent a lot of time on the trail today adding cairns as they did not think the trail was marked well enough. Well that explains all the cairns and certainly was a big help for us. The trail runs down to the front of the big alcove and then turns sharply up the slope into the alcove. There are a couple switchbacks, but the trail is well worn here and takes you to up to the back wall of the alcove then along the wall toward the higher and smaller alcove with the kiva. There is a easy scramble over the rocks at the end of the climb to access smaller alcove containing False Kiva. What a view! It is sort of a surreal image standing in the back of the alcove looking out over the sandstone formations in the canyon beyond with the ring of rocks perched in the foreground near the edge of the cave opening. We explored the alcove a while and of course snapped a few photos. The sky was almost clear blue with just one little puffy cloud floating by, so decent light, but lacking a little in terms of interest (some of the photos I’ve seen had interesting cloud play in the background, but then again, I’d rather give up a little in terms of interesting clouds rather than risk an afternoon thunderstorm). The hike back was uneventful. We took our time climbing up the slope and made a couple observations on the way. First was heart-shaped formation above the big alcove. We also spotted some interesting “fossils” in the sandstone along the trail, perhaps from ancient plants (this is a total guess). Anyway, we were back at the parking area about 4:10 so roughly a 2-hour excursion. We saw maybe eight other folks on the trail, some on the way in, and some on the way out, and another group just starting in when we got to the trailhead. I was a bit surprised to have seen so many hikers as the description in the book indicated that generally there is no one on the trail. But we were alone while at the kiva, which was pretty special.