Fort Pearce Ruins
Personal Notes
This page presents our personal notes on our visit to the Fort Pearce Ruins near St. George, Utah.
Friday, November 16, 2007
We hadn't heard of this historic site until just recently, so on our recent trip to the St. George, Utah area we decided to scout the location for future visits and potential hikes.
4:11 p.m.
We made our way to the Fort Pearce ruins. It was hard to find the correct roads by following the BLM description. Part of the difficulty is that there has been so much recent growth and development in the area that many of the roads have changed, and will continue to change. But a little orienteering got us to our intended destination.
It is about 72 degrees.
The stone Fort ruins sit on top of a low hill above a large gravel parking area. There are reconstructed rock walls that define the parking lot, and direct the visitor toward the path to the pictographs and up to the Fort. Because of our interest in rock art, we took that path first, but when we came to a sudden drop into the wash below, without any sighting of petroglyphs, we turned back. We knew we didn't have much sunlight left to explore to far on this day, and we didn't want to drive out in the dark. Apparently one has to work along the base of the wash and watch the north wall of the cliffs for sporadic examples of rock art. We'll have to try that again on our next visit. From the descriptive materials put out by the BLM, one can hike along the wash for about two miles. Apparently there is also some pioneer writing along the cliff faces in the wash, but we didn't get to see any of that, either.
We walked up the path to the Fort and looked around the ruins. It's a small, but interesting structure, and apparently never had a roof. There were no recorded battles fought at this location, and it may have been more of a temporary post rather than something for long term habitation. It had to be hot in the summer months, exposed on top of this hill in the middle of a treeless desert.
I wandered off to the west a bit, and found some really nice sandstone outcrops with great erosional patterns and wonderful rust and yellow colors. At this time of the year the low angle of the sun in the late afternoon can often cause problems when taking photos, but, it can also create some raised relief patterns on erosional features that would otherwise be washed out.
So all in all it was worth the time and effort, and we'll go back to take a nice hike along the wash to see the petroglyphs and pioneer writing.
Directions
We had some difficulty finding this location, so we made some notes on the way out. I've reversed them here, so that they make sense for someone going in to this site.
- Depart from St. George going south on River Road to the Virgin River Bridge.
- After crossing the bridge turn left on 1450 South (which is also known as Stake Farm Road). This is a paved road.
- Continue along the main paved road and keep bearing to the east until you come to the intersection of 3000 E and 1580 S (at GPS Coordinates (NAD83): 37 04.895N; 113 31.301W). There is a stop sign on one of the corners.
- Turn left (east) on 1580 S and continue east to 4300 E (at GPS Coordinates (NAD83): 37 04.901N; 113 29.727W). There are more sharp turns and the road eventually becomes 3650 South, which is also known as Katie Joe Lane.
- Turn right (south) on 4300 E and continue south on the main road. There is quite a bit of construction in this area, and the paved road ends and a dirt road winds through the construction area then back onto pavement. This looks to be in preparation for a housing project. This is below a pair of house sitting on top of a prominent hill on the west side of the road. The new houses will be to the east. Everything is changing, so this part of the description will no doubt change in the near future.
- Continue on until you come to a large, old, two-story farm house on the west (right) side of the road. There is another, smaller, light colored prefab house on the south side of the larger house. Here you will encounter a T intersection, with a dirt road heading off to the east (left). There is a small sign on the south side of the dirt road, indicating the direction to Fort Pearce (6 miles) as well as the Warner Valley and another destination. There is also a sign on the north side of the road indicating a Desert Habitat Reserve. The dirt road has a stop sign. The GPS Coordinates for this intersection are: 37 03.333N; 113 28.084W.
- Turn left (east) onto this dirt road that is mostly graded, with some gravel and some washboarding. But over all it's a pretty solid road.
- You'll pass near a prominent water tank.
- You'll pass through an area of private land, with barbed wire fences tight on both sides of the road. There are corrals, cattle pens, and water troughs to the east, and Keep Out signs on fence posts on either side of the road.
- Then you'll pass through a small area of sand dunes made up of very red sand. There looks to be some ATV riding in this area, and the blowing sand makes the road a bit boggy. But keep steady and keep your vehicle moving and you should be able to make it through.
- At 5.6 miles from the T intersection in in Step 6, you'll come to a signed road that branches to the right (west) along a small wash. There is a sign indicating the Fort Pearce parking area. This intersection is at GPS Coordinates (NAD83): 37 00.815N; 113 24.572W. The road to the parking area is solid but dusty, with wind blown sand, packed sand, and a few protruding rocks.
- The Fort Pearce parking area is at GPS Coordinates (NAD83): 37 00.438N; 113 24.667W; at an elevation of 2,930 feet.
