Grafton
Personal Notes
This page presents our personal notes on our visit to the ghost town of Grafton, Utah.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
9:10 a.m.
We came into Grafton from the south, after a drive along the Smithsonian Butte Back Country Byway. You can also enter from Rockville.
As you enter the location over a graded dirt road along a wonderful eroded cliff of red sandstone you'll come to a signed cattle guard with several surveillance cameras, which, no doubt, record your license plate number and probably take a photo of the passengers in the vehicle. All for security reasons, I'm sure.
From there follow the dirt road around to a cluster of standing buildings. There are fences and gates and signs indicating that you have arrived.
On this day it was 53 degrees and sunny. The weather was very pleasant for exploring an old ghost town.
We explored the outside of the school house and church. They've reconstructed this building, but you are not allowed inside. However, there are steps around on the east side that lead to a view inside through a large window.
We also explored the Alonzo H. Russell home. This building has been reconstructed on the outside, but little work has been completed inside. The doors were open, so we walked around and marveled at the construction and exposed wall surfaces and cursed those who covered so many of the walls with graffiti.
This building and the surrounding flat land was used as a backdrop in one segment of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where Butch takes Miss Place on a ride on the handlebars of a bicycle.
From there we walked across the open area to the Louisa Russell home, a small log cabin behind a gate. The door to this small structure was also open, so we wandered inside for a few moments, careful not to disturb anything. There are also a couple of out buildings behind this one.
The scenery in this area is spectacular, with the cliffs above Zion National Park visible to the north and east, and other lesser known red cliffs towering above the location to the south and west. The Virgin River also runs nearby on the north side of the site.
To the west there are modern orchards and other driving lanes that lead to the ruins of other buildings. But most of this area is private property, and that should be respected.
9:29 a.m..
We finished exploring Grafton proper and headed back up the dirt road to visit the cemetery.
9:47 a.m.
The Grafton Cemetery is small, but has many nicely preserved grave stones, as well as the typical unmarked graves. The temperature when we left the cemetery, and Grafton, was a pleasant, sunny, 52 degrees. From there we headed back to the Smithsonian Butte Back Country Byway and followed it the short way into Rockville, over a really nice old bridge that crosses the Virgin River. From there it would be a short drive into Springdale and Zion National Park, to the east. On this visit we headed west to other adventures.
