A Jeep Encountering Horses

By Jerry Smith

July 7^th, 2013

What should you do when you're out Jeeping and encounter a herd of horses being driven down the same road as you are driving? We'll discuss that question shortly.

In an attempt to evade inevitable serious sunburn during the first annual “Jeep’n on the River” with the Grand Mesa Jeep Club, I elected to follow Dave McCollough’s recommendation to check out the trails in Peach Valley near Montrose.

This small wash impressed me

Peach Valley is something of a misnomer. It's more of a depression on the bench east of Highway 50 between Delta and Montrose. Between Peach Valley and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River is a rugged ridge. This whole area is part of the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area.

As my new map of the “Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park Curecanti NRA” showed the best access to the trails I wished to travel being in the southern end of the NCA, we (Happy Trails and I) had traveled south to Montrose for a quick, cold drink and another look at the map.

Unfortunately, the map does not show Highway 50 along where I needed to access roads into the NCA, so I had to “follow my nose”.

The map shows a network of roads headed toward the NCA, but none that continue straight through. Thus you must go east till the road ends and then go north or south to a new eastbound road that will end soon and repeat.

The map shows the two southernmost roads into the NCA to be short and somewhat uneventful looking so we headed toward the Peach Valley Open 0HV Area. From there, the Peach Valley Road runs north and south with several side roads that run to the east and into the NCA.

The first road we tried is called Chukar Road. The first few miles of the Chukar Road reminded me of driving along the foot of the Book Cliffs north of Grand Junction. The sparse growth in this area is much the same, but the hills here have small valleys that you wind through to access the ridge beyond.

Once you top-out on the ridge, you begin to drop down into the Gunnison River Gorge. As you descend, the road progressively becomes more primitive and rough. Some of the views along this road are spectacular.

The colors of some of the cliffs along parts of the canyon walls are simply awesome. These short, steep, extremely rough and rugged canyons reach up from the Gunnison River Gorge in such a way that they exude a primitive and unwelcoming scene. Without the road, few, if any, would venture into this area.

About halfway down we encountered footprints in the road from what appeared to be small-unshod horses. The footprints would enter and exit the road at several well-used trails that intersected along the way. Experience told me that these tracks were quite fresh. They were so fresh that I halfway expected to see the makers of these tracks soon.

A few corners down the road I caught my first glimpse of a horse and two donkeys coming up the road. Then, from behind some brush came a few more until there were approximately 12 animals in all being pushed by two people in a pickup.

We were already stopped in the middle-of-the-road and the pickup began looking for a place to pull off.  Ahead of me there was a place I could pull off and allow them access by me, so I pulled off and waved the pickup onward and in less than a minute they had all passed.

We could have easily continued down the road past where the pickup had pulled over, but there were three reasons why I elected to pull off.

The first reason was a no-brainer. Uphill traffic has the right-of-way.

The second reason had to do with just common courtesy. It was easier for one of me to pull over than for all of them to get off the road for me.

The third reason had to do with my experience around animals… horses in particular. Horses are a herd-type animal. When moving as a herd, they tend to stay together and will maintain a certain pace. Once they stop, the herd will begin breaking up as they start looking for something to eat.

For me to drive through the herd of horses would have stopped their forward momentum and likely driven at least some of them from the road. This would have made it difficult for the guys in the pickup as they would have problems getting their animals back under control and on their way.

For less than two minutes of my time, this little encounter produced what I hope was a zero negative impact on the horses and the pickup driver. Had I proceeded, the folks in the pickup would likely have spent some time cursing me for disrupting their little parade while they worked to regain control of the animals.

When encountering a herd of animals on any road, there are several factors you have to measure. Things like:

Ø What breed of animal are we dealing with?

Ø  How large is the herd?

Ø  Are they just standing or being herded?

Ø The width of the road?

Ø The terrain on either side of the road?

Ø Which direction are they going?

Not everyone has experience working with the various animals one might encounter out on the road. The best advice I can pass on is to be patient first.  While most animals seem slow and kinda dumb, they all function under the “herding mentality”.

The “herding mentality” in very general terms means that as the herd leaders do, the rest will follow.  In other words, if you spook the leaders, you spook the entire herd.

The point being; when you come onto a herd of animals in the road, you, being the “more intelligent” of the two, must show that you are nonthreatening, yet need to pass through the herd.

Don't go charging into the herd with horn honking, lights flashing, or any other aggressive moves. These techniques only tend to put you into legal jeopardy should any animals be harmed by your actions.

Unless it is your intention to become the proud owner of any injured animals and/or pay any applicable fines, approach any animals at a speed that grants them whatever time they need to get out of your way. Remaining calm and patient is the only safe way to proceed.

You will find that there are certain animals that will simply stand looking confused directly in front of you. It is up to you to allow them the time to make up their mind that moving is in their best interest.

Proceeding down into the canyon, the road became more primitive.  Little, if any maintenance showed on the road surface. 

At the Chukar Trailhead the road ends.  From here, you must pay your park fee and proceed on foot.  It appears to be a fair walk to the river from here, yet people were there with various rafts and fishing gear ready to make the steep climb down.

We turned around and headed back the roughly 7-miles to the Peach Valley Road.  Turning north, we went a short distance to the Eagle Road turnoff and began another adventure.

According to the map, the Eagle Road has two options. The first option makes a short loop over to the Wave Road. The other takes you up apparently to the top of the ridge and you end up on the Wave Road again anyway.

Along the top of the ridge the map shows both a road and the trail that is marked as a single track. We took the Wave/Eagle Loop Jeep Road Loop from here as it showed as an adopted Jeep trail by the Western Slope Four Wheelers.

At the intersection with the Wave Road, we turned back uphill where the trail runs along the rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. Some of the views from here are spectacular.

The road along the rim gets a little tight with quick turns required to dodge juniper trees and small steps as you change altitude. Along here is the most technical of any of this particular trip.

Upon reaching the Bobcat Road, we turned downhill toward the Peach Valley Road where we turned North. As the day was getting far along into the late afternoon, we decided to head on up the road to Delta and home.

This leaves a few more trails in the area to be explored on another date. Although these trails require a long trek of highway driving to access them, they would be very good candidates for addition to our Rock Junction events in the future for stock vehicle trails.