Possible water source

It is likely that the view up-canyon from your camping site will be of a huge sandstone butte, with the main drainage veering left of this butte. This is the direction on the National Geographic map of the route out of the canyon up onto Hatch Point mesa. Unfortunately, the map is incorrect. So, instead of heading left of this butte, we need to go right and climb the slope into the small ravine (S03P05). Hopefully, you should quickly come across a developed trail, marked with regular cairns. This route climbs gently up to the mesa top, and then to the trailhead. Notice on the board here, the trail through the canyon is also marked incorrectly.

The easiest progress across Hatch Point is probably to follow a series of dirt-roads and old jeep trails in the direction of the BLM campground. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be piped water available at this campground any more. However, about 1 mile north of here there is a large rain catchment tank, where it may be possible to obtain water (S03P10). Also, Hatch Point is a good location for a water cache, since it is easily accessible from US-191.

After a long haul south along the principal maintained dirt road (Hatch Point Road) across this area, it is time to take a small jeep trail (S03P15) and head south-west, towards the rim of the mesa. After a mile, the vast desert expanse of Lockhart Basin will hove into view. It is over 1,200 feet below us. The natural route here takes us to the top of a rocky butte, with a superb view of the La Sal mountains behind us.