If you take the dirt road northeast out of Thompson Springs, Utah a few old signs will point the way to Sego Canyon and the ghost town of Sego. As you enter the canyon ancient rock drawings and paintings can be seen on the canyon walls, some estimated to be over 6,000 years old. Native American lore says these are drawings of the “star people” who visited earth in the distant past giving us simple creatures knowledge, and once you’ve seen them, you’ll have to admit, the figures depicted look otherworldly.
A short distance beyond the rock drawings the dirt road branches, the right fork takes you past the Sego Cemetery and on into the canyon where the remains of the town can be found. Sego was a coal mining town settled largely by Italians around the turn of the last century. Taking the the other fork of the road leads you up the canyon to a fence and signs that indicates the boundary of the Ute Indian Reservation and warns you not to enter.
Sego Canyon is one of my favorite places. I couldn’t help but sense an “energy” the whole time I was in the canyon- hard to explain, but there was just a different feeling about this place. People have come to, lived, and left this isolated canyon in Utah for 6,000+ years. Maybe the energy I felt is what has drawn human types to this place for so long. There’s not many people here today though, just the occasional tourist, or local on their way to or from somewhere. Sego’s population today seems to be composeed almost entirely of lizards. I was amazed at how many different shapes and sizes I saw, all differently colored and marked, and with every footstep another would scurry past.
I enjoyed Sego Canyon so much that I stopped there twice on one road trip, and I can’t wait to return to Sego. Well worth a visit to anyone who finds themselves in the area, but a word of caution- if it rains be prepared, the road to Sego is crisscrossed with washes and just a little rain will turn this desert road into a tricky situation for 2-wheel drive vehicle like I found out.
Life...Death...Iron 