Irish Canyon
In the late 1800’s Irish Canyon was a popular hideout of outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch, Matt Warner, Isom Dart, and many others as they spent time in the Browns Park vicinity in Moffat County. Supposedly, $30,000 in silver coins remains buried somewhere in the canyon.
Butch Cassidy (AKA Robert Leroy Parker) was an American criminal legend. Born in 1866, he’s best known as the leader of the Wild Bunch. He was pursued by the Pinkerton Detective Agency and likely killed in a shootout in Bolivia in 1908. You may have heard of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? These were criminals who put the “Wild” in the “Wild West”.
Butch Cassidy and his gang of outlaws robbed banks, trains, and businessmen. However, when Cassidy and the Wild Bunch were traveling through Moffat County in Colorado, they allegedly buried $30,000 here, in Irish Canyon.
While you are looking for the treasure, you can also enjoy many excellent trails, hiking and mountain opportunities. You can also visit the Irish Canyon Rock Art Site, where you can see the Fremont rock art from an elevated platform.
Butch Cassidy and his gang of outlaws.
Irish Canyon isn’t a particularly large canyon. But it’s quite remote and very beautiful.
Rising up out of the sage flats, Limestone Ridge is a dramatic feature cut by the even more dramatic Irish Canyon. Covered in high quality pinyon-juniper, mixed with abundant cliffs and rocks, Irish Canyon is the best place in northwestern Colorado to look for Chukar, which are easy to hear in the spring but more difficult to find at other times of year. The typical ‘PJ’ birds are also present, and a nighttime visit could produce a Common Poorwill or Northern Saw-whet Owl. Be sure not to miss the Native American petroglyphs at the southern end of the canyon, complete with interpretive signs.
County: Moffat
Habitat: Rimrock/Mesa, Pinyon-Juniper Forest
Directions: Irish Canyon is located in the northwest part of Moffat County on County Road 10 between Highway 318 and the Wyoming state line. It is NW of the Town of Maybell. The canyon begins about six miles north of the intersection of Highway 318 and County Road 10 and is several miles long.
From Craig, CO take US 40 about 2.2 miles west, past “downtown” Maybell (don’t blink or you’ll miss it – last gas for 100 miles if traveling towards UT) and turn north on the “Ladore-Sunbeam” paved road (CO HWY 318) just before the obvious big uphill grade on 40.
Curvy up-and-down HWY 318 goes NW, crosses the Yampa River and heads across some of the most open, wildlife-rich areas of Colorado, to a split just north of the falls of Vermillion Creek at about 42 miles from Maybell.
At about 42 miles from Maybell, look carefully for a dirt road (10N) splitting right. This is the Irish Canyon Road you want to be on. Beware soft shoulders. We pulled off for a break and without 4-wheel-drive would have had to call the tow truck — only we didn’t have any cell phone signal here.
At the split leave HWY 318 and turn north on county gravel road 10N, which soon leads to the entrance of Irish Canyon. Pitstop for a look at petroglyphs when you see BLM signs for such, then continue on 10N as it climbs about 10 miles through the dry, 1500′ deep, Irish Canyon, then up over another 10 miles of rolling plateaus to the Wyoming border, where the road becomes pavement and the name changes to Wyoming 430 (total of 21.6 miles from HWY 318). Vermillion creek cut Irish Canyon, then it was abandoned as headward erosion captured the creek upstream (north) on the east side of this uplift.
Delorme: 12 B2
Roads of Colorado: 17 D4
Dates of Access: Open all year
Hours: Any
Ownership: BLM
Admission: Free
Restrictions: None
Parking: Gravel parking area
Lodging: Primitive camping
Handicapped: No
Handicapped Access: Handicap accessible view of the petroglyphs, otherwise limited
Elevation: 6800
Latitude: 40.80857
Longitude: -108.72363
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