Entry No. 2 — the Grand Junction file — filed under: outdoor-weird
Captain Smith’s Cabin
“He chiseled gun slots beside his pillow and carved his friend's brand into the cliff above.”
In 1911, Captain Henry A. Smith — Civil War veteran, tombstone carver, sixty-five years old — leaned three stone walls against a sandstone fin in Escalante Canyon and chiseled the rest of his house into the rock: a sleeping shelf cut to his own length, slots beside the pillow for his guns, storage nooks below. High on the cliff he carved a horseshoe with a star inside — the brand of his dead blacksmith friend Bowen — an obituary in stone from the man who cut Delta’s gravestones.
The move: Drive the canyon gravel past the Walker cabin, take turns stretching out on Smith’s rock-carved bed to see who fits, then scan the cliff overhead until you spot the horseshoe-and-star.
📍 Before you go The signed Escalante Canyon turnoff is on US 50 about 15 miles northwest of Delta; cross the Gunnison River bridge and stay on the gravel about 10.5 miles total — fine for most cars when dry, slick after rain. The cabin is a 300-foot walk from the roadside pullout on BLM land in the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area, with no services in the canyon, so carry water. You pass the 1911 Walker stone cabin on the way in, and the Escalante Creek potholes just up-canyon make the natural second stop. The walls are unrestored and fragile — look hard, lean on nothing.
- 📍 Delta
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: Escalante Canyon Rd (650 Rd), ~10.5 miles southwest of US 50, Delta, CO 81416
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4
last checked: 2026-06-11