Over Almost Impassable Terrain

Over Almost Impassable Terrain. . , Suspicious of the strange Indian leading them ever farther west into unknown territory, the two Spanish priests and their party of horsemen struggled through the canyon of the Strawberry River. Fray Francisco Atanacio Dominguez and Fray Silvestre Vélez de Escalante had left Santa Fe in late July 1776 hoping to find a new route to Monterey, California, and seeking sites for future missions on the way., While in western Colorado they met the Ute Indian (who they named Silvestre), who was now guiding them to his homeland on the shore of Utah Lake. An 11-year old Ute boy that they named Joaquin also traveled with them. Their route led through deep ravines and brush gullies, possibly to avoid being sighted by hostile Indians. Escalante's diary entry for September 19, 1776 states: ,

"We descended to [the Strawberry River]... making several turns over almost impassable terrain, either because of so much rock or the rock-cliff precipices that are here. One of them caused one of our horses to be injured. and made us backtrack about a mile and descend to another meadow of the river. We crossed it by breaking through a bosque of osier and tall bamboo-reed, and at half a league swung for the northwest by taking the channel bed of an arroyo for our route, ascending the sierra and leaving [the Strawberry River] behind.”

The "arroyo” through which they left the canyon is Rabbit Gulch, directly across Starvation Lake to the right (north) of the bridge., In later days and months the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition found their friendly Indians in Utah Valley, but had a desperate journey through the canyon country on their return to Santa Fe., Placed by the Bureau of Reclamation in observance of the Amencan Bicentennial-1976