THE OUTLAW TRAIL was named after those who used it ... those who were known as outlaws ... those who were branded with such names as "The Wild Bunch" and "The Hole in the Wall Gang".  The trail ran from Canada to Mexico with three major hideouts and countless others along its path.

"Hole in the Wall" was the most famous of the three major hideouts and is still located in a remote valley near Kaycee, Wyoming. "Brown's Hole" was the one most used by cattle rustlers with Cassidy's headquarters at Power Springs.  It is still prime ranch land in the northwest corner of Colorado.  But the most isolated of the three hideouts was "Robbers Roost" located about thirty miles south of Green River, Utah.  Other hideouts include Hideaway Coulee in Montana and the WS Ranch in Alma, New Mexico where Cassidy often worked under the alias of Jim Lowe while waiting for the trail to cool off.

The first outlaws to use the outlaw trail were rustlers.  Most of them started their careers by working for cattle barons.  They stole a few unbranded calves and hid them within the barriers of the hideouts.  When the calves matured, they ran them up or down the Outlaw Trail to Canada or Mexico.  After one cowboy got away with it, others joined in until they actually became a threat to the cattle barons.  One dead cowboy lead to another and isolated squabbles eventually became more like a war.

Then came the real outlaws, the train robbers, like Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Kid Curry, Big Nose George, Elzy Lay, Gunplay Maxwell, Peep O'Day, Silver Tip, Indian Ed, and many, many more.  They became the subjects of hundreds of books, articles, movies, and plays about "The Wild Bunch".  So much was written, so little was known ... no one knows which was fact and which was fiction.

In 1987, Larry Heck with his club called Pass Patrol began seeking out points of interest along the Outlaw Trail and mapping backcountry roads connecting those points of interest.  They visited all three of the major hideouts numerous times and traveled across much of the same land where outlaws once roamed and ruled.  In essence, they repeatedly traveled the Outlaw Trail.

Pass Patrol’s search began in 1987 during a visit to a library in Salt Lake City.  Larry Heck came across a book titled; "Some Dreams Die".  It referred to an outlaw cabin on a mesa-top within the boundaries of the San Rafael Swell, but at the time of print, the author did not know exactly where the cabin was.  Other club members found two more books which repeated rumors that such a cabin did exist.  During the winter of 1987, they spent many long hours exploring the San Rafael Swell and looking for those cabins with no success.

One day, Larry Heck mailed a letter to George A Thompson, the author of Some Dreams Die, requesting information.  A few days later, George contacted "South Paw", a member of Pass Patrol in Ogden, Utah.  George visited South Paw with maps in hand and showed him the approximate location of where the cabins were located.

When George left his house, South Paw raced to the phone.  "I know where it is!"  His voice was singing with excitement.

"You're kidding!"  Larry could not believe it!  A century old outlaw cabin still undisturbed and in its natural setting!  Pass Patrol could not wait for summer.  On a cold day in March of 1988, they assembled a four-vehicle patrol in Castledale, Utah and followed George’s directions into Coal Wash.

The route took them past the ZCMI Mine, Slipper Arch, and a landmark called “Joe and his dog”.  By the time they reached the end of Coal Wash, most of the daylight was gone.  They stopped at the beginning of a narrow ledge trail going over a pass into Saddlehorse Canyon.  A recent flood had washed most of the ledge away and the rest of it was littered with huge boulders.

South Paw took one look at it and decided it was time to go home.  “Can’t get to those cabins this way,” he remarked.

“It can be fixed,” Lone Ranger assured him.  “A few rocks here and a few shovels of dirt over there and we can get through.”

“We’ve fixed worse ones than this,” Outlaw said with a grin.

“We’ll fix it,” Tinman chuckled.  “Fixit Pass!”  With that remark, Tinman put a stamp into history.  The name Fixit Pass stuck and through years of Larry Heck using that name to describe the pass in magazine stories, guide books, and newsletters, it stuck so well that even the BLM uses that name to describe the pass on their current maps.

When morning came, they moved a few rocks and some dirt to make Fixit Pass negotiable.  Before noon, they were in Saddlehorse Canyon driving in the wash along the base of Sid’s Mountain.  (That road has been closed by the BLM and can no longer be driven in a motorized vehicle.)  The road wandered in and out of that wash snaking its way between two vertical walls.  During heavy rains, water rushes down those walls and into the wash.  If enough water reaches the wash, it can form a wall of water roaring down Saddlehorse Canyon and emptying into the San Rafael River.

About half way between Fixit Pass and the San Rafael River, the road ended on a sand bar at the mouth of a side canyon.  George had told them to camp on that Sand Bar and get ready for a long and grueling hike to the top of Sid’s Mountain.  He didn’t tell them the side canyon would split in several directions forming several other washes.

They explored three such washes before locating the one George told them about.  In that particular wash, enough of the mountain wall had crumbled to permit hiking to within twenty feet of the first level.  At that point, a split in the wall provided handholds to climb the rest.

Getting onto that first level was key to reaching the other levels, and eventually the top.  The second level includes scaling steep walls to reach the mesa top of Sid’s Mountain, but nothing as technical as that twenty-foot wall between the first and second levels. The mesa at the top of Sid’s Mountain is enormous and covered with trees and huge rock formations.  They fanned out and started looking for a trail leading to the cabins.  Darkness was moving in fast and a strong wind began blowing from the west.  They were not prepared to handle either one, but they were too excited to give up.  They continued searching for the cabins, while the biting wind warned of a fierce weather front coming their way.

"It's getting dark, South Paw," Outlaw yelled over the howl of the wind.  "If we don't find this place soon, we're gonna hafta give up!"

"Over here," he called.  "It's an old horse trail.  It's gotta be the trail to the cabin!"

They were nearly running, partly from the excitement of the hunt and partly to keep warm.  The trail led them through an old gate and headed directly for a clump of trees.  Then they saw the cabin on stilts ... standing tall and proud as it had done for decades.  "Wow!" They ran around it taking pictures and admiring the relic for its qualities.  The glass was still in the window and it provided their imaginations with plenty of room to wander.

Beside the standing cabin, is an older cabin that has given in to Mother Nature's relentless efforts to disintegrate it.  If this really was an Outlaw hideout, the older cabin would have been the one standing at that time.  The newer cabin was not old enough to have seen Butch Cassidy or Sundance Kid.

A strong gust of wind blew Outlaw's hat away and sent a chill up his back.  "We better git," he suggested.  With that thought, the group hurried away, continually turning back for one last glimpse as they went.  By morning, the ground would be white with snow.

In all fairness, we must admit to the sceptics, "We can not prove this was an outlaw hideout."  On the other hand, no one can prove it was not.  Very little about the outlaws can be proven.  After all, they were outlaws, and their profession forced them to keep secrets.  They did not write a monthly newsletter about their escapades.

Pass Patrol's conclusion about the hideout takes a few facts and makes lots of assumptions.  We are sure others can take another set of facts and draw opposite conclusions but neither side can prove anything.  That means, the truth is whatever you decide to believe.

Fact: This location is in the middle of the Wild Bunch stomping grounds.

Fact: It is a perfect hideout.  Unless you know where it is, you will never find it.  In fact, unless you know how to get to it, you may never find the way up even if you know it's there.

Fact: There is plenty of water, grass, and wild game on the mesa to support horses and outlaws.

Fact: It is very close to the get-a-way route used by Butch Cassidy after the Castlegate Holdup in 1897.  It would have been a great place to prepare for the heist and the get-a-way.

Sid’s Mountain is a huge mesa, relatively flat on top and dropping off sharply on all sides.  The sides are vertical, more than 500 feet high in places with very few access points.  The path George mapped out for Pass Patrol was the most direct route to the cabins, but not the one used by horses or cattle.  He had not been up the mountain on the horse trail.  Both trails were included in a book called,  In Search of the Outlaw Trail.  That book is no longer being sold by Larry E Heck.  

The route to the cabins is very strenuous.  Add that to the fact that you can no longer drive within a day's hike of the cabins, it becomes a backpacking trip and is not for the timid or for anyone with physical impairments.  Only those who are extremely healthy and are already accomplished at backpacking in the desert should attempt to get to the top of Sid’s Mountain by way of Saddlehorse Canyon.

On the other hand, there is the horse trail.  Due to recent road closures, that one is also an overnight backpacking trip.  It is a steep and strenuous hike that will take the average person two days to complete.  If you have access to a horse that has been trained to handle canyon trails, you can still make the journey in a day, but even on horseback, it is no walk in the park.  Horses hoofs slip on the steep rocks causing them to skin up their legs during the climb.  This is the wrong trail for the wrong horse at the wrong time.

Once on top the mesa, the trail levels out.  At one point it crosses a narrow ridge that drops off on both sides to the canyons below.  Modern day cowboys have a fence at that location made from logs.  That single gate closes off all of Sid’s Mountain to horses.  Think how easy it would have been for the outlaws to defend.  If you go in that way, be prepared with lots of water.  The method Outlaw uses is to freeze water in plastic Pepsi bottles.  The ice melts during the day providing a continuous supply of cold drinking water.  Four 1-liter bottles will last Outlaw one day.  Your requirements may differ.  If you have a water purifier, there is water near the cabin.  Pass Patrol has not tested it but the horses seem to thrive on it.

Pass Patrol's first trip in March of 1988 was successful.  They had found the cabin, but the journey was far from over.  They still had to get off Sid’s Mountain and back to the vehicles.  In the excitement, they had done a poor job of marking the access route.  The mountain is huge and there was only one point where they could get down the cliff and reach the vehicles by dark.  Several times, they came to the edge of the cliff, looking down at the second level with no access in sight.

The wind grew colder by the minute with howling gusts exceeding sixty-mph.  Even standing side by side, it was necessary to shout in order to be heard.

They split up to cover more ground.  Tinman was the first to locate the departure route.  They hurried down the mountain and reached the lower level.  Total darkness had already consumed the canyon floor.  They had reached the vehicles in time for a cold dinner.  It was impossible to cook in the wind.

When morning came, snow moved in.  Pass Patrol had to get out of Saddlehorse Canyon quickly or risk being snowed in for days.  Outlaw checked his maps and found a road going out by way of Cane Wash.  That route turned out to be much easier than Fixit Pass.   About four hours later, they found their way to the Buckhorn Wash Road near the San Rafael Bridge.

That trip was the beginning of Pass Patrol’s search for the Outlaw Trail.  Every year, more information is uncovered leading to new places.  Our original book, In Search of the Outlaw Trail is no longer available on this website.  A recent series written by Larry E Heck appeared in Off Road Magazine.  You can find those stories on their web site beginning with the first one at

http://www.off-roadweb.com/adventures/0609or_outlaw_trail/

It has been a long time since that first trek in 1987.  Larry E Heck and his friends can still be found chasing the ghosts of the Wild Bunch.  We hope to see you there.