We didn't get to take our normal summer trip this year due to some un-timely staffing problems. With things slowing down at work we took about 5 days off and did a little touring around south east Utah and Western Colorado. However, our vacation started with work. I was hired by a Pro Duo team as a wrench at the 24 hours of Moab. They finished second. We spent Monday after the race resting in Moab.
From Moab we headed to the little known Cedar Mesa. A place that once had an amazing culture living there, hidden in cliffs and occupying the many canyons. It's quite an experience to visit the dwellings of people who lived 700 to 1200 years ago.
After a night of sleep interrupted by a quick rain that stopped as soon as we got the tent up, we headed across Cedar Mesa. The mesa ends abruptly at Muley Point. One can see Monument Valley, Navajo Mountain, The San Juans, The Abajo's, Sleeping Ute, even ShipRock in New Mexico.
One thousand feet below Cedar Mesa is the San Juan Goosenecks State Park. The river is yet another 1000 ft below! The Goosenecks are what are called "entrenched meanders"
After the Goosenecks we drove back toward Bluff Ut. planning to head for the Four Corners. But, this trip had no itinerary and I had always wanted to take a jeep road that wound below Comb Ridge. After an hour of Baja like driving through deep sand and whoop-de-doos we came to the San Juan river. A steep rocky climb requiring low range 4x4 ascended a rise. Mary and I speculated that the hill might be the famous San Juan hill that the Mormons drug their bloody beaten wagons up in the 1870's. But, the hill seemed too easy to be famous. We drove on...
Well, the first hill wasn't the famous hill, but the next one was! I locked the truck in LOW, and engaged the rear diff locker... Mary didn't want us to keep going, and of course, this made me want to climb it more. But, after much tire squealing and near truck flipping I caved in and stopped. We hiked the rest of the hill. At the top engraved in the rock was "O GOD WE THANK THEE." I cannot imagine getting a team of horses or wagons up that incline. I couldn't get a capable locked 4x4 truck up it.
On our way to the Four Corners we got distracted by a sign for Hovenweep Nat. Monument. I had read about it and had always wanted to go there, so we did.
After lots of hiking our feet were tired, so we headed into Cortez to eat a dinner not prepared by us. A trip to the local bike shop got me a map of the Sand Canyon area trails I had heard so much about. We camped on a BLM road just a few miles past the trails. Sunrise was pretty good.
The trails were good, but add the experience of riding with Cliff Dwellings above your head and you have a really cool experience.
This is what riding would be like if we were allowed in Mesa Verde Nat Park, not that we should be? But...if we are carefull this is a great place to ride.
The trails were good, but add the experience of riding with Cliff Dwellings above your head and you have a really cool experience.
This is what riding would be like if we were allowed in Mesa Verde Nat Park, not that we should be? But...if we are carefull this is a great place to ride.
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