Return from the Back of Beyond

I'm back! I know, I know, you couldn't stand it. The void caused by my absence killed you inside. Being bereft of my inspired prose and wit caused you great emotional and psychological distress. But you must forgive me - I spent last week in a very hot place without internet connection or cell reception. "Hell?" you ask. Why no, I say, the high desert.

Mom and I arranged a vacation to the Colorado plateau and the Moab desert in the middle of July. The choice of dates was perhaps a little misguided, but it was the only timeframe that worked for the four of us (me, Husband, Mom, and Ron). On this coming Monday, my temp contract technically ends and I am eligible to go permanent with Company, but back when I originally set up shop with my staffing agency, I talked them into 10 paid days of vacation for my 6 month contract term. I doubt highly that Company will grant me such vacation allotments for the final 5 months of this calendar year, so we thought, if we were going to take a vacation, we might as well do it while I was on contract. Original plan was June, but between my friends' weddings and Mom's business travel, June was solidly booked, and mid-July was the first span that worked. So she booked the plane tickets for us (she travels a LOT for work, so she generously used her frequent flyer miles - THANKS MOM!), I packed up Husband, and away we went.

We arrived in Denver on July 14, met up with Ron at the airport, and spent that day and the next bonding with Small Niece and getting acclimated to the altitude. The acclimation is important - I nearly passed out at the Scottish Games in Estes Park a few years ago because I wasn't settled with the lower oxygen levels!

Monday, we set out for Mesa Verde National Park, in the southwest corner of Colorado. We stopped by Treasure Falls on the way there, but the path was closed, so all we really got to do was look at the falls and watch the fat little chipmunks play to the crowd for snacks. We didn't stay long - it's about an 8 hour car ride from Denver to Mesa. We finally got to Mesa about 9:15 that night. The winding drive up to Far View Terrace is breathtaking in the day in a good way... and breathtaking at night in another! It may have been just as well that we couldn't see how far down we had to fall if we pulled a little to the left...

Tuesday, we visited the cliff dwellings at Balcony House (top), Cliff Palace, and Spruce Tree House (bottom). (My pictures of Cliff Palace didn't turn out as individually impressive as I would have liked.)

History Lesson: The Pueblo people originally built pit houses and above-ground structures on the mesa tops, but during the 11oos, they began building these dwellings in the alcoves in the cliff walls. Makes sense: protected from the weather and fire, decent insulation, and you have a pretty good idea of who's coming and going at all times. Despite all the fires at Mesa (something on the order of 7 in the past 10 years), the cliff dwellings have remained mostly untouched; can't say as much for the mesa-top structures. Anyway, by 1300, they had abandoned the cliffs and migrated south. No one knows why (though Park Ranger Walter had the most plausible collective explanation I've heard so far: 1300 was about the time of the Little Ice Age, and when the growing season shrinks, you can't feed your population, so you move to warmer climates; also, the Navajo started moving down to the Mesa area and, while they didn't take over the cliff dwellings, they probably prevented the Pueblo from returning), but it seems almost a waste to have built these complex structures, then to abandon them only 100 years later.

Anyway, after Spruce Tree House, the four of us took the Petroglyph Trail to see a panel of 800+ year old petroglyphs chipped into the sandstone (below, top). Archaeologists still don't know what it all means, but based on the information that the park rangers gave us about Pueblo culture and beliefs, my guess is that it's something to do with the ancient Pueblo creation myths. The trail is only about 3 miles round trip, but those are 3 very long miles when it's over 90 degrees out! I've also included a picture of one of the amazing views from the Trail (below, bottom).

Wednesday, we left Mesa Verde on our way to Moab, UT, with a slight detour to the Four Corners monument (where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah touch).

If there is Hell on Earth, I can officially say I've been there. The Four Corners monument is a huge concrete slab in the middle of a paved treeless plaza of sorts, with a big bronze plaque in the center. It's dry. It's dusty. It's hotter than anyplace I've ever been (I think one thermometer registered almost 110 degrees). The heat is simlutaneously absorbed by and radiated by every available surface. And in the maybe-20 minutes we were out of the car, the backs of my knees scorched bright and painful red. There were Navajo tribespeople in little kiosks all around the monument, selling T-shirts, jewelry, baskets, blankets, whatever else... and Navajo frybread. They were in long sleeves/pants (though after my quick and dirty sunburn, I understand why) and actually deep frying in that heat - can you even imagine?! Husband and I agreed - we can say we've been there and have the pictures to prove it, but never again unless the Future Kids really really really want to see it and it's either Spring or Fall.

"So Rosie, why Moab? You into the extreeeeeeeeeeeme sports?"

...

Now that the laughter from the people who know me at all has died down, let me answer. Moab is an oddly situated little town in Utah, but conveniently adjacent to both Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park. May I recommend the Sleep Inn for lodging, and La Hacienda for dining - some of the best and most authentic Mexican food I've had in a long while (the taco wasn't in a standard boxed shell; they make the shells in the kitchen, so they're a little more free-form.) We were pretty pleased with Moab, and it will probably require some more investigation when I have more time, which is most likely the twelfth of never, but we shall see.

On Thursday, we visited the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands. Canyonlands National Park may seem desolate and a wasteland, but we thought it was just beautiful. Then again, we're geology nerds and borderline misanthropes. The park is broken into three separate districts: Island in the Sky, Needles, and The Maze. Needles primarily consists of fantastic spires and fins, and there are scads of hiking trails that Husband and I have plans for. Unfortunately, Utah DOT decided to do roadwork on the span of the highway that leads to the Needles district, and when I say "on the span of highway," I mean they had 10 miles or more blocked, only one lane of cars was getting through at a time for both directions, and you had to wait for an escort truck to lead you through the span. We agreed: what a boring job for all involved! The Maze is the most inaccessible (approx 4 hour drive from Moab) and formidable (Bear Grylls and Survivorman both almost had to admit defeat when they "lost" themselves in the Moab desert, and I'm pretty sure it was around the Maze) of the districts, as it has entirely too many ways to hurt yourself and to get lost, and pretty much no one is likely to find you for a good long while; but in addition to the wild remoteness of it (which is attractive to some... like me and Husband), there is also a panel of ancient petroglyphs called The Great Gallery that experts estimate has been there for thousands of years (must see!!!), although it's a 3.5 mile hike each way with no shade and no potable water to go see it.

BUT. Island in the Sky is beautiful, is only about a 40 minute drive from Moab, and is the only district with a Visitor's Center! So time constraints led us to choose Island for this visit. It's just as well because after a day of doing even the short hikes, we were zonked. It was also more than 100 degrees out, with no shade anywhere except for an occasional convenient juniper or overhanging rock.

We first drove out to Grand View Point Overlook and did the 2 mile (round trip) Grand View Trail. You can see almost 270 degrees of panoramic landscape from the viewpoints along the trail, which is part of the inspiration for the name "Island in the Sky": you do almost feel like you're floating and the real ground is way down below you. The photo to the left is one I took along the Grand View Trail, and while it doesn't exactly illustrate the views, I still like it. Besides, our camera isn't quite sophisticated enough to take good clear shots of the landscapes.

After that, we drove over to the White Rim Trail, named for the white sandstone caprock layer along the rim of the canyons. Husband and I did this one alone, and it was just shy of a 2 mile round trip. We didn't see a single other human or hear a single sound other than our own footsteps and conversation during the entire hike. It was magnificent! Below is a picture I took from the White Rim Trail.


We also stopped by Upheaval Dome (below), which is a point of contention among scientists. Basically, it's this enormous crater/circular canyon with a roughly dome-shaped uplift of white rock in the center.

The contention comes during discussion of the forces that caused this odd formation: some say it was the result of a gigantic meteorite strike, others contend that the uplift was caused by a rising underground salt dome. History lesson: the entire Colorado plateau was the bottom of a sea millions of years ago; over time, the land rose and the sea was isolated, and as it dried, the salt was left behind - Great Salt Lake may be the last remnant, and it's getting saltier by the year because of the evaporation. Anyway, sand, dust, and sediments blew or were deposited by water over the remaining salt and compacted to form the sandstone all around the area. Salt, however, is less dense sandstone and the heat and pressure from the overlaying stone causes the salt to shift and move, almost like a liquid, under the rock. So it's not completely out of line to suggest that a giant salt deposit could be the cause of the upheaval. Husband and I pretty much decided, in our non-expert opinions, that it probably actually is from salt, if not from some other source. We've been to Meteor Crater in Arizona with friends Chad and Cheryl, so we've seen what a known meteorite strike looks like. While a dome does form in the center, I don't think it gets as tall as Upheaval Dome unless the crater is much much wider, indicating a much much bigger metorite. To our eyes, the crater just is not wide enough to support the meteorite theory. But go see it for yourself and form your own opinions.

On Friday, we went to Arches National Park, about 10 minutes out of Moab. We had designs on seeing the standard sights: Delicate Arch, Landscape Arch, Balancing Rock, all the usual attractions. And we did get to see all those, and more. The one that amazed me most was the one Husband and I hiked to first and on our own: Delicate Arch. I had this image in my mind of Delicate Arch being this relatively small formation, maybe about 10 feet in height. I imagined photos of me standing in the middle posed to look like I was holding the arch up. What - I'm cheesy like that! I was not expecting this:

Those are almost 6' tall people under the arch! And they were directly under it. This is no play on perspective. This thing is huge. It's suddenly not so delicate to me!

We did get to Landscape Arch - which is good because nobody's sure how long it's going to be there: a 114- or 117-foot slab fell from the bottom of it in 1991; it's now 6' thick at its thinnest point, which may sound big, but if you can begin imagine the stresses on the rocks, well I'm amazed it holds at all! Unfortunately, it was pretty overcast while we were at Arches, so my pictures of it didn't turn out well enough for bloggage. But we saw Pine Tree Arch, Tunnel Arch, Double-O Arch, Turret Arch, the Windows, a bunch of smaller still-forming but as-yet-unnamed arches, and, of course, Double Arch (top) and Balancing Rock (bottom).


The neat thing about Double Arch is how it formed. The primary arch was formed in the standard way: by wind and water battering alcoves onto either side of the rock wall and eventually wearing all the way through. But the separation occurred when water bored a pothole into the top of the rock, and eventually wore it down until it broke the single tunnel-like arch into two arms. Kudos to Matt for noticing what he calls the "smiling gorilla" in the rock wall behind the arch!

And the neat thing about Balancing Rock - aside from the fact that it looks like it could fall at any moment and that it seems to defy the very laws of physics - is the little pile of rubble to the right. That used to be another, smaller, balanced rock, called Chip off the Old Block, but in the 1970s, it collapsed, much like Balancing Rock will eventually do. Sorry, I think that's pretty cool.

Saturday was another marathon driving day. Google Maps tells me it's about a 6 hour trip back to Denver from Moab, but we stopped along the way to visit Colorado National Monument, a little-visited spot in (duh) Colorado with beautiful and startling canyon views.



On Sunday, after too little sleep (resulting from my paranoia that we were going to oversleep and miss our early-early flight), we flew back home and were picked up and treated to a lovely dinner by Matt and Michelle (who also took great care of our cat while we were gone), which was wonderful because we already had our hands full unpacking and washing. THANK YOU MATT AND MICHELLE!

And again we say THANK YOU MOM!! Because without your frequent flyer miles, this trip would not have been possible.