Studies across the Four Corners region have produced information about cultures inhabiting this area over 13,000 years ago. Known as Paleo-Indians, these nomadic hunters roamed the plateaus and canyons hunting wild animals. At about 11,000 years ago, drier climate conditions displaced these people as animals moved to more hospitable areas. Then ancestral Pueblo people moved in and began to seek temporary shelter under canyon overhangs and in shallow alcoves. Using low dams to conserve water near springs led to more crops, and away from hunting. Somewhere about 1100, sophisticated villages developed, with architectural and engineering projects. by the late 1200's drought and overuse of resources forced abandonment of the region. The people moved south to the Rio Grande Valley, in New Mexico, and the Hopi mesas of Arizona.
The structural remains we saw today, therefor, are over 700 years old!
This structure is known as the Stronghold House due to it's fortress-like shape.
A bit further on a well marked trail we came across the Twin Towers.
This is known as the Eroded Boulder House because of the way it's tucked into the rock alcove.
The canyon contains scores of abandoned houses and/or remnants thereof.
It's impossible to imagine dozens of children scampering about the canyon today, but it was a more favorable place to live back in the day due to hard and constant work.
The trail around the canyon is about a mile and a half. Since the temp was approaching 95 deg F., we only walked about half way. We had left Sasha in the car, locked, with the engine running and the ac humming, so we felt comfortable doing the hike, but we began to feel the heat and wimped out.
Back in the car, we flipped a coin to determine the route home. Tails won, so we headed further east through open range toward Cortez, Colorado, 42 miles away over reservation roads.
We have a penchant for giving our vehicles names. Today we were talking very nicely to Lucy....please don't run out of gas!
The mountains were somehow beautiful and foreboding at the same time.
Out here the goats run loose. Where are they gonna go?
Approaching Cortez, the landscape changed dramatically. Evidence of early settlement gave way to expansive farms set in awesome valleys.
We ate a picnic lunch on the grass under a tree in front of the now closed Cortez Memorial Pool Complex. A dog walk and cheese and crackers washed down with Arnold Palmer iced tea and we had to flip that coin again. We kinda had a hankering for an iced coffee drink, so a Duck Duck Go search sent us to Midland Bean in Dove Creek on highway 491 north toward Monticello, Utah. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the Midland Bean, we didn't get anything to drink.
The area grows along of bean type crops, so.....I suggested we go inside to check it out but Sasha put an end to that.
So on our evening walk we enjoyed a perfect sunset to end a perfect day. One hundred seventy one miles through some of the most diverse countryside imaginable. Awesome place, this southeast Utah!
No comments:
Post a Comment