IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Sunday, November 21, 2010

On Sunday morning we slept in a little later than the previous day. The weather reports had indicated that there would be snow overnight so we were expecting to wake up and find the ground covered, but when I looked out the window there was none. Still, the weather wasn’t the greatest; it was windy and raining off and on. Despite the weather we loaded up the Jeep and headed towards Comb Ridge.

When we reached the trailhead to the Procession Petroglyph Panel, Amanda decided that she wasn’t up for hiking in the wind, sleet and rain, so I headed off on my own while she waited in the Jeep.

The Procession Panel

View from the panel over Comb Ridge

After I made it back to the Jeep we headed through Comb Ridge and made our way south to the San Juan River. Last year when we stopped by the River House Ruins, we did not continue on to the Butler Wash petroglyph panel, so we made our way there.

Butler Wash Petroglyph Panel

There were a ton of petroglyphs all along this section of the cliff, but most of them were pretty badly eroded. Still, it was cool to walk along the cliff and spot them all.

Of course we stopped at the River House (Snake House) ruin again on our way back.

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Friday & Saturday, November 19-20, 2010

This last weekend was our annual November trip to the Cedar Mesa / Comb Ridge area. We set out to check out some new ruins and rock art during the weekend and we were not disappointed. On Friday we both got out of work early and headed south to Blanding. On our way we made a quick stop at the Dewey petroglyph panel for a few quick photos before it got dark.

On our way towards Monticello I noticed a nice pink glow over the La Sal Mountains as the sun was setting, so I pulled over to take a quick picture.

Right after I took that photo, the pink glow disappeared.

After dinner in Monticello we finished the drive to Blanding, checked into our hotel (we’re not into cold weather camping) and got to sleep so we could get an early start the next morning.

We were up well before the sun was to rise on Saturday morning and on our way to Cedar Mesa. Our first destination for the day was Road Canyon, and we arrived at the trailhead just after the sun had come up. Here’s a few photos from our hike through Road Canyon…

Fallen Roof Ruin was high on my list of ruins to hike to, so that was our first stop

Fallen Roof

Amanda and I

We continued on down Road Canyon a little further to find a few more ruins.

These ruins had a real ‘fallen roof’

I climbed up to this well preserved granary

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

Amanda and I were both off on Veterans Day this year so we loaded up the Jeep and headed for Canyonland’s Island in the Sky District for the day. On our way there we stopped to check out some petroglyphs and pictographs.

Intestine Man pictograph panel

Before reaching Canyonlands, we took a side road to scout Marlboro Point for a future sunrise photo.

Crows Head Spire

When we reached Canyonlands we headed straight for Aztek Butte.

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Sunday | October 10, 2010

Sunday morning we were up early, had some breakfast and packed up camp. We would be heading home today, but not the way we came. We would be heading out through Canyonlands National Park’s Needles District.

Warning sign before dropping down into Bobbys Hole

The trail down into Bobbys Hole wasn’t bad, just a little rough

Welcome to Canyonlands

The Needles

We stopped to take a hike on The Joint Trail to Chesler Park. Amanda really enjoyed this hike since she had not done it before.

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Saturday | October 9, 2010

After a cold night of camping we had some breakfast and started the day out by heading up Beef Basin Wash. The first few miles of this road had been recently graded and it was in good shape, however at the first gate is where the recent maintenance had stopped. As we continued through the gate we noticed that no one had been down this trail since the last storms had come through. When we reached the first wash crossing we were met with some cut banks on both sides. I thought I could drive through the crossing, but soon found out that I was wrong. I managed to get stuck in some deep sand along the wash. It had been a while since the last time I got a vehicle stuck anywhere. With nothing good to winch to, Amanda and I spent the next 45 minutes to an hour digging and stacking rocks. Luckily I was then able to back out of this situation. Once out of the sand, I parked the Jeep and we hiked the rest of the way along the road to the cliff dwelling I had set out to visit.

By the time I reached the ruins I was a little too late and there was a shadow cast onto the top of them.

Closer view

After hiking back to the Jeep we continued on back to the Beef Basin Loop and checked out the Calf Canyon Spur followed by a drive up into Ruin Canyon. While in Ruin Canyon we stopped at the large ridge-top ruins.

Back at the 5-way intersection

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