When we weren’t watching balloons, we visited some of the magnificent sites in and around town. This truly is one of the most amazing areas in the U.S.
Because so many desert features are highly dependent of sun angles for good photos (and because of an unexpected and unadvertised closure) we visited a couple of places two or more times.
Let’s look at the magnificent desert southwest.
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| Monument Valley |
Mexican Hat
Just past Bluff is the even smaller town of Mexican Hat (population 22), where, when you are heading southwest, you make a sharp left turn, cross over the San Juan River and head to Arizona.
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| On the way to Mexican Hat |
I have driven through Mexican Hat countless times.
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| How did I never even know why it had that name? |
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| Why did I never see the 60-foot-wide by 12-foot-thick rock outcrop just northeast of town? |
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| How did I miss this? |
Well, at least now I know!
In addition to photographing the VERY OBVIOUS Mexican Hat, we also stopped to photograph the ice pancakes floating by on the surface of the San Juan.
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| Not quite cold enough for the river to freeze |
And, that’s about it for this tiny town!
Sand Island
Between Bluff and Mexican Hat is a turn off for Sand Island, which is the site of a magnificent wall of petroglyphs.
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| Amazing amount of drawings |
Generally when I have driven though this area, I have been on my way to or home from the Grand Canyon and I haven’t had time to stop. So, this was a place I had never been.
The Sand Island Petroglyphs panel boasts over 100 yards of rock art from 3,000 to 300 years old.
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The panel, part of Bears Ears National Monument, is on the National Register of Historic Places |
Because of the wealth of drawings and the number of centuries that the wall was used for art, archeologists believe this place along the San Juan River held special significance for ancient peoples, perhaps as a major gathering place. They believe that the panels were public and intended to be seen by everyone.
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| The wall plus, unfortunately, some more recent additions from idiots with no respect for history |
Most of the petroglyphs are from the early Basketmaker through Pueblo III eras, which range in time from 2,500 to 800 years old.
More recent Ute and Navajo petroglyphs can be identified by their brighter carvings and location lower on the wall.
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| Close-up |
There are additional petroglyphs accessed along a trail that we didn’t visit.
We also saw some pretty cool ice here.
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| Ice on the San Juan River |
It was moving quickly; watch it here.
Goosenecks State Park
A place we visited that really needs good sun angles for optimum photos is Goosenecks State Park. Winter is not ideal, but we did manage to get some nice shots.
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| Goosenecks from the overlook |
The "goosenecks" are tight loops created by the San Juan River as the land mass slowly rose in elevation, beginning tens of millions of years ago. Now, these “incised meanders” are more than 1,000 below the Park’s viewpoint.
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| The River flows six miles through the loops in only 1.5 miles as the crow flies |
When a river flows across a flat surface, the water tends to migrate sideways. But, if the flat surface is lifted up, the river cuts down into soft sandstone layers on the surface, and then cuts deeper and deeper into older and more resistant underlying bedrock.
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| Nature at work |
The goosenecks of the San Juan often appear in geology textbooks as a classic location for observing entrenched or incised meanders. The canyon walls reveal the 300-million-year-old rocks of the Pennsylvanian Period with its two main formations: Honaker Trail Formation and Paradox Formation. The Honaker Trail Formation is named after the nearby historic Honaker Trail, which leads from the river to the top of the canyon near the viewpoint. Geologists used the trail to conduct early studies of the layers of rock. The Paradox Formation is a very deep rock layer rich in oil (one of the reasons nearby Bears Ears is in Trump’s sites).
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| A different perspective |
The Park is open all the time, with a fee of $5.00 for day use and $10.00 per night per campsite. There are eight designated sites along the rim, where fire-rings and picnic tables are located. No services are available except vault toilets.
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| A camper built an angled fire circle for wind protection |
Goosenecks State Park has been designated by the International Dark Sky Association as a Dark Sky Park. Night photography and stargazing are popular activities because there is little light pollution due to the Park’s remote location. It was a bit cold and breezy to do night stuff in January, but it might be fun to go back during more temperate weather. Summer can be too hot.
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| It's tough to get a good shot |
There are no developed hiking trails in the Park, but the Honaker Trail is just a few miles to the northwest.
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| A camper built a stone circle |
This place was amazing. I would love to flight-see over it.
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| Aerial view; Photo: USDA |
I can’t believe that I never visited before.
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| A different gooseneck |
Moki Dugway
The Road to Goosenecks is off of Highway 261, which runs 34 miles north from the junction of U.S. Route 163 just north of Mexican Hat to the junction with State Route 95, just east of Natural Bridges National Monument.
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| Map: Utah's Canyon Country |
The highway is part of the Utah section of the Trail of the Ancients, a National Scenic Byway and runs through Bears Ears National Monument.
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| The Bears Ears |
When the road reaches Cedar Mesa, it encounters the Moki Dugway, becoming an unpaved road for its ascent up steep switchbacks to the Mesa top. It gains 1,200 feet of elevation in three miles, with grades as steep as 10 percent. The road is wide enough to accommodate two-way traffic, but there are no guardrails. Many people find it terrifying, but we’re from Colorado!
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| Looks like a monkey head |
The Moki Dugway was constructed in 1958 by Texas Zinc, a mining company, to transport uranium ore from the Happy Jack mine in Fry Canyon to the processing mill in Mexican Hat.
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| Along the route |
We had stumbled upon the Moki Dugway on a family vacation in 1992, but didn’t know its name. It was decades before we learned what it was. We’ve driven it a few times since. This time, we didn’t stop for photos because it was windy and we knew our exploration times were short with winter sunset at 5:30 p.m.
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| View from the top, 2020 |
Natural Bridges National Monument
At the top of the Dugway, you turn left and it’s a short drive to Natural Bridges National Monument. It was pretty late in the day by the time we got there, so we didn’t do much but drive Bridge View Drive, a loop road with multiple viewpoints.
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| Kachina Bridge from the overlook |
It has some nice view of three bridges, but it’s a better experience if you have time to hike to the Bridges (or to the Horsecollar Ruin cliff dwelling overlook). I have been there before, so it wasn’t a great disappointment that we had no time.
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| Owachomo view from a hike, 2010 |
It’s been almost 15 years, though, so I never blogged about it.
Natural Bridges, at the junction of White Canyon and Armstrong Canyon, is part of the Colorado River drainage. It features the 13th largest natural bridge in the world, carved from the white Permian sandstone of the Cedar Mesa Formation that gives White Canyon its name.
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| White rock |
The three bridges in the park are Kachina, Owachomo and Sipapu (the largest), which are all Hopi names.
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| Sipapu, 2010 |
A natural bridge is formed through erosion by water flowing through the canyon. During flash floods, particularly, the stream undercuts the walls of rock that separate the stream’s goosenecks until the rock wall breaks through. Then, a new stream bed flows underneath the new bridge. Eventually, as erosion and gravity enlarge the bridge's opening, the bridge collapses under its own weight. There is evidence of at least two collapsed natural bridges within the Monument.
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| The streambed, sand not water |
Humans have lived in the area around Natural Bridges since as early as 7500 BCE, as shown by rock art and stone tools found at nearby sites. Around 700, ancestors of modern Puebloan people moved to the site, constructing stone and mortar buildings and granaries similar to those found in Mesa Verde National Park. Like the people of Mesa Verde, the residents of Natural Bridges seem to have left the region around the year 1270.
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| Two interesting formations |
Europeans first visited the area in 1883 when a gold prospector followed White Canyon upstream from the Colorado River. In 1904, National Geographic Magazine publicized the bridges. President Theodore Roosevelt designated the area as Utah's first National Monument in 1908.
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| Close-up of the arch |
A three-day horseback ride from Blanding, Utah, the Monument was nearly inaccessible for many decades. The uranium boom of the 1950s created new roads in the area, including modern-day Utah State Route 95, which was paved in 1976. Then, people could easily(ish) visit.
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| Light through the arches |
In 2007, the International Dark-Sky Association named Natural Bridges the first International Dark-Sky Park. It has the only night sky monitored by the NPS Night Sky Team that rates a Class 2 on the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, giving it the darkest sky ever assessed.
I guess we need to go back.
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| Owachomo, 2010 |
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park
A major destination for us was Monument Valley just across the border in Arizona.
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| Monument Valley |
Scott and I have been many times, but Caty hadn’t been in the Park since she was little. I wrote about it in 2019.
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| Caty in 1992 |
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| Same spot now |
Our first attempt to drive the loop road in the Park was a bust because the drive – and the restaurant – were closed because the Park employees were having a two-day staff meeting.
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| You can see the road here |
There was a sign at the entrance, but nothing on the website. Ya gotta love the casualness of a tribal park!
We were still able to get photos, but were disappointed that we couldn't drive through.
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| Still a good view |
Plus, we had been planning to eat there. We were then “forced” to go across the highway back to Utah to eat at Goulding’s. I remembered that it was pretty good. It wasn’t. It was FANTASTIC. We ended up eating there three times on this trip because it is so good and because there aren’t many other choices this time of year. The main attraction: Navajo Tacos. Love ‘em.
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| Navajo taco; Photo: Scott Stevens |
So, of course, we went back when the Park was open and then again to grab sunset.
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| Sunset |
Monument Valley, considered sacred by the Navajo Nation, is characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, with the largest reaching 1,000 feet above the valley floor.
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| View from Forrest Gump Hill |
Major rock formations include West and East Mitten Buttes, Merrick Butte, Hunts Mesa, Eagle Mesa, Sentinel Mesa, Brighams Tomb, Castle Rock, Stagecoach, Big Indian, Rain God Mesa, Spearhead Mesa, Mitchell Mesa, Mitchell Butte, Gray Whiskers, Elephant Butte, Camel Butte, Cly Butte, King-on-his-Throne, Rooster Rock, Totem Pole and Setting Hen.
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| Formations |
The valley's vivid red coloration comes from iron oxide exposed in the weathered siltstone.
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| West Mitten |
Darker blue-gray rocks get their color from manganese oxide.
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| Stagecoach |
When we finally drove through, it was gorgeous and not particularly crowded. But, the wind made the already dusty drive along the gravel road very, very gritty.
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| Along the drive |
Monument Valley has been featured in many forms of media since the 1930s. Famed director John Ford used the location for a number of his Westerns, essentially defining what people think of when they imagine the American West.
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| Right? |
This is indeed the iconic west. If you haven’t been, you should go.
