Dusty Jeans & Genes - Part 26 - Fauna

Occasionally we encountered animals that didn't quite fit the overall theme of the blog post, so they are gathered here.

Dinosaur National Monument. This rabbit was so unconcerned about humans that I almost stepped on him/her.

Northern Flicker. Dinosaur National Monument.
This woodpecker is found throughout much of North America, but note the "red-shafted" feathers characteristic in the western region. In the east, the feathers have yellow shafts.

Turkey vulture sunning itself on the Sound of Silence Trail in Dinosaur National Monument.

Ground squirrels had quite a system of holes and tunnels in the Nine Mile Canyon Campground.

Four-foot long gopher snake in Mesa Verde National Park.

Western scrub jay in Pinnacles National Park.

We found this hairy ant scurrying along the trail in Pinnacles National Park.

Dusty Jeans & Genes - Part 12 - Distant Houses

Wednesday, 25 April, and Thursday, 26 April 2018

It's fun to get up close in the cliff dwellings, but seeing them from a distance helps put things in perspective.

Cliff Palace

Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. It is built into a natural sandstone alcove and at one time held a village of about 100 people.

A closer look at towers and kivas at the southern end of the dwelling.

Balcony House

A previous post talked about our tour of Balcony House. Below is an overview from the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail.

An overview of Balcony House. (1) Access ladder. (2) North Plaza. (3) Kiva Plaza. (4) Rock hiding small exit tunnel, ladder, and rock-cut steps. (5) Final ladder back to the parking lot.

(1) Tour participants climbing double ladder at entrance.

(2) Visiting the North Plaza.

(3) Visiting the Kiva Plaza.

(4) Tour participants lined up to go through the small exit tunnel.

(4 & 5) Exiting the tour. You can just barely make out some of the rock-cut steps just to the left of the large rock.

Dusty Jeans & Genes - Part 11 - Canyons of the Ancients

Thursday, 26 April 2018

This morning we went to Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, which is quite close to Mesa Verde. There's an associated museum that does a nice job of describing the area and the culture.

The monument is difficult to access, as it is all on dirt roads. The Lowry Pueblo site is relatively close, so that's the site we visited.

Most of the walls of the pueblo are still standing, but over the centuries, the floors have been filled in by dirt and sediment, so the doors and windows seem quite low!

About half the pueblo is protected by a modern superstructure. One of the nice features of the site is that you get to look into a kiva at ground level instead of peering in from above. This photo is a panoramic look at the inside of a kiva.

Outside the pueblo, this site also has a "great kiva": a kiva capable of holding about 200 people for large ceremonies. Presumably this was a regional gathering.

Dusty Jeans & Genes - Part 10 - Balcony House

Wednesday, 25 April 2018

Mesa Verde National Park

We had only a day and a half to visit Mesa Verde National Park. We needed another day, for sure. (So that means we have a reason for another road trip!) It's early in the season here, and parts of the park were still closed.

Mesa Verde is known for its cliff-dwellings. For an unknown reason, the mesa-top puebloans who lived in the area, decided to take shelter in caves near the top of the canyon walls. This period only lasted about 100 years, and then the people left the area for reasons unknown. We took a tour of one of these cliff-dwellings, Balcony House.

The tour approach to Balcony House starts with a descent of about 75 feet to a trail that runs along a ledge below the canyon rim.

At the end of this trail, you need to climb a 32-foot ladder to get to the cliff dwelling. (This is not the original entrance to the house.)

Tour participants climbing the ladder.

Lon coming into the large "North Plaza". The North Plaza has an uncommon parapet wall, which leads to speculation that the village children spent their time in this area.

The park ranger talks about Balcony House. It's on several levels, and probably had about 40 residents. The house faces northeast, so it gets very little direct sunlight. It would be pleasantly cool in the summer, but bone-chillingly cold in the winter.

A narrow passage led to the next plaza, the "Kiva Plaza". You can see the sheer drop-offs from the walkways around the kivas.

A peek into one of the two kivas. The kiva would have been covered with a roof, and would be accessed by a ladder coming down through the smoke hole. Air is vented into the kiva from a hole in the surrounding wall that leads to the rectangular opening at the bottom of the kiva. The small wall deflects the incoming air for good circulation.

The tour exits through a small tunnel. You have to crawl through it. This was the original entrance to the dwelling.

Lon emerging from the tunnel.

To get back to the top of the canyon, we first had to climb up a 15-ft ladder.

Then we had to negotiate steps carved into the rock. The original inhabitants didn't have the safety fence! And in parts there were only toe and finger-holds to get up and down the rock.

A final 15-foot ladder gets to a short trail back to the parking lot.

This tour was quite an experience! And not recommended for people who are claustrophobic or afraid of heights. But it opened a fascinating window on an ancient culture.

Dusty Jeans & Genes - Part 9 - Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison truly is one of those places that is beyond description. It is a very narrow, very deep canyon cut through igneous base rocks (granite, gneiss, etc.). Most canyons are cut from much softer sandstone. The south rim is fairly narrow, and not only sits about 2500 ft above the canyon bottom, but also at least 1500 ft above the surrounding flat plain.

The first overlook tells you why it's called the "Black Canyon". It's also so deep that you couldn't see the bottom from here.

A few stops later you can see the river.

Almost couldn't tell that there was a canyon in this picture.

The West Elk Mountains in the distance, the north rim road in the mid-ground, and the north rim wall in the foreground.

At the western end of the park you can see the river much better.

"Painted Wall", the tallest sheer cliff in the U.S.

A view to the south and the relatively flat plain between mountain systems.

Dusty Jeans & Genes - Part 8 - Goblin Valley

Monday, 23 April 2018

After our morning hike in Dinosaur National Monument, we traveled a few hours south to Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. The park was crowded: this is prime season for southern Utah. Earlier in the year there is too much snow, later there is too much heat. We snagged one of the few remaining campsites -- it helped that we were tent camping.

The entrance to the park is Wild Horse Butte, which can be seen for miles.

Before you get to the main valley, you pass the "Three Sisters", which gives a taste of the carved sandstone to be seen in the valley. Usually such structures are called "hoodoos", but here they are known as "goblins".

The main Goblin Valley. Visitors can enter the valley and walk wherever they like. We spent about 1 1/2 hours walking before it just got too hot and the sun too intense.

More goblins.

It's hard to get a size perspective, but these structures tower 20 to 40 feet above the valley floor.

Like fluffy summer clouds, individual goblins invite names. We called this one "rubber ducky".

And this one looks remarkably like a shark.

No name. Just bizarre!

At the end of the valley the small washes and canyons continue, but the goblins are mostly gone.

The setting sun's light intensified the colors of this butte near the campground.

Dusty Jeans & Genes - Part 7 - Nine Mile Canyon

Sunday, 22 April 2018

Nine Mile Canyon is in a little-visited part of eastern Utah. Despite its name, the canyon is actually about 40 miles long, and has numerous side canyons. It is known for its large number of petroglyphs that were created by peoples of the Fremont culture from the 10th century to the 13th centuries CE. Some of the later art appears to have been done by Utes. It seems that humans of all sorts and cultures just have to make art.

The canyon is spectacular in its own right. The valley is mostly private ranches. The discovery and development of natural gas resources in the canyon complex has greatly increased heavy truck traffic and may pose a threat to the archeological sites.

First Site petroglyphs.

Daddy Canyon petroglyphs.

Lon hiking up the short Daddy Canyon trail.

The appropriately named Big Buffalo petroglyph.

Rocks were frequently covered with colorful lichens.

The last petroglyph in the canyon is known as the "Great Hunt", and depicts hunting big-horn sheep with bows and arrows.

There are over 1,000 documented petroglyph panels in the canyons; only about a dozen are open to the public. Some are on private land, and others are known only to researchers.