ON THE TRAIL OF THE ANCIENTS

Today started out in Moab, Utah, with a small amount of snow on the car. After a decent breakfast at the Pancake Haus, followed by a good latte at our new favorite drive through, "Wicked Brew," which was out of the baseball hats with the waving Pope logo, we headed south on Highway 191 toward Blandings and the Dinosaur Museum. We were relieved to see sun this morning after the driving snows of yesterday.

Here was our arch of the day, shortly outside of Moab.

Before we got into Blandings the snow started again and by the time we got to the Cedar Breaks State Park, at the site of ancient ruins, we were in another sideways blowing snow blizzard. We thought the Dinosaur Park and Cedar Breaks were co-located but we learned that the Dinosaur Museum is a private entity which is closed during the winter because they can't afford to heat their building. Oh well. We decided to tour the Cedar Breaks ruins since the building was nice and warm.

The displays were quite good. For example, this is a real unfinished sandal from the Basketweaver III period, AD 500-700.


These were woven from Yucca fibers, pictured here, which look a lot like human hair to me.

I was amazed at the intricate weaving pattern used in these sandals.

This museum has a very detailed chronology of this area's petroglyphs and pictographs. I was quite taken with this one which seems so modern and Miro-ish somehow.

We had intended to hike around the ruins at this site but by the time we were ready, the snow was blowing in the door, so we were content with what we could see from inside. We left this museum heading next for Hovenweep National Monument, but almost got lost getting out of town because of the near white out conditions. As we drove the less than 60 miles from Blanding to the Hovenweep National Monument we went through driving snow and periods of sunshine with no precipitation. Naturally when we arrived in the parking lot at Hovenweep National Monument, a mere few miles from the Colorado State line, the snow was again blowing sideways.

We found the Visitor's Center warm and welcoming, as they always seem to be. The ranger explained that this site is the site of two villages of the Paleo-Indian hunters, who we now call the Pueblo people. There is a nice walk from the center to an overlook where you can see about 1/2 of the site. By the time we walked out on the path, only 20 minutes since our arrival, it was sunny and all signs of snow were gone.

This is called the Twin Towers.

and this one Eroded Boulder House.

Hovenweep area is located in the middle of a 500 square mile raised block of land called Cajon Mesa and the buildings at this site were constructed about the same time as those at nearby Mesa Verde, AD 1230-1275.

There is a nice trail around this site that we did not take today but will do another time. It allows one to see the whole site which consists of rare square towers and a site called "Hovenweep Castle."

This one is called Round Tower.

We also learned from the Park Ranger that nearby (actually in Colorado) there are some Petroglyphs able to be seen from a 4 mile hike from the campground. This will be for the next trip.

On our road out from Hovenweep we drove through more sun and more blowing snow and were treated to an amazing view of the nearby Blue Mountains.

Our plan for the evening is to stay in Bluff, Utah. The AAA Tour Book talks about an amazing natural food restaurant so we decided to go for it. Driving in we couldn't believe this was the place. Bluff is what I would call a one horse town. However, we found a really nice motel, the Desert Rose Inn and Cabins, where Jim found a comfy porch to have a pipe (in mid 30 degree weather)


and where this is the level of detail for our room number

and where this is the site we beheld as we opened the door,

and this is the view from our porch.


We have heard that there are at least 3 really good places to eat, so we are going to check them out.

Audrey