Petroglyph Point, Mesa Verde National Park, CO, July 3, 2023

About a 2.2 mile loop that starts and ends at the Spruce House overlook. One of several hikes I took while in Mesa Verde. I did this one on the morning of the third, before doing the Balcony House tour.

This is a loop, which could be walked either clockwise or counter-clockwise. The NPS suggests counter-clockwise. If doing it that way, you start off from near the archeology museum/park offices and head down, towards Spruce Tree House, then turn right. In the past, a trail ran from here up to Spruce Tree House, but that trail has been closed for about a decade, due to the threat of a massive rock fall on to Spruce Tree House.

From there, the trail runs along the west wall of Spurce Canyon. (A separate trail runs along the canyon bottom). You are treated to impressive views down the canyon, but have no view of Spruce Tree House from down this trail.

Parts of the trail are quite narrow. You pass at least one small stone structure, likely for grain storage, along the way.

I passed several hikers along the way, but it was pretty empty for most of the way. It's always surprising how, no matter how many people are at the start of a trail, it usually thins out pretty quickly once you get away from the trailhead. (Delicate Arch in Arches National Park was an exception to that, of course!).

The funny part is, I almost blew right by the petroglyphs. There was a gathering of people, who seemed to be just resting in the shade. So I had to keep my eyes on the path, to avoid stepping on people or slipping as I picked my way between the rocks.

I got to the other side of these people and came across a sign saying, "Museum," and an arrow. "Well, that doesn't make any sense," I thought to myself, since that would mean you're on the homestretch. Then I looked back and saw the petroglyphs.<\p>

Took many pictures, and some video (the voices on the video, talking about a selfie? I volunteered to take their shot. Hopefully, it came out good!

Then, as previously noted, right after the petroglyphs is a sign for the museum, meaning you're already sort of on the homestretch of your hike. There's a single bit of class two or class three, there (not too hard to scramble up, but would potentially be tricky to scramble down, since your feet have no eyes).

After that, it's mostly level, and largely exposed to the sun. You're walking on the mesa top. No views of Spruce House, again, because of the sandstone cliffs, but some views of the canyon, before passing through short forests and occasional patches of grass. Then you cross over the top of the canyon, where a small check dam creates a flat crossing, and you're back on the other side of the canyon. You can again see Spruce Tree House. Then you're done.

In addition to the museum at the top, across the parking lot is a cafe and flush toilets. Good place to get lunch, if you didn't bring anything with you. I ordered "Navajo Tacos." They're crap compared to "real" Navajo Tacos, but they were about what I would expect from an NPS concessionaire.

Not sure how many posts I'll break the Mesa Verde trip up into, but I figure at least 2-3 more, then Navajo National Monument, which we hit on the way back towards California.

South Rim Trail, Cedar Breaks National Monument After Dark, July 16, 2023

Hiked the entirety of the South Rim Trail on Sunday, July 16, starting just before sunset. The first shot of my earlier post was from this trip.

Main goal was to get this first shot. I had walked here about four years ago, during a full moon, and wanted to come back when the sky was dark and the heart of Milky Way was well-placed. But on the last few attempts, when I was able to get out there, monsoon rains made hiking the South Rim trail impossible. So I ended driving up to Brian Head for my Milky Way shots, which actually worked out nicely.

I hiked to the end of the trail, and saw the Bartizan, but it was too dark by then to get a decent shot of that. I then backtracked to Spectra Point and waited for it to get dark. At this time of year, that's not until around 11pm local time. Happy with the result!

I'll be making at least one more trip back to Cedar Breaks this year, but with the monsoon picking up, who knows which hikes may be possible? At any rate, we'll see how things go.

Split Rock/Desert Queen/Lucky Boy Vista, Hiked June 10, 2023

Came across some pictures that I apparently hadn't posted, yet. Hiked back in June, so this is one of about a half-dozen hikes I still need to blog. All cell phone shots, with this post.

Started from the Split Rock Loop parking area, a bit east of Jumbo Rocks. From there, I headed north-ish on the loop for about 1/2 mile, before turning off further north. There is a turn sign on the trail and rocks indicating the way you should go to stay on the Split Rock Loop, and there is no sign indicating where you are going if you turn right. Right takes you up an incline, then back down, then up a ravine on the other side.

The trail became somewhat intermittent as I headed up that ravine, so I wasn't sure if I was on an actual trail or a use trail. Near the top, I just veered off, hoping to get a vista point among the rocks. Didn't really get a good vista, but saw lots of exposed rocks. Some of them looked like they could be seasonal "potholes" that could support fairy shrimp or other short-lived aquatic life.

Still just June, and it was cloudy, so not very hot. Some flowers, but obviously well-past peak.

The clouds in these pictures would build, so my initial plan of astronomy that night was foiled. But at least I got a good hike out of the trip!

The "Geology Fire" started about this time, and I saw some plumes of dark smoke to my south. Occasionally smelled burnt foliage, too. But I figured the vegetation is sporatic enough that I didn't think the fire could spread in my direction, despite the gusty winds.

After a lot of poking around, looking for a vista, I eventually siddled back down to where I last saw the trail, and reacquired the route. When I came across a split, I checked my Alltrails app map, and picked a direction that would take me towards mine indicators. Alltrails didn't show a complete loop, but I was pretty sure I could build one, given the lack of dense vegegation. And, if not, I could just follow the trail out, then walk along roads to get back to my car.

Impressive rock formations all along these trail. I spent a lot of time photographing the rocks, and the rest photographing the catci and flowers.

I eventually looped high above a valley, with wonderful views both up and down the valley. Near this point, I saw several metal grates, which covered deep but narrow mining excavations. I held my cellphone up to the little openings to get a few shots down, into the mine.

At the time (even now!), I wasn't sure which mine I was seeing, but, in looking at maps, I figure this area must be the Desert Queen mine. The "official" access is from the other side, and requires some dirt roads to get to. This way was longer, but also more scenic.

After passing the vertically drilled mine shafts, my trail took me down into the valley, and closer to additional evidence of mining, incluidng some horizontal shafts and some machinery. Canyon walls closed in around me.

My Alltrails showed a trail going at least some ways up along another ravine, so up I went. I almost gave up and decided to backtrack, but made one more push, and succeeded in finding an easy way up the ravine. When I finally emerged out of that ravine, I was in a rather wide, sandy wash.

Then I came upon a low stone dam, maybe two feet tall on the downstream side. The upstream side was filled to the brim with sand. And, shortly after that, a sign! So I knew I was back on some sort of track.

The trail was again well-defined, and I soon passed several more arrows or trail signs. Took one to Lucky Boy vista, which I had been to, before. However, this time, once at the vista, I continued forward, down what looked like a use trail, but which soon fragmented off almost nothing. But the foliage was thin enough that I could continue to pick and easy way forward, toward the Split Rock Loop trail. Again, I could use my Alltrails app map to make progress in the correct direction, but with no real urgency to meet the actual trail, because this non-trail was easy enough to follow.

There were more interesting rock formations here, so I stopped for an extended shoot of those rocks in the second-to-last photo of this post. Shortly thereafter, I met up with the regular Split Rock Loop trail. Took only another ten minutes or so before I passed the earlier fork I had taken, and another ten minutes or so to get to the parking area.

My Alltrails recording shows less than four miles for the hike, but the gps is obviously intermittent, as there are several segments of straight lines, where it did not record between two different points that I obviously didn't teleport between. Probably something like five miles, but it's hard to say.

Quite a lot of altitude gain and loss, too, so I have to admit that, even if the weather had cleared, I was feeling pretty tired and not enthusiastic about telescoping that night.

In terms of hikes that need to be blogged, I made another trip to Joshua Tree a week later. Hiked just a bit south of this area, from between Oak Tree picnic area and Jumbo Rocks campground in the daytime, then returned that night and took some Milky Way shots. I may try to post that one, next.

On Fourth of July weekend, my wife and I took a trip all the way out in southwestern Colorado. Several hikes and overviews from Mesa Verde National Park, and a short (but more than three mile) hike at Navajo National Monument, in Arizona.

Two weeks later was Cedar Breaks National Monument. I blogged the daytime hiking, but I think haven't posted my Milky Way shot from late that night.

Between the two afternoon and evening hikes at Cedar Breaks, we visited Fremont Indian State Park, a bit farther north in Utah.

Also walked around the Huntington Gardens and the L.A> zoo in late June, but probably won't post those two, although I did get some pretty cool shots. So at least four more blog posts, depending on how many I break Mesa Verde up into. Hopefully won't take me too long to catch up!

Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT, July 15-16, 2023

Hiked around the South Rim and Upper Alpine Pond Loop on consecutive evenings, starting just before sunset. Lots of Colorado Columbine. This was my favorite shot.

The geography works great for flower shots then, as the sunsets slowly and late, and you get soft, warm, low light from the west.

Soft light on the amphitheater, too.

Fleabane.

Lots of deer up here. Stick to the speed limit, and keep an eye on the sides of the road after dark, because they are definitely hanging around the area.

It was a snowy season at Cedar Breaks, so I think the flowers are blooming a week or two later than normal. Probably the field of sunflowers is prettier now than it was a few weeks ago.

The trail to the Bartizan (an arch) opened last year. I hiked there, 2.75 miles one way. But it was getting dark by the time I got there and have no good shots. Some nice after-dark shots of the sky, though, that'll I'll be posting, soon.

Probably less than two miles when I did the Upper Alpine Pond Loop. Lots of deer shots, but it was getting dark, so they aren't particularly sharp.

Warner Valley, UT, October 31, 2020

If you've noticed I'm always talking about how far I am behind in my blogging, this is an example. Here's something I did almost 3 years ago, but apparently never blogged: I did a set of short hikes around the Warner Valley area of Utah, which is east of St. George, UT, just north of the Arizona border. The BLM entry for this site is here.

It's less than 1/4 mile from the trailhead, so not much of a hike. But the drive there is a little tricky. I mean, I did make it with my Prius, but, in perfectly dry weather, there were a few times where I could definitely feel my wheels sliding. Lots of very fine sand. Obviously, if even a little wet, the sand would be even slicker, and that much easier to get stuck.

Great set of dinosaur tracks, though. If the road is dry, it's definitely worth seeing. The tracks are on a pretty specific piece of sandstone. I would suspect that means there is additional sandstone, either exposed or under sand, with more tracks, but the one that is the main attraction is clearly marked. There's a thin "deflector shield" to keep them from being covered again by sand or sediment.

Goes without saying that walking on the sandstone will weather the tracks, so do take care walking around them.

Quite nearby is the tiny Fort Pearce. It's probably smaller than you would expect, like the size of a modest home. Just designed for protection against small raiding parties.

The parking area for this "fort" is right at the base of the small hill on which the fort sits. There are pioneer and indigenous marks on the rocks immediately adjacent to the fort. There are additional petroglyphs further down the canyon.

I walked several miles south, but did not make a concerted effort to find some of the more interesting petroglphs. It was a pleasant walk, nonetheless, and I'm pretty sure I went far enough to qualify they day as a "hiking day."

Minus the walk down the wash, younger or older folks can get plenty out of this trip with less than 1/2 mile of walking, and more adventurous types can walk further.

Additionally, people with high clearance and/or four wheel drive have a lot of alternatives in the area. In particular, Little Black Mountain petroglyphs sounds like a cool place to go. I've wanted to get a petroglyph and Milky Way shot for quite some time, but lack the vehicle that could reliably get me to this place. Also, the route to the petroglyphs seems to change on occasion, due to local mining. But something on my longer-term list of things I want to do.

Blythe Intaglios, Poston Relocation Camp I, and Wyatt Earp's Cottage

Driven April 9, 2023. While I usually just blog my hikes, I occasionally do non-hiking things with my wife, who is not a hiker. In this case, we decided to use a "spring break" weekend to spend a couple of nights out of urbanity, in the town of Lake Havasu. There actually is some hiking available in town, but it's not what she would have wanted to do. And I didn't have the motivation after we got back from our other trips to do that. I did do some solo walking just in the town, including the bridge. Not sure if that's going to make it on to the blog.

Between those two nights, we spent the better part of a day driving around the lower Colorado River. First up was the Blythe Intaglios, which you can think of as a poor man's Nazca Lines. They're about 75 road miles from Lake Havasu City, or about 90 driving minutes. You head south on AZ-95, turning right at Mojave Road, in the town of Parker (last place with national fast food chain restaurants and a Wal-Mart, for possible bathroom break considerations). You continue south, until reaching Agnes Wilson Road, when you turn west and cross over the Colorado River on a smallish bridge. On this stretch, you're zipping between drainage ditches for farms.

Incidentally, had you stayed on Mojave Road, that would take you to the Poston Memorial, and quite close to the remains of one of the elementary schools. We hit that on the way back.

Instead, by turning on Agnes Wilson, you soon hit U.S. 95. Mostly a two-lane road, with soft shoulders, so not a lot of places to turn off, if you want to let someone pass. Around Mile Marker 15.5 (Riverside County US 95), there's a small sign on the right, advising that the "Giant Desert Figures" are 500 feet ahead. There'll also be an historical marker on the left side of the road, and the dirt road you need to take is on your right, opposite the stone-mounted marker. Rough, but definitely passenger-car accessible. Continue to the first two parking areas (well-marked). The figures are "conveniently" circled by low chainlink fences, so you'll know where you need to go.

It's about 1/2 mile from each parking area to the various intaglio. An additional intaglio is south of these, but without an obvious trail, and it's not better-preserved than these guys, so I did not make the detour.

The Intaglios are not as large as you might imagine, but still pretty large, and, of course, best viewed from above. I brought a three-step stool with me to gain a few extra feet of perspective.

Folks aren't quite sure when they were made, and what they indicate, but they are considered to be from pre-contact indigenous peoples.

By contrast, Poston is recent. It was one of ten camps where persons of Japanese ancestry, regardless of citizenship, were wholesale rounded up and sent into these "internment" camps. "Internment" is a misnomer, of course, because there's a specific internationally-accepted definition for what you can do with enemy aliens in time of war. By contrast, these were mostly natural born U.S. citizens in these camps, who were rounded up in a way quite distinct from Americans of Gernan and Italian ancestry, and different even from enemy aliens from Germany and Italy.

Poston was different from the other camps because it was built on lands held in trust by the Colorado River Indian Tribes. As opposed to the lumber and tarpaper construction of buildings in other War Relocation Authority camps, the larger camp buildings here were built of adobe.

The former elementary school buildings are surrounded by a tall chainlink fence. And, while there are openings in the fence one could easily pass through, I figured the fence indicated I should not enter, so I did not. Don't want to disrespect the property owners just for a few photos.

Other remains of the camp are long-removed, and plowed into farming production. The large memorial mounument is right east of Mojave Road, and pretty impossible to miss. No museum or restroom facilities on site.

The final stop on our tour was the Wyatt Earp Cottage. It's located just off U.S. 95, just south of the railroad tracks in Vidal, CA. A very short drive on a dirt road is required, but, again, easily accessible by passenger cars. There's an historical marker in front of the house. This was the only home Wyatt (and Josephine) ever owned outright. A fence surrounds the house, which is privately owned, so, again, I respected the property lines and took only a few pictures, only from beyond the fence.

I had read about the Blythe Intaglios a while ago, but always assumed they were less accessible. Since then, I've come across information regarding a few more intaglio in Arizona, for future consideration. Some of those are adjacent to pavement, while others would require a walk.