Colorado/Utah

From Oregon to Utah & Colorado:

Sean & Valisa's trip, October 2007

















Day One: Not in a hurry, we decided to say good-bye to Western Oregon with a quick hike down to a few waterfalls before climbing up over Santiam Pass and into the high desert. What a wet place this is, and so green! The mist made the fall leaves glow, and the trees themselves looked like still-life waterfalls, their silver barked trunks cascading down through feathered branches.

We have both driven across this pass many times, and we were well aware of the drastic changes we would see in the next few hours of driving. We drank a few extra gulps of soggy air before setting off.




















As soon as you get to Sisters, just over the crest of the Cascade range, the trees shrink, dwindling down from the thick lush cedar to a smattering of twisted juniper. Then the great expanse of Eastern Oregon opens up and swallows you whole.





We pass through miles and miles of grass and sage, the landscape somehow older and more worn. The hills are soft and sloped, the canyons crumbling into ruin, and the fences lean, their barbed wire sagging. This landscape stayed with us across the Idaho border, and we watched darkness fall across the cattle lands as we pushed on into night.



Idaho: We finally stopped in Twin Falls Idaho. In search of a nice place to pull over and sleep. Finding the parking lot for Shoshone Falls just outside of town, we pulled over and stepped into the darkness. Somewhere below us there was the great noise of water. The land sloped away from us towards some unknown Abyss. We climbed wearily into bed and woke at dawn to a new and changed landscape. The morning light illuminated flat-topped mesas and fortresses of stone all aound us. Below us an immense cascade laced in rainbows plunging into the serpentine curve of the Snake River, which then flowed placidly away to the West.




























After taking our time to enjoy the water, we decided on a side trip to City of Rocks, which was socked in under a snow storm. It still provided us with spectacular views of oddly shaped stone spires framed by snowy peeks and grassy valleys. Then it was off to deserts and canyons of Moab.


























Grand Gulch & Bullet Canyon: Lured by stories of ancient ruins.






































We spent 3 days hiking through an ancient Eden. Structures made of stone and mud were tucked into nooks, balanced on ledges, and hidden among the boulders. Everywhere there was evidence of an ancient peoples well versed in the arts of architecture and cultivation. Miniature corncobs and shards of pottery were eroding out of the heaped midden piles. Looking down at the valley I imagined a life in such an arid climate. No wonder archaeologists hypothesize that drought eventually drove them first to fight and then to flee from the canyon.











































But this year the water was plentiful. We were able to pick and choose which watering holes to drink from, waiting to fill up at clear springs instead of muddy puddles.












































TEXTURE: Such dryness and such wetness create some amazing textures. Pockets of wet mud gleamed in the shade, marked with the evidence of flowing water. In the sun this wet mud dried and cracked, peeling up into something reminiscent of large field of pencil shavings.





Trees that have fallen victim to drought or flood lay splintered and broken, their bark bleached silver in the sun.

ART

For someone interested in both art and history, and also in art history, the pictographs and petroglyphs that marked the various village sites were just some of the many treats that this valley offered us.

BEAUTY: The architecture fits so well with the landscape, it ads instead of takes away from the beauty of the canyon. We could learn a lot from their simple style. In some places all that is left is a rubble of stones on a ledge, but something about the way they perch tells me that they were put there on purpose, for a purpose, and there is something so quietly beautiful in the teetering piles of stacked stones.

Kivas Every village had a communal space. The Kiva was partially or entirely underground. Each village had at least one Kiva. At the last site we visited they had restored the Kiva so that you could go down into it and see how they had been constructed.

TOOLS

Turkey Pen: Evidence of domestication of
animals

Stone on stone: Simple method of grinding grains

The canyon also offers up many natural wonders. A favorite is the repeated form of the "balancing rock"

Which Sean demonstrates here...........................

The BIGGEST cottonwoods I've ever seen!

I got into this tree by climbing its bark. It was enormous! Usually when we saw trees this big we were close to a village site. Perhaps the Anasazi looked down on there same trees.

What a spectacular place to visit.

Natural Bridges National Monument

When we emerged from the canyon we were lucky enough to catch a ride back to the van from a lovely couple out of Durango, Colorado who suggested we could camp at Natural Bridges just up the road. We pulled into the ranger station just as the sun was setting, but the place was locked up. As we looked over the literature outside, two smiling rangers walked up and invited up to an educational program that would be starting shortly. They were going to talk about geology and history and, one added, there would be live violin music! We quickly set up camp and returned to classical music in the visitor center quickly followed by a slide show that was punctuated by short clips of violin. Pretty fancy stuff!

We woke up early the next morning to look around.

Then ventured into Moab.

And off to snowy Colorado! We stayed at Ed and Susan's house in Edwards for a few days while I dug through my old stuff and tried to figure out what was really worth keeping. Then we Visited Chris and Blair (and Layton and Althea) at their new house up in Leadville.

Then it was down to Denver and Boulder for a few days. It was shocking to drop down out of the clean mountain air into the smog of the city.

But it was great to see old friends before heading back to my new home in Eugene. We had the pleasure of eating the best sushi EVER in Denver. You wouldn't think you could find seafood like that in a landlocked state. We also had the pleasure of hanging out with Heli and Gwen after rescuing them from a flat tire fiasco.

Then it was time to go load up the van and head back West.