THE Trip, Day Trip, LONG LONG Day Trip, Part 5, Anasazi Indian State Park

CABS for Reflections From the Fence

One of the original goals of the day's trip was Anasazi Indian State Park.  Goal was obtained and was so, so worth the effort and the time spent there.  When we first arrived we stepped inside the Visitors Center and had a chat with the lovely young lady minding the store.  She knew her stuff and was enthusiastic about the state park and in fact about all the National Parks in this corner of Utah.  She knew them all, personally.  She convinced us that we really really needed to make the effort to drive on to Capital Reef National Park, which was another 35 miles or so from Boulder Utah/Anasazi Indian State Park.

We stepped back outside and had a nice picnic lunch, gave the fur kids some food, drink and a potty break and after our little break, we went to tour the park.

Below:  living quarters.

Below, same shot, with Man peaking in the short doors.

From the state park web site, we learn, "This park shelters the ruins of an ancient Native American village, one of the largest Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) communities found west of the Colorado River. Known as the Coombs Site, it is believed to have been occupied from AD 1160 to 1235 and may have housed as many as 200 people."

Below:  some of the connected living quarters rooms.  The roof is built to protect the delicate artifacts.

Below, a pit house, built in a large part, underground:

Inside the Visitors Center there is a really wonderful collection of artifacts and historical displays.  All the pottery shown below was behind glass, Sony fought glare and available light, but, I think we did ok.  Aren't they beautiful??  Below:  black and white mug, dated 1075 to 1275.

Below:  Middleton Black-on-Red bowl, dated 1050 to 1130.

Below:  Tusayan Black-on-Red pitcher, dated 1050 to 1150.

Below, I missed the description and time frame on this totally beautiful piece of pottery.

There was also a very nice collection/display of arrowheads made of a variety of materials, chert, quartzite, obsidian, agate and more.

We still had miles to go and another unplanned but exciting park to visit, so, we hit the road once more.  More beautiful scenery, will I ever get over it??  I hope not!



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THE Trip, Day Trip, LONG LONG Day Trip, Part 2

CABS for Reflections From the Fence

I don't even know where to begin.  No kidding.  If I was overwhelmed by Arches National Park or Canyonlands (and I was) there are no descriptive terms big enough for what I felt when we drove Scenic Byway 12 through this area.  I have also realized there is no way I can do this justice.  I did a google search, by typing in this phrase, exactly this way:

ccc builds the million dollar road bryce utah

Here is the link for the first page of results from this search:  LINK

AMAZING!  Maybe you could wait till after you read my sad attempt at this to go read some really wonderful blog and trip reports that others have made to this spectacular area.  Oh, my, some of the photos!  WOW!  Gasp!  Awe!  Wonderful!

If you don't go to any of the sites from my search results, or if you only have time for one, try this site, tons of information on the area all summarized in one place.  Excellent!

The short story of it, the road called the Million Dollar Road cost about that to build, and it was built in a large part by some very sturdy young men who worked for the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps).  This is rough country, so rough that as late as 1940 mail was delivered via mule train during parts of the year.

Rough of course, to me, also means beautiful beyond imagination.  So, it is photo time, photos to sooth the savage, or to just enjoy:

Below:  You can see the road, running from left to right mid photo, that small little black streak.  This is a massive area, miles and miles of "nothing", nothing but beauty.

Now, you know it is large enough for a panoramic.

What is around the next turn??  More beauty.  What is down the road a bit??  More beauty.  Miles and miles of beauty.  I'll show you more, soon, I promise - - - 

*I had hoped to bring you a few more photos in today's post, but, well, life and stuff got a bit off schedule, and well, I got tired and stopped and went to zzzz land!  I know you will understand!  LOL
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THE Trip, Day Trip, LONG LONG Day Trip, Part 1

CABS for Reflections From the Fence

On May 15, 2011 Man and I set out from Bryce Canyon for a drive and a day trip.  Our plans were somewhat written in dust, as they seem to frequently be.  The day turned into over 13.5 hours of driving about 250 miles, sightseeing, oooohing, aahhhing, 2 large mountain tops (times 2, cause we did the route over and back exactly the same), the million dollar road and well over 625 photos.  Can we say sensory overload??  Yea, we can.

Here are some photos as we left Bryce Canyon, driving east:

(Note:  each day we started out with a clean windshield, in fact, by now in THE Trip, we had become rather paranoid about cleaning it.  In our normal life, we clean now and then, but are not over the top concerned, a streak here and there, oh, well.  But, not by this point of THE Trip.  By now, I did not want streaks, nor bugs, nor reflections.  But, alas, sometimes, you still get streaks, reflections and those dang bugs keep committing suicide on our windshield.  You will see those kinds of defects now and then in my photos, because, they are still photos of stunning scenery, bug ickies, streaks and all.  Remember, I am taking many of these photos from Big Butt, through the bugs, streaks and coloration of the sun screen stuff built into BB's windshield and while rolling, sometimes at speeds between 55 and 65.  I was happy to have a bug smear now and then, eh??  LOL)

Our goal, softly written in the dust was the Grand Staircase Escalante-National Monument area, and Anasazi State Park, and see what we could see, mmm, had the energy to visit.  By the end of the day, we had also had a quick drive through of the Capital Reef National Park.  Here is the route, same way both directions.

The day, the VERY long day, and just a few of the many, many photos will be coming along in a number of posts, I have no idea how many, they are not written yet, truth, I have not even been able to preview and choose all the photos yet.  Gonna take some doing, and some time!



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