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Cedar Mesa Memorial Weekend

Friday – Sunday, May 24-26, 2019

Years ago I used to spend my Memorial Day weekends exploring the canyons of Cedar Mesa in southeastern Utah, which was before I started going to The Maze, but then I stopped doing that when it seemed like the cedar gnats (no-see-ums) were starting to get worse during that time of the year. This year my friend Alan was going to be in the area over the holiday weekend and asked if I’d be able to join him for a couple of hikes, so I thought it would be nice to return to that old annual tradition and said yes! Our original plan was to explore some of the canyons up from Elk Ridge, but thanks to a late season snowstorm we decided to skip the muddy roads and changed our plans to stay lower in the canyons of Cedar Mesa instead.

Ruins & Pictographs

Ruins & Pictographs

I left after work on Friday and drove down to Cedar Mesa where I met up with Alan so we could spend the rest of the weekend hiking together. Just like I remembered, the cedar gnats were coming out in the evenings on top of the mesa and were pretty annoying, but when we were hiking in the canyons we didn’t notice them. Maybe because it was a little bit windy out this weekend? Thanks to the recent storms (it’s been a very wet spring) there was water everywhere in the canyons with creeks flowing and abundant potholes full of water. Throughout the weekend we went on a couple long hikes and a couple short ones, we both revisited a couple of sites and found plenty of new ones, too! It was a very nice weekend for hiking in the canyons. Since Alan had to leave on Sunday afternoon to meet up with another friend elsewhere and the weather forecast for Memorial Day was looking like a lot of rain, I decided to head home early on Sunday evening so I could spend the holiday resting at home with Diane. Enjoy the photos that I took this weekend!

Round Room

Round Room

Yellow Roof

Yellow Roof

Man-Hands

Man-Hands

Island Room

Island Room

Hidden Alcove Ruins

Hidden Alcove Ruins

Interesting designs on this large potsherd.

Potsherd Designs

One Room

One Room

Little Granary

Little Granary

Hiking along the rim of a canyon.

Canyon Rim

Middle Doorway

Middle Doorway

The Watchman

The Watchman

Big Room

Big Room

Hiking down a sandstone canyon in the early morning.

Morning Sandstone Canyon

Rincon Ruins

Rincon Ruins

A nice but hard-to-see panel of petroglyphs in Grand Gulch.

Grand Gulch Petroglyphs

This petroglyph panel is located just to the right of the panel above.

Faded Atlatl Panel

Large red pictographs

Red Pictographs

Looking down onto a square wooden kiva.

Square Wooden Kiva

Golden Room

Golden Room

Little Yellow Wildflowers

Little Yellow Wildflowers

Grand Gulch Granaries

Granaries

A faded white anthropomorphic pictograph.

Faded Triangle

Line of Ruins

Line of Ruins

Big Deer Pictograph

Big Deer Pictograph

Yellow Roof Ruin

Yellow Roof Ruin

Very faded paint found on the plaster inside of a kiva.

Fading Kiva Paint

Front Porch Ruins

Front Porch Ruins

A round ruin at the back of a very large alcove containing many other ruins.

Back of the Alcove

Pictograph Alcove

Pictograph Alcove

Breech Birth Panel

Breech Birth Panel

Yellow House

Yellow House

Designs painted high in the alcove containing The Green Mask pictograph.

High Designs

Remaining Doorway

Remaining Doorway

Faint Sheep Panel

Faint Sheep Panel

Corner Petroglyph Panel

Corner Petroglyph Panel

Slab Ruin

Slab Ruin

The Green Mask

The Green Mask

>> Cedar Mesa Memorial Weekend Photo Gallery

2 Comments

  1. Douglas Schumacher
    Douglas Schumacher June 11, 2019

    Amazing as always, no captures these sites with photos and clarity as you have done over the years. Incredible.

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