Cedar Mesa Chronicles: Chapter 8 | Thursday – Saturday, November 24-26, 2022
This year during the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend Diane was able to get away from her clinical rotations for a little while and join me on our annual trip into the Bears Ears region. Our friend Jared was also able to meet us down there, so we all went out hiking in the canyons together. Although I had originally planned to spend all four days in the area, our cat Tellico (Rico) is having some health issues and we didn’t want to leave her home for that long, so we decided to cut the trip short by a day and come home on Saturday afternoon instead. The weather was great for hiking and we had a nice time exploring new parts of canyons we had been in before, plus we were able to revisit some other favorite places. Here are a couple photos from the weekend!
A nice granary with a sunstar.
Dancing Ducks Panel
The Portal
Overhang Sunstar
This was probably my favorite find of the weekend since I’ve been looking for this petroglyph for over a decade! To me, it looks like he’s holding a frothy mug of beer up, but some others seem to see a piece of toast.
Red Rocks Ruin
The entrance to a popular ruin we revisited.
Interior wall design.
A well-known pictograph at the popular ruin.
Round Room
Big Atlatl Panel
Diane and Jared following me along a ledge.
Cedar Mesa Hoodoo View
Beautiful reflected light on this room at the end.
Exploring canyons of Cedar Mesa.
White Rooms
Head Like A Hole
Bins
Cheers!
Kiva Remains
Disappearing Pictograph
We spotted these ruins from the rim of the canyon and climbed down to the alcove for a closer look.
It appears that this doorway was sealed up at some point.
Here are some interesting white pictographs we found.
The final ruin we visited on Thanksgiving as the light in the canyon was fading.
Exploring a sharp bend in the canyon.
Hat Rock
Here’s an unusual structure that was built inside an arch in the sandstone.
These white pictographs were located high above. We tried to climb up for a closer look, but didn’t find an easy way nearby.
Lovely light on this granary.
We revisited one of my favorite petroglyph panels in the area.
Three rooms next to a kiva that we visited at the end of the day.
Large potsherds that Diane spotted under a boulder.
Early morning light at the Bighorn Ruins.
Table of the Sun
Since we were driving right past it, I stopped to visit the Arch of the Sun for a second time in two weeks.
Randy…thank you for sharing…I so enjoy all of your posts! I hope you, and all you love, have a Blessed holiday season! Tom McCoppin, McQueeney, Texas
Thank you Tom!
I have been to all but one of these sites, but it has been many years since and most of my images from that time are on film negatives or slides. Thanks for sharing your visits.
Wow! I’m in awe of the detail of the petroglyph panels in the area. Such a pleasure to see the ruins and the beautiful scenery. I’ve been in the area before but definitely need to go back. Thanks for sharing.
Nice images of a few familiar places, that take me back to our October trip to the mesa. Always something new to explore there!