E Paso Botanical Garden

 Everything was in bloom!!

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Exploring the Colorado Plateau

 These last few days we've been exploring the Colorado Plateau while on a load from Denver to Phoenix with lots of time on it. Activate "Paid Vacation Maximum" Mode. 

Interstate 70 mm 121 in Colorado:

Beautiful 4 mile out and back hike this morning. The GRIZZLY CREEK FIRE began on August 10th, 2020 and burned for five months. The fire affected about 33,000 acres of public and private lands in Glenwood Canyon and the surrounding mesas. The trail goes on quite a bit farther, but I have two little dogs with little legs that get a little tired.

The air is heavy with the honey musk scent of the poplars budding out with freah spring resin. I think the massive boulder is that which inspires legends of beings transformed into stone for some ancient transgression.

I met a man in Boston the other day who said he had a shih tzu once that got lost in the woods of Pennsylvania. His dog was found three weeks later by a hunter, living his best life in a deer carcass. Perfectly fine. My two little mountaineers are exemplars of their breed: athletic, courageous, cheerful, sturdy little dogs. This rather strenuous four mile hike, including some swimming, didn't phase them a bit. Although, being professional nappers, they did some good work when we got back to the truck

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Interstate 70 to US 191 S. to Moab Utah. 

Petroglyphs on the cliffs above the Colorado River river: Utah State Route  279. 

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The petroglyphs at Jug Handle Arch

I rented a Ford Bronco in Moab & drove the back country trails through hoodoo land to get to.....

The cliff Thelma & Louise drove off at the end of the movie.

We hiked out to Corona Arch, a dog friendly State Park in Moab

Then we headed south on.191 to 160 to 89, into Arizona, following the fluffy pink bottomed clouds to spend a few hours at the Wupatki National Monument just north of Flagstaff.   I had to ride my bicycle into the park and it is 35,422 acres, too large to explore on a bike. So I was only able to see a few of the 29 structures that still stand in the plains at 6000 foot elevation, an international dark sky park. I look forward to being able to come back again. This place has been on my list for a long time. 

The Wupatki National Monument is an ancient hertiage site in the shadow of the Sunset Crater Volcano and the San Fransisco Peaks.

The remains are of the towns built by the indigenous Pueblo People, the Cohonina, Kayenta, and Sinagua, and Hopi, more than a thousand years ago, around 1100 CE.

Citadel Pueblo stood more than two stories high and had more than thirty rooms. The outer walls conformed to the curve of the hilltop.

These adorable little houses built on the rim of a box canyon melted my heart. Volcanic activity to the south produced giant fissures or earthcracks throughout the Wupatki area in the Kaibab Limestone. This formation covers most of the western half of Wupatki National Monument. The Sinagua and Anasazi Indians who inhabited these ancient pueblos probably found the earthcracks to be the most productive farming sites. The residents would build check dams in the canyon below, as kitchen gardens. What rain would come could be captured, as well as the fertile silt. Corn, squash, juniper, amaranth, yucca, rice were grown. They hunted antelope, rabbits, pack rats, reptiles, and squirrels. When there was no rain they had to walk ten miles to the Little Colorado River. Such a beautiful little existence among neighbors.