May 30, 2019 Bear Ears National Monument, Utah

Sunny, 70's. We went into Bear Ears National Monument.  When the monument was first made it was bigger, it just got cut down by the current administration. We saw some of the actual monument and some that used to be in it. It is lovely.

We did a nice mile round trip to see these ruins in Butler Wash. Senecio, yucca and yellow flowers, a big sundog around the sun and a mariposa lily. 

A nice view of the snow on the Abajo mountains. This is Mule Canyon Kiva and some of the ruins. Behind John is the bottom of what was a two story tower.  

We stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument. Indian paintbrush and cliff rose with yellow flowers. Sipapu natural bridge. 

Prickly poppies, the welcome to Bluff Utah sign. It says it was established in 650 AD. Do not stand at viewpoints during electrical storms. Duh! Horse Collar ruins are in the lower alove, down by the river. 

John walking on the trail from Horse Collar Ruins. This is one of the deep twisty canyons in Natural Bridges National Monument. 

These other two bridges are harder to see. The light was not good for photos. The top one is Kachina bridge and the bottom on is Owachomo Bridge. Wildflowers on Muley point.  

Moki Dugway road, it goes down 1,000 feet in 3 miles of tight switchbacks. We also drove through Valley of the Gods. It is called a mini Monument Valley. The wildflowers were amazing.  

More amazing wildflowers in Valley of the Gods. This pinacle is called Balanced Rock/ Lady in a bathtub. 

Delphiniums in front of Balanced Rock. Amazing wildflowers.  

Cactus blooms, some kind of a weird seed head or flower, yellow evening primrose and phacelia. A view of rock towers in Valley of the Gods. 

Castle Butte with prince's plume in front. Monument Valley in the distance behind blue delphiniums.  

Some petroglyphs from the Sand Island Petroglyph panel. Sunset tonight. The little lights at the bottom are in front of Comb ridge cafe where we walked over and had a yummy dinner tonight. 

May 27-29, 2019 Tuba City, Arizona to Bluff Utah

Rainy, mid 50's, cloudy and very windy. Brrrr.

We drove west to see the dinosaur tracks. Beside them were a row of Indian curio venders. And lots of Indians trying to guide you through the tracks, for a price I am sure. We toured on our own. It was freezing cold and most of the tracks were full of mud and water. Pretty cool anyway. We jumped in the car just before a big rainstorm hit, big wind, hard rain, hail and thunder. Some of the tracks and our feet for size. 

Hail from the storm. I visited the Navajo museum this afternoon. It was really interesting. About their culture, the 4 worlds they came from, the sacred mountains, history, their government, health care, the weavings and basket making.  

An explanation of the wedding basket and the Great Seal of the Navajo Nation with the 4 sacred mountains, 50 arrowheads around it, corn and sacred corn pollen, a cow, sheep and horse. 

Today we went to Second Mesa on the Hopi reservation and took a tour of the mesa. They do not allow photos, so I have none. There are stone pueblos built on the top of the  three mesas. The old historic ones are on First Mesa, but the whole mesa was closed today because of a ceremony going on. We hired a Hopi guide. He said there really are not many of the historic pueblos left, they have all been modernized. Two of the villages had parts of the old stone pueblos, but they have been modernized with modern windows, doors and cinder blocks. One of the villages there was no plumbing, so there were outhouses. They had water from a well and they had electricity. One of the others had very little electricity but seemed to have plumbing. The largest village was all single family homes, mostly built out of cinder block with water and power. Our guide was very interesting, we learned a bit about the villages and the history.

This is a photo of the Trading Post in Tuba City. It was built in 1870. There was some nice Indian art in it, but also lots of T-shirts and curios. The rugs were on the second story. There was also a Code Talker museum inside that I toured.

We drove through Monument Valley to Bluff. Wildflowers in Monument Valley. 

Wildflowers in Monument Valley. 

Welcome to Utah- Life Elevated and Welcome to San Juan County-Worlds Greatest Outdoor Museum. More wildflowers in Monument Valley. 

We are now in Bluff, Utah - Gateway to Bear Ears National Monument. The bus at Coral Sands RV park, and our view. Bluff is in a red rock canyon, very pretty. 

We took a walk through downtown Bluff and toured the Bluff Fort. The fort was the first part of the Mormon settlement here. I started a new basket. It has a big seed my friend Toni found on the beach in Florida in the center.

Not many clouds, so small sunset.

May 26, 2019 Navajo National Monument, Arizona

70's, sunny and nice breezes. We went to Navajo National Monument.

We hiked a 5 mile ranger lead tour into this canyon, Long Canyon on the Navajo Reservation. Yellow flowers, cliff fendlerbush  blooms and bush. 

View of the canyon on the way down. We walked down 1,000 feet of elevation on stairs the CCC built.  

Looking up at the canyon walls from below. Cassandra our forest service guide is a Navajo whose family has been in this area for generations. She told us about the Navajo uses for many of the plants and lots of history of the area. She is showing us a metate here.  

In the bottom of the canyon near the cliff dwelling it was very lush. These are oak trees with a flower under growth. Sheep petroglyphs, a lizard petroglyph, a metate for grinding corn and a white flowering bush. 

Sweet peas were growing under the oaks. There were aspen trees there as well.  Our destination was  Betatakin cliff dwellings in this large alcove. The name means ledge house in Navajo. There were originally 140 rooms here, but erosion and rockfall has taken out many of them and there are only about 90 left.

Fir trees in the canyon. there were many long trees used in the construction of the pueblo. A closer view of the Betatakin.

Much closer views.  We were not allowed to go up into the cliff dwellings.  

Banana yucca in bloom, yellow sunflowers and spiderworts. The top two are pictographs at the dwelling. They were put there by the anasazi, but they are current day clan symbols of the Hopi clans. Cliff rose. It is sooooo fragrant.  

Firecracker penstemon, evening primrose and asters. John climbing back up the 1,000 feet in elevation on the way back. It was brutal.