Utah - Sego and Arches
Hot day today, with lots of adventures and beauty beyond words!
9:00AM, after wandering and getting lost a couple of times, we end up in the Sego Canyon. The bottom of the canyon is cool, and we drive next to a dried river bed. We are looking for something, signs of a life long gone. First stop on the left: Native American petroglyphs and pictographs. There are three different panels, incised or painted on rock at three different times by three different Native people: the ancient Pueblans, the Fremont, and the Ute. Each panel has its own style and the figures, some of them life size, seem to tower over us from the panels and from the mists of time. For me this is another "wow" moment, a rare encounter with cultures (two of them, at least) that have left almost nothing behind, except for this type of art. Unfortunately, two of the panels have also been inscribed by modern "artists" in search of a canvas.
For Mikey this is adventure time as he gets to climb and explore at ease. We thought we would spend 15 minutes here, but we end up wandering and exploring for over an hour. Mikey turns into a climbing instructor, and we go up and down along the ravine at the bottom of the wall for a while, and surprisingly, I win two badges from him, for balance and for climbing into tight spaces! I still got it!
After this we wander (drive) deeper into the canyon to see the ghost mining town of Sego. We are really not impressed by it, just some fallen wooden houses and a covered up entrance to the mine.
The canyon is pretty though, it looks rough, with lots of rocks and boulders fallen apart, like in the aftermath of an earthquake. We stop for a minute at the old town cemetery, and, oddly enough, I find this to be a good resting place, in the middle of nowhere, under the rocky walls of the canyon.
1:00PM, after a 45 minutes ride and a stop for lunch, we make it to Arches National Park. And now, I am at a loss for words. We take the scenic drive which meanders through canyons, plains and rock formations with odd names, and most of them without names. I absolutely can not describe this place, or the awe that I felt in just being here. It's a natural monument of great beauty, the result of millions of years of nature at work, salt, rock, sandstone, wind and water working together to create these rocky outcrops, arches, towers, and abstract sculptures.
We spend almost 5 hours at Arches, every second filled with the excitement of new discoveries, and that of being out of our comfort zone, hiking in this arid, gorgeous, majestic, out of this world landscape, seeing new things, doing something that bonds us and brings us closer. It's not just the Arches National Park and the trip in itself, it's the little things we do. At the Balancing Rock, Mikey makes his own rock balancing monument.
At the viewpoint for the Delicate Arch, he gets a second wind and goes explore on his own, calling for me to show me what he found.
At the Sky Arch he stops all hikers to ask them to take pictures of us.
I am filled with love for this little boy and I hope he will remember this trip for a long long time.
All in all a great day, but very tiring. We spent a lot of time outside, my nose is peeling as a result of a day at Atlantic Beach a week ago, and despite the layers of sunscreen I slap on it is still sensitive to the heat. Mikey is hot and sweaty, hungry and tired, but happy. We start our 45 minutes drive back to the hotel, and a beautiful summer storm washes off the tiredness from us and wraps up the day. A majestic day today!
July 20, 2017
9:00AM, after wandering and getting lost a couple of times, we end up in the Sego Canyon. The bottom of the canyon is cool, and we drive next to a dried river bed. We are looking for something, signs of a life long gone. First stop on the left: Native American petroglyphs and pictographs. There are three different panels, incised or painted on rock at three different times by three different Native people: the ancient Pueblans, the Fremont, and the Ute. Each panel has its own style and the figures, some of them life size, seem to tower over us from the panels and from the mists of time. For me this is another "wow" moment, a rare encounter with cultures (two of them, at least) that have left almost nothing behind, except for this type of art. Unfortunately, two of the panels have also been inscribed by modern "artists" in search of a canvas.
Ute panel
Fremont panel
Pueblan panel
After this we wander (drive) deeper into the canyon to see the ghost mining town of Sego. We are really not impressed by it, just some fallen wooden houses and a covered up entrance to the mine.
The canyon is pretty though, it looks rough, with lots of rocks and boulders fallen apart, like in the aftermath of an earthquake. We stop for a minute at the old town cemetery, and, oddly enough, I find this to be a good resting place, in the middle of nowhere, under the rocky walls of the canyon.
1:00PM, after a 45 minutes ride and a stop for lunch, we make it to Arches National Park. And now, I am at a loss for words. We take the scenic drive which meanders through canyons, plains and rock formations with odd names, and most of them without names. I absolutely can not describe this place, or the awe that I felt in just being here. It's a natural monument of great beauty, the result of millions of years of nature at work, salt, rock, sandstone, wind and water working together to create these rocky outcrops, arches, towers, and abstract sculptures.
The Gossips
The Balanced Rock
Delicate Arch
Phallic Rocks
(named by me)
The Sky Arch
All in all we do four short hikes, totaling about 1.5 miles, and I have to give up the big plan of hiking the 3 miles to the Delicate Arch because, well, it's 3:30PM and the temperature is over 100F and I just don't think it would be wise. Other than that, we do all the hikes and stops I wanted to. Once again, I am impressed by Mikey's ability and willingness to hike with me without complaining (too much), and I give him credit because he handles it with good humor and grace. He even talks to the other hikers and informs them that they're almost at the top of the hike, and encourages a couple of kids his age who appear to be grumpy and struggling!
We spend almost 5 hours at Arches, every second filled with the excitement of new discoveries, and that of being out of our comfort zone, hiking in this arid, gorgeous, majestic, out of this world landscape, seeing new things, doing something that bonds us and brings us closer. It's not just the Arches National Park and the trip in itself, it's the little things we do. At the Balancing Rock, Mikey makes his own rock balancing monument.
All in all a great day, but very tiring. We spent a lot of time outside, my nose is peeling as a result of a day at Atlantic Beach a week ago, and despite the layers of sunscreen I slap on it is still sensitive to the heat. Mikey is hot and sweaty, hungry and tired, but happy. We start our 45 minutes drive back to the hotel, and a beautiful summer storm washes off the tiredness from us and wraps up the day. A majestic day today!
July 20, 2017
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