Out and About in Bluff and Moab

Before we left Bluff we took one more tour.

This was at Hovenweep National Monument. Matey could come on this trail that led around a small canyon with some unusual native ruins.

These were very well made structures, but not linked as in the other pueblo ruins we had seen.

There were a number of buildings around the edge of the canyon,

and two towers down in the canyon. No one knows just what these buildings were for, but we do know they were built by natives, probably the same ancestors of the modern Pueblos that built the villages at Mesa Verde.

At Moab we visited a couple of petroglyphs sites.

Not only did we see some unusual and well preserved petroglyphs, the ride and terrain around them was spectacular.

Do you see the Jeep on the OHV road (Off Highway Vehicle, as they call them here)? That’s right across the side canyon of the Colorado where we were.

We took another day to visit Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park.

Dead Horse Point State Park was beautiful, but small. At least Matey got to walk on some trails there. The road you see below was not part of the park, the park ended at the point.

Unless you have an OHV or are doing some serious backcountry hiking and camping…

The Island in the Sky part of Canyonlands is a series of overlooks;

admittedly…

very

forbidding…

but beautiful overlooks.

We all agreed we preferred Aches.

To get a break from unending rocks we drove the La Sal Mountain Loop Road. As we got higher into the mountains we came to trees.

And more trees,

these little blue butterflies,

and these really big trees.

We even saw some snow still up on the mountains. It was a nice break and a foretaste of things to come.