Spring Break Part V: House of the Moon.

I had long wanted to see House of the Moon.  The Park Service limits visitors to 20 per day.  Permits available at Kane Gulch Ranger Station about an hour from Bluff.  They opened at 8:00.  The first 12 can be reserved by phone, internet, et and the last eight are saved for walk-ups.  

I was up early and on the road.  I got the last walk-up permit at 8:05.

Moon House in McClure Canyon.  I drove my 4-Runner all the way to the 4WD parking, cutting a mile-plus off my walk.  That, and the reputation of the trail down keep many folks away, but it really was an easy hike.

Moon House famous for the interior painting.

 I was the first person on the site that morning and had two hours before anyone showed up.  I don't think the whole 20 permits were exercised, though there were lost people wandering all over the mesa.

Portholes in the exterior wall.  They look at every approach to the site.

  More painting outside the ruin.  A volunteer site monitor showed up.  He said the zig-zag was a sign of the Eagle Klan and seen at other sites.  Usually snake motifs are a calendar with 13 bends corresponding to the 13 full moons in a year.

Watchtower at the corner of the ruin.

 Trail comes down a rockslide on the left and up the rockslide to the right.  The notorious pour-off feature on the trail in has a reputation as a tricky spot, but it wasn't anything.

Many other small ruins up and down the canyon.

Turkey tracks painted on the roof of a ruin.

Back wall in a four-room ruin down canyon. 

Trail crosses this pour-off.

  Glad to be able to visit.  Carried a Fuji 6X9 camera with 65mm wide-angle built in.  I shot off a tripod and used a level.  I was put off carrying 5X7 because of the reputation of the hike in and the trail down and across.  I started to go back and get my 5X7, but I was more interested in the visit that making an image.  I think the 6X9 was enough.

Spring Break, Part IV

Recapture Lodge was full of interesting folks, mostly there to hike, see new petroglyphs, visit indian site and tour the area.  I had a very interesting breakfast every morning in the map room.  If I hadn't had my own agenda I would have begged my way into one of the groups going out.

I ate dinner at the Comb Ridge Bistro.  The menu was a little too vegan-ey for me, but I thought I would try the meatloaf.  Every once in a while you have an experience that makes you suspicious that you have died and gone to heaven without noticing.  The meatloaf was that experience.  It was transformational.  As I ate, I kept thinking, nothing can be THIS good.  But it was.  I tipped the cook 20 bucks.  If you are in Bluff, Utah and find yourself at the Comb Ridge Bistro and expresso bar, try the meatloaf.

After dinner I walked out behind the lodge to the river to visit the Ellen Meloy memorial there.  Her books are a treasure.  Jim who owned the lodge was a good friend of Ellen and her husband.

  Memorial sculpture based on one of her drawings of a petroglyph of a Stone Sheep in "Eating Stone."  I offered up the appropriate prayer.

Spring Break, Part III

That evening I scouted out the trailhead for Progression Panel.  I hadn't seen it since last century.

When I stepped off into the wash it was 36 degrees, but comfortable.

Gorgeous as ever.

I had about two hours there alone.  Early in the morning.  

I wanted a negative of a piece of the panel, I think.

 It was an important place.

After coming off Progression I went up the road a mile and walked in to Monarch Cave Ruin.

Shot a couple of negatives and once again had the place to myself most of the time.

Spring Break Part II

  The next morning I had a ride to River House on Comb Ridge with Steve Mulligan, and old friend of mine from Sam Houston State University.  He was taking a jeep down.  My 4-runner wouldn't have made it.

River House is a terrific ruin.  Very glad to get an opportunity to see it.

Snake calendar.

Steve Mulligan has a terrific portfolio of work called "Prehistoric Suns."  He was at River House to look at an equinox marker.

This is a doorway I had wanted to see for a long time.

Big Raven track.  Dragging that middle toe.  We also saw some Mountain Lion tracks.

Spring Break in the West, 2017

A pause from the routine during Spring Break.  I planned a trip into the Four Corners area that had several components.  First, the long slant across Texas and into New Mexico, first night at Santa Rosa, 625 miles out.

The Santa Rosa Grill in front of the La Quinta.

 Cholla in the desert

I"ve loved these signs for years, but you have to take time and be willing to work off the interstate.

   Stopped in Albuquerque to see a terrific photo show at the UNM Museum of Art.  Then on to Malpais National Monument and El Morrow National Monument to investigate artist-in-residence opportunities.  Finally, that night, I was at Shiprock.

   The next morning, with a Navajo guide I wanted to try and get up to a higher vantage point to photograph the evening shadow.

 We went right up the rock, past some favorite places.

My guide got leg cramps and we had to turn back just as things were getting interesting.

The only shot of me coming off the rock by my guide.  Now I'm kicking myself for not being more aggressive, leaving him in the shade and going up another couple of pitches.  A lot of time, effort and money to get this far, and still came up short.  I think I could free-climb most of it now, trail a rope and rappel off.  Should have explored more, but was worried about rescuing guide at this point.

That afternoon I chased dots in the desert.  Shot off the top of my 4-runner.  Film shots are closer than this....it was moving quickly.

 Then shot a nearly perfect moonrise.

The next morning I got up and worked around the rock.

Checked with old friends.

Lightning man.

  That afternoon I broke it off and headed up into Utah, settling at the Recapture Lodge in Bluff.