One week in Blanding Utah…
The 160 mile drive from Ridway CO to Blanding UT wound through some desolate country. Other than a couple of tiny communities and an occasional ranch, the area is basically uninhabited. Colorado state highway 141 was a bit rough, with no shoulders, and a few winding steep sections. Thankfully, on the toughest 60 mile stretch, we only saw a handful of other vehicles. Even more of a shock to us, was the dramatic change of scenery. In just a few short hours we traded ponderosas and aspens for sage brush and tumbleweeds, traded bears and moose for snakes, spiders, and scorpions, and traded winter for spring…amazing!
At the top of Slickrock Hill on CO Hwy 141 Entering Utah the first time!
We chose Blanding because it’s a decent base camp for some excellent hiking. There’s not much to the town, but it has enough to get by. Most of the hikes are a bit of a drive, 50-100 miles round trip, but unless you are willing to boondock in the middle of nowhere, Blanding is the best option.
The campground was decent. It’s fairly new and it’s obvious the owners are working to improve it. We had full hook-ups, ok wi-fi, and laundry facilities. Though the campground was right off the highway, it was peaceful. The campsites are terraced down which helps reduce road noise, besides, there wasn’t much traffic at night. We were in the furthest row, usually by ourselves. It was nice walking our four-legged friend along the dirt roads in the fields behind the campground. But now that we are in the desert, we had to watch for cacti and my friend got a few goat-head thorns in his paws.
After our first night in a new state, we earned a sticker! It’s funny that we’ve been on the road nearly two years and have only visited nine states. We go slow and explore thoroughly!
- Goal to hike 200 miles in April
The next month and a half is going to be all about hiking! We will be in the some of the country’s best hiking spots: Natural Bridges, “Needles” and “Island in the Sky” of Canyonlands, Moab, Arches, and finally Goblin Valley. So it’s the perfect time for us to hit a new hiking milestone: 200 miles in 30 days! Though that’s an average of 6.7 miles per day, we will need a rest day each week so we’ll actually have to do about 8 miles most days. A great side benefit of shooting for this goal: we should each loose about 10 pounds. As of April 4th, we had hiked 50 miles…way way ahead of pace! Of course, aches and pains have made it obvious that we need a little break. That’s alright…“move day” is tomorrow so we’ll get a break then.
The Four Corners region has thousands of ancient Indian ruins. The most known area is Mesa Verde National Park, but many of the region’s dramatic canyons have interesting dwellings tucked into sandstone crevices.
Hovenweep National Monument has a nice 2 mile hiking loop that allowed us to get close to multiple ruins and see many others. Some structures were towers built along the rim and others were in the canyon walls. It blows my mind that most of these communities were built 1200ad-1300ad and by the mid 1300’s, were vacant. Imagine three generations of people building and living in decent structures, and then poof…gone! The prevalent theory is that prolonged drought forced them to disperse, but I subscribe to the alien abduction theory! Anyways, we really enjoyed Hovenweep and it was quite educational.
Still a ways to go Mare and a foal with Shiprock 60 miles distant
Can you see the three ruins? Remains of Hovenweep Castle built in the mid 1200s
- Natural Bridges National Monument
What’s the difference between an “arch” and a “bridge”? Arches are carved mainly by frost action and seeping moisture. Bridges are formed solely by moving water. Arches are much more common than bridges.
The nearly 9 mile loop hike was incredible! First we descended about 500 feet into the dramatic canyon right to the base of Sipapu Bridge, one of the largest natural bridges in the world. The climb down was fun and entailed negotiating 2 or 3 stick ladders. We stood under the amazing bridge and checked it out from all different angles.
Then we negotiated the canyon floor to the bulkiest bridge: Kachina. On the way, we appreciated some spring flowers and a few ruins well above us, embedded in the nearly vertical canyon walls. We took a long break under Kachina bridge. We were alone, but could see and occasionally hear folks hundreds of feet above us at the overlook. If any of those folks had good cameras, I’m sure they can see us in their pictures having a little picnic on a comfortable rock right under the huge bridge!
The next section wasn’t quite as impressive and seemed to drag a little as we got tired. Just when I remarked that we might have missed the final bridge or it collapsed, we rounded a rock face, and there it was! Merely 9 feet thick, Owachomo bridge appears to be on barrowed time. However, it was our favorite! It was bathed in warm afternoon light and brilliant blue skies with a few puffs of clouds. We have some great pictures…the one below of Arleen standing on the rock with her arms out is one of our all-time favorites.
The final section of the hike traversed along the top from one side of the monument to the other. It was pretty and like a roller coaster, but the highlights were behind us and we were tired. We were happy to finally spot the truck!
Natural Bridges National Monument should be on everyone’s “must see” list. And do yourself a favor and get down into the canyon, to admire a bridge from below. Owachomo is the easiest one to get to and is worth the effort!
Descending to Sipapu Bridge / Blooming Manzanita bush / An ancient ruin
Sipapu Bridge: height 220ft span 268ft width 31ft thickness 53ft
Kachina Bridge: height 210ft span 204ft width 44ft thickness 93ft
Owachomo Bridge: height 106ft span 180ft width 27ft thickness 9ft
- Hikes and Geocaches
-- Blue Mountains…Our first Blanding area geocache adventure lead us up to the Blue Mountains. Abajo Peak at 11,360 feet is pretty impressive and easily seen from many miles. We found six geocaches on the leisurely and scenic drive.
A geocache at Reservoir #4 above Blanding UT
Finding geocaches on our way into the Blue Mountains…note the vegetation in each picture
-- Comb Ridge
WOW WOW WOW! Comb Ridge was not mentioned in our hiking books. Geocaching led us to it.
You can’t miss Comb Ridge as you drive Hwy 95 southwest of Blanding. Heck, you can see Comb Ridge from outer space! It extends nearly 90 miles north to south. The east side is sloping white sandstone and the west side is nearly vertical red sandstone. Viewing it from either side is impressive, but viewing it along the top is incredible!
When I first saw it, I thought it would be cool to hike. Then when I learned that there were a couple of geocaches and that others had hiked along the spine from one cache to the other, I knew we had to do it. The catch…there was no trail. We’d have to navigate the challenging route ourselves!
We parked at a pullout and scrambled nearly directly to the top. It was more difficult than we expected. The sandstone had all kinds of nooks and crannies with varying degrees of slope. We finally made it to the top, only about 500 feet higher than our truck. Between the tough workout and vertigo from standing atop the high and narrow ridge, our legs were wobbly. We signed the cache log, traded some goodies, and headed to the next cache a mile away. It took us one hour to go that one mile…it was tough! At times, it was also dizzying as we looked way down below us. Most of all, it was fun! Our next goal was Butler ruins, hundreds of feet below us by the highway. We descended a fairly tame route and admired the ancient structures. To finish, we walked two miles up Hwy 95 back to the truck. Even that wasn’t bad, as only a few cars passed us and graciously gave us plenty of space.
This ranks as one of our favorite hikes! It was tough, required significant route finding, was a bit dangerous, was geologically mind-blowing, and had an incredible 360 degree view. We felt like we discovered it and that we earned it…very gratifying! Only a couple of people make it to the those geocaches each year. We are honored to be among them.
Scroll down for some amazing pictures of an amazing day…
Working our way up Comb Ridge…fresh snow on the Blue Mountains to the north
View west near the second geocache
Hiking along the spine of Comb Ridge…looking north
The third geocache…looking south
Butler Ruins
We hiked up the backside to “1” then along the spine to “2” then down the backside to Butler Ruins…amazing!
-- Mule Canyon
Like stated in the Hovenweep section above, the Four Corners region has thousands of ancient Indian ruins. Many of them are protected in parks and monuments and only viewed from a distance behind barriers or ropes. With a little research, you can find ruins free of barriers allowing a more intimate experience.
Mule Canyon has ancient structures spread along much of its upper reach. The first one is over a mile in, and is the easiest to explore. Most were difficult to see from the canyon floor and way above us requiring short, but tricky scrambles up and down slickrock. We got very close to 3 or 4 ruins. It was easy to imagine building and living in those structures with those people. No doubt, our experience and appreciation was enhanced by the unfettered access.
Getting up close to the ruins
WHERE WE GOT OUR MAIL
Blanding UT
Next we spend 10 days at the Needles Outpost at the entrance of “The Needles” section of Canyonlands National Park. Arleen’s sister, Mary, will even join us for a few days!
Parting shots…
The floating head
(25,200)
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