FIRST BLOG OF OUR 2012 SUMMER TRIP – KAYENTA MUSEUM AND EDGE OF THE CEDARS MUSEUM IN BLANDING UT

Our first stop on May 2 was an RV park in Kayenta on the Navajo Reservation, a comfortable 250 mile drive from Mesa. Next to it were two museums and a “Trading Post” selling native crafts and souvenirs of the “Rez”. The next day we continued to Blanding UT where we stayed 3 days seeing some local sights we had missed in previous visits, including another museum.

Jo is modeling a shoulder purse with a Navajo rug design – made of Pendleton wool.

A small museum at the back of the trading post featured the Navajo Code Talkers used extensively by Army and Marine units fighting in the Pacific. Although as civilians the Navajos then were treated as second class citizens, the first group of code talkers devised the code using Navajo words to express military nouns and verbs. A person fluent in Navajo could not understand the spoken code, and neither could the Japanese! The item on shorter legs in the display  is a hand driven generator to power the radios. On the easel is the names of the 400 code talkers who served, beginning with a group of 29. An hour video was vey instructive. The museum is well worth the time to visit it.

A more modern museum on the Navajos is behind the trading post. We saved that one for next time!

NEXT SHOWN IS THE EDGE OF THE CEDARS MUSEUM IN BLANDING

 

Probably the most visually impressive pot in the museum is this effigy pot recovered intact in the vicinity, dated to around 1100 if my memory is right!

The oldest artifacts on display are these digging sticks dated to around 230 AD. The information on the easel says that they were found with 10 or 12 other sticks in a cave. 

 

A modern sculpture of Kokopelli is encountered by those exiting the museum on the way to the Pueblo at the back of the museum. Inside a display makes the point that the Hopi Flute Clan has a “Flute Man” shown in kachinas and petroglyphs. That is a diety and much different than Kokopelli.

 

The museum opened in 1978, and 10 years later the Great Room area of the pueblo structures behind the museum was excavated and stabilized. More structures nearby remain to be dug by the archeologists.

 

Looking north with the Abajo  mountains on the horizon.

 

A display inside the museum showed the  main ways that masonry walls were built by the natives and pointed out that the method shown here is superior to others. The  small rocks  placed in the mortar make the wall stronger.

 

 

Visitors were invited to climb down into the reconstructed Kiva. It was about 13 feet in diameter.

While in Blanding we took a day trip to Goosenecks of the San Juan State Park, the Moki Dugway road and Natural Bridges National Monument. Since I forgot to pack a camera, no blog pictures1

MOAB 4 WHEELING PART 3 – FLAT IRON MESA, 4 DIFFICULTY RATING.

On Saturday I rode with Doug Bogart whose wife no longer cares to travel on 4 rated roads. I had ridden with Doug two years ago when we went on three trails of similar difficulty.  Two days before this run while he was on a another difficult run in Canyonlands, he welded  a broken part on another Jeep which got it through the rest of the run. On our run he figured out how to straighten a bent suspension part so the Jeep could be driven back to town. He’s a handy guy to have on a run like this.

Although two parts of this run travel on a county road, the other two parts of it are very rocky with many extra challenges. I would not have wanted to drive our Jeep on just the first half mile of it!

Our trail leader, Tony, in the white muscle shirt, did a great job in leading the 16 Jeeps in the group. Two were fully equipped Grand Cherokees, a few were 4 door Wranglers, and the rest were 2 door Wranglers.

 

  

Ladies made the first stop more interesting by offering everyone peanuts!

 

 

This obstacle is nothing out of the ordinary for this trail.

 

Success!

 

   

The Chute was an early challenge. Yes, the dark marks on the rock at the right mark the trail.

The second of two grand Cherokees was driven by a young man with his wife in the front seat and infant in a car seat in the back seat! Nothing like starting them early!

 

 

 

 

This obstacle is part of Tilt-A-Wheel. Our group went down this rocky place, requiring a right turn at the bottom. The road then made a loop and drivers came back up this.

  

The angle between the front axel and the front bumper is called articulation. It helps a lot in places like this. Behind the Jeep is a bypass to avoid coming up this one. Bypasses of obstacles occasionally are found on difficult trails.

 

Our trail leader can be seen in his white shirt in the upper right available as a spotter in the tough place on the lower part of the road. Here a 4 door Wrangler approaches the first part of the upper obstacle. After climbing the first ledge, he must turn left to make it up the second part.

 

  

Success!

We had our lunch stop at Tilt-A-Whirl while the drivers slowly were overcoming the challenges.

 

 

Here is the committee at work analyzing how to fix the bent suspension member.

 

 

My host’s 1999 Jeep Sport is equipped with about every conceivable accessory – lockers, winch, large tires bolted to the wheels, and others in the suspension and running gear whose names I do not know. The engine is a stock 4.0 liter 6 and the automatic transmission is original.

We enjoyed many great views such as this of upper Hatch Canyon. I took lots of pictures of the scenery and reluctantly omitted them from this blog which really is about challenging 4 wheeling. Seeing great scenery is a welcome byproduct of 4 wheeling for me.

 

Here are the his and hers Jeeps of our trail leader ands his wife after making it through Easter Egg.

 

This tough spot is named Easter Egg. Driving over rocks on the upper side tilt the Jeeps toward the rock on the left ready to damage the passenger door.  Our trial leader is acting as a spotter to help avoid a bad result.

  

Narrower 2 door Wranglers have less trouble with this spot.

 

This is the last named obstacle on our run, the Intimidator. In avoiding the tall rock at the right in the picture, the driver is forced to drive close to the edge next to a dropoff.

On our run, the only damage to a vehicle was the bent suspension part at Tilt-A-Whirl. No one had to use their winches.

MOAB 4 WHEELING PART 2

OUR THIRD DAY’S RUN WAS TO DELLENBAUGH TUNNEL, CLIFF HANGER ARCH AND SECRET SPIRE

 

Here is a good example of some of the “slickrock” our trails took us over. It is sandstone so we have good traction when dry, but it does have some irregularities.

Dellenbaugh Tunnel is an arch lower than most of the surrounding ground. Here two members of our group climbed down to the bottom of the wash on the upstream side of the tunnel

 

And here they are on the downstream side, with other members of the group.

 

The group leader often chooses a scenic spot for lunch. Here it was overlooking the Green River.

 

Green River literally is almost green!

 

A side road took us down to the Cliff Hanger Arch. The Green River is in the background.

Secret Spire was our final landmark of the day.

 

 

Here is most of our group at Secret Spire. It really is not so secret as signs on the road directed us to it.

 

Time to air up at the end of the run. It takes me about 10 minutes with the new air compressor.

 

OUR FOURTH AND LAST RUN IN THE JEEP WAS TO GEMINI BRIDGES AND LONG CANYON

 

We first drove to a trailhead from which we walked up a canyon to see to the bottom of the bridges. Here are the twin bridges, quite close together. Can you make out the small patch of blue sky under the first bridge?

 

Next we drove a few miles to stop near the top of the Gemini Bridges. A 100 yard walk brought us to views of the tops of the bridges.

Jo on the upstream bridge.

 

Here are the tops of the two bridges. It seems it once was one bridge until a crack, now 10 feet wide, separated the two.

We filled the parking lot for Gemini Bridges, where we had lunch.

 

The Long Canyon road was a “dugway” – a man made road down a steep canyon. Here our Jeep goes under a leaning rock! It was very nice to drive, with no serious obstacles. One does need to descend it in low range, however! The road starts at the road into Dead Horse State Park and ends on the Colorado River.

4 WHEELING IN MOAB - PART 1

On May 6 we joined the FMCA 4 Wheelers for a week-long rally in the wheeling mecca of Moab Utah. Over 100 families were registered, and there was plenty of demand for the 25 trails taken on the 5 days for running trails.  The format for week-long rallies is to register on Sunday, do trails Mon, Tues and Wed, have a day off and run again Fri and Sat. Trail difficulty varied from 2 and 2 1/2, which we can do, up to 5, very difficult. Jo accompanied me on 3 runs in our Grand Cherokee, I drove one by myself, and I got a ride on a 4 rated trail on Saturday.

The agenda for a day’s trail running is to have a meeting conducted by the trail leader at the appointed meeting place, calling for a volunteer to be the tail gunner, with self introductions either there or on our CB radios wile driving the the beginning of the trail. At a place all members of the group can stop, most “air down” to decrease tire pressure to 10 to 20 psi. It does not hurt our heavy-duty tires and makes the ride a lot more comfortable. The sand condition of the roads by itself did not require reduced air pressure. Perhaps every hour to 90 minutes the trail leader called for a 10-100 comfort stop, with ladies on the right (aren’t they always?) and men on the left. Those in the group were welcome to pause for picture –taking and to take their time going over obstacles. The whole group stops for lunch on the trail and walks to scenic features. The run is concluded by a stop to “air up” as we approached smooth road to return to Moab for the day.

Sharon and Jerry Adcock and Karen and John Bellman were the ones in charge of all of the myriad of details to organize the large annual event. John had to miss most of the event for a medical problem of his son in Florida. Here the leaders are conducting a meeting on Sunday at the main RV park we used.

 

 

Steve Curtis was our trail leader on our first day’s run to Klondike Bluffs and Tower Arch

 

Some of the folks doing the run listen attentively to the leaders direction.

  

Our first stop was to inspect dinosaur tracks, mode more visible by pouring water into them.

 

This was typical of our road, with challenges near the top in crossing ridges.

 

We just completed going over this rocky ridge. Fortunately, the rocks in the area were quite rounded so were not likely to puncture our tires.

 

We eased our way over rocks imbedded in the road such as these.

The tower is the high place in the middle with the lighter colored top, and the arch is behind the second bush from the right.

 Tower arch is more visible in this shot due to the shadow under it.

 

Lunch at Tower Arch parking area. The lady on the right is 90 years old and was a passenger with her daughter and son-in-law on the run.

 

 

Pinnacles along one of our ridge lines.

Jerry Adcock airing up at the end of the first day’s run.

 

   OUR SECOND DAY WAS A “LADIES RUN” IN WHICH THE LADIES WHO WISHED DID SOME OR ALL OF THE DRIVING. THE FIRST OBJECTIVE WAS RAINBOW TERRACE.

Jo let me drive! I had trouble with my “dry eye”, so we left the group after lunch.

 

    

At the left side, rear,  was the most challenging obstacle on this day’s run, climbing up a ledge. A “spotter” near a bush behind the second Jeep is helping the driver place wheels correctly to get up the steep spot.  The lead Jeep then must go over the second challenge, the rock in the lower left corner. At first glance, these two spots looked impossible, but it is amazing what our Jeep can do when asked. I made both of these on the first try!

The second challenge in a short distance!