Contributions of the group Southwest, Four Corner States

Dolores River

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 15:16:12 +0000

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Where it crosses Colorado State Route 141. Looking downstream (north). (The inset shows an upstream view.) The river ultimately joins the Colorado about 10 miles upstream from Moab, Utah. The river's name is significantly shortened from the Spanish original, "El Río de Nuestra Señora de Dolores", River of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Disappointment Valley

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 00:29:53 +0000

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And Colorado State Route 141. Looking southeasterly. The story behind the unpromising name is that a surveying party in the late 1800s was expecting to find water in the creek, and it was dry due to it being late summer. The insets show some views more to the left. The location is approximate. Disappointment Valley also contains a mustang refuge.

Tusher Tunnel

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:59:30 +0000

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A crack extending vertically through one of the red sandstone units, probably the Slickrock Member of the Entrada Sandstone, capping a ridge outside Moab, Utah. Water coming down through the crack was forced laterally on encountering an underlying impermeable layer, and the lateral flow has eroded the basal part of the crack into a flared cross-section. The flared part is tall enough to stand up in (note the walking shadowed figure), and provides a tunnel underneath the sandstone ridge. The feature is about 83 ft/25 m long and is a popular trail destination--my son and I came there as part of a commercial ATV tour.

Navajo Bridge

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 14:16:17 +0000

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Over the Colorado River in northern Arizona, above Marble Canyon. Built in 1928 to replace the crossing at Lee's Ferry a few miles upstream. A new bridge was built in the 1990s to replace this one for automobile traffic, but the old bridge has been kept open for pedestrians.

Dropping into Red Canyon!

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 16:34:08 +0000

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Looking west. Red Canyon (which drops off ahead beyond the obvious break in slope into the red rock exposures) holds Utah SR 12, the main highway into Bryce Canyon National Park. (The turnoff into the park is a couple of miles behind the photo point.) UT 12 thru the canyon is paralleled by a paved bike trail, seen here, and it's a really mellow bike ride. Or at least it is if you do it in the downhill direction, with a car waiting at the lower trailhead, as we did. ;) The insets show various views along the trail. When this pic was taken the Park Service was in the process of extending the bike trail into the park, which would be a nice ride too!

Unnamed

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 05:02:33 +0000

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Unnamed rock arch in sandstone directly across the road from the Sego Rock Art site. I'm sure the Native Americans had stories about it--I find it hard to believe the proximity of the rock art is a coincidence!--but there's not so much as an interpretive sign. The arch is in Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation, according to the mapping of Willis (Provisional Geologic Map of the Sego Canyon Quadrangle, Grand County, Utah, Utah Geol. Min. Surv. Map 89, 1986). You can walk up the drainage to directly below the arch (inset).

Sego Canyon Rock Art

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 05:02:23 +0000

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Utah, in the eponymous canyon north of Thompson Springs. This is one of the most spectacular preserved Native American rock-art sites in the southwest. The pictographs (painted) and petroglyphs (chipped/carved) span thousands of years, from perhaps >4000 BCE to contact, and embrace three different styles. This panel shows the oldest, the so-called Barrier Canyon style, with pictographs of humanoid forms with tapering bodies and commonly hollow eyes. The inserts show more recent styles, Fremont (ca. 500-1300 CE) and Ute (>1300 CE; the Ute live in the area to this day.) These also include animal and geometric designs, and are also often petroglyphs. Alas, contemporary vandalism is also present. I'm going ahead and giving the location, however, because it's shown on highway maps and has a large BLM (Bureau of Land Management) interpretive site.

Vega Reservoir

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 02:03:19 +0000

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A small reservoir in the drainage of the upper Colorado River, built in the late 50s-early 60s for irrigation storage. At an elevation of ~8000 ft (~2440 m), it's higher than most such artificial lakes. It's popular locally for fishing, and is in a very pretty setting to the north of Grand Mesa, but it's hardly a Destination! I ended up there because my original destination off Grand Mesa was still completely snowed in due to the extraordinary snowfall in 2019. Vega Reservoir looked like an interesting place on the map--it is the centerpiece of a Colorado state park--so it became Plan B! Looking west; a monsoon thunderstorm is visible in the distance. Insets show some other views. The flooded bushes along the shoreline attest to the high water level.

The High Plateaus

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 23:02:12 +0000

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Of west-central Utah. The elevation at the skyline is around 11K ft/3350 m. That's why the forest, and why the snow is lingering into late June! View south off the Gooseberry-Fishlake scenic byway. I was blocked by snow a bit farther up the road (left inset), just below the pass that crosses that high ridge! This is another little-known part of Utah that isn't beset by the tourist throngs.

Eagle guardian?

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 23:04:20 +0000

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With wings furled. Or maybe it's a thunderbird... ;) Erosional rock formation on the Gemini Bridges Road from US 191, in Little Canyon, near Moab, Utah. The rock unit is the Jurassic Wingate Sandstone (from Doelling et al., Utah Geol. Survey Map M-155, 1994).

Sego, Utah

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 05:00:18 +0000

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A ghost town to the north of Interstate 70, about 5 miles east of Crescent Junction where US 191 turns south to Moab. Unusually, Sego was the site of a coal(!) mine, long before Colorado Plateau coal became of interest for firing power plants. The area was active in the early-mid 20th century but never prospered, between the marginal deposits and the lack of water. What finally killed the mine (and the town) was when the nearby railroad (Denver & Rio Grande) dieselized in the mid-1950s. The D&RG parallels what is now I-70 and had become basically the only market for the coal, transportation costs being otherwise prohibitive.
This building is by far the most impressive structure still standing and was evidently the company store. The insets show some views from inside the structure. Many buildings were moved when the mine finally shut down, and flash floods over the years have obliterated most of the rest.

Looking toward Arches National Park

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 17:04:47 +0000

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Telephoto view, looking east from the Gemini Bridges Road outside Moab, Utah. One of the arches is even visible (outline), but I'm not sure which it is. The inset shows the road in the vicinity of where this photo was taken.

Trail Ridge Road

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 18:06:30 +0000

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A.k.a. US 34, in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. The road follows this ridge at an elevation of over 10K ft, topping out at Iceberg Pass (11,827 ft/ 3605 m) before dropping down to cross the Continental Divide at Milner Pass. We're obviously above timberline here, and signs exhort people to stay off the tundra (see left inset). Obviously the weather could have been better, but at least the cloud deck was high enough to give some views. I did get into a snow squall, however, a little farther down the road, and a few days before the summer solstice (see right inset)! As it was, the road had just opened--unusually late, as it's usually open for the Memorial Day weekend. In any case, it's a spectacular route, recommended if you're in the area.

Notch Peak

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 04:06:51 +0000

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High point (9654 ft/2943 m) of the House Range, in the Basin & Range of western Utah. Looking east--I finally managed to get a pic by late afternoon light! The cliffs below the high point are supported by calc-silicates from metamorphism by a nearby granite body. I've seen it asserted that they're the highest in the Great Basin, but I haven't been able to track that claim down. They _are_ popular with the wing-suit set; I've seen videos of them jumping off!
The insets show some different views. The red rock country of eastern Utah gets all the press, but there are nice views in the western desert too!

Assembly Hall Peak

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 08 May 2018 16:01:03 +0000

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Pretty sure, anyway. Off the Buckhorn Draw Road (Emery Co. 332) a few miles south of the San Rafael River. Looking east; this is sunset lighting!

Dillon Reservoir

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 19:58:58 +0000

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Just south of Interstate 70 in the Colorado Rockies, in an old mining area that's now a hotbed of high-end developments, summer homes, ski cabins, microbreweries, etc., etc. Several major ski resorts (Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain, Keystone) are in the area. Looking southwest; the skylined peak is the north end of the Tenmile Range.
The reservoir is owned by the (City of) Denver Water Board and was constructed in the early 1960s. Much of the reservoir floor was acquired at no cost in lieu of back taxes(!) during the Depression. Water is diverted thru the 23.3 mile (37.5 km) Harold D. Roberts tunnel back under the Rocky Mountains, to the east side of the Continental Divide. So, water is being taken from the drier western side of the Rockies to supply the urban belt along the Front Range on the east side. The project would probably not be approved these days!
The left inset shows a different view of the reservoir, looking east. The right inset shows some silhouetted waterfowl, probably ducks, on the water.

Inspection committee

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 19:13:05 +0000

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Pronghorn "antelope" (Antilocapra americana) bucks in extreme western Utah, not far from the Nevada line near the old site of Gandy. Pronghorns are not true antelope but the last surviving representatives of a group of ruminants (Antilocapridae) intermediate between deer and cows/true antelope. They are native to North America and have made a remarkable recovery after having been hunted nearly to extinction by the early 20th century.

Burr Trail

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 16:42:26 +0000

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A road following a steep canyon thru the Waterpocket Fold, a monocline that forms the prominent landforms in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. A monocline is a structure in which one side has been downdropped with respect to the other, with the overlying strata folded downward accordingly. Usually monoclines reflect high-angle faults in the subsurface. The prominent light-colored sandstone making the big cliffs and rounded domes is the Navajo Sandstone of Triassic-Jurassic age, a widespread stratigraphic unit in this part of the Colorado Plateau. Looking east.
The Burr Trail comes up this canyon in a set of steep switchbacks. It is named for John Atlantic Burr, who built the original trail in the 1880s for cattle(!) drives. The modern trail is graded and in good weather is (more or less) passable to ordinary passenger cars, but it gets washed out enough--particularly in monsoon season, as now!--that high clearance and 4wd are advisable. I crossed a flooded section of road getting to this point. The inset shows another view of the switchbacks.

Needle Rock

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 20:20:40 +0000

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Near the little town of Crawford, Colorado. An eroded-out volcanic neck related to West Elk volcanism, ca. 28 million years ago. The inset shows another view, plus the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) informational sign. Nice that it's not going to be developed!

Wedge Overlook

nobody@ipernity.com (slgwv) — Tue, 08 May 2018 16:33:46 +0000

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San Rafael Swell, Utah. Looking south across the canyon of the San Rafael River. As far as I can find out the prominent side canyon directly across is unnamed. The inset is a view a bit more to the right. This area isn't _quite_ so remote as it used to be--there are now interpretive signs--but it doesn't get _nearly_ the traffic that Moab does. What 50 miles of dirt road will do! ;)