Disasters - Minor to Middling

We recently got home from a trip that turned into a Murphy's Law sort of adventure (anything that can go wrong will go wrong). To start, we had THREE possible routes to our eventual destination, but discovered each had issues the day we left home -- one route was temporarily closed both directions due to a fire; the second, and our preferred route, had a

Elk Creek view during golden hour at Blue Mesa Reservoir, Gunnison, Colorado

miles-long slowdown due to a rockslide; and the third route started well, but we ran into a fairly long slowdown due to a bad accident.

We got to the town nearest our first night's campsite, and our Honda suddenly acted oddly and hesitated on a corner -- our middling disaster. My husband, the mechanic, quickly found a place to pull off the street and check things out. The alternator had reached its last leg after 170,000 miles. After disconnecting the alternator from the battery, and buying an alternator and spare battery, we headed out to our campsite, hoping our battery would last until we got

"Liking My Lichen"

there. It did -- just! After a couple more hesitations, we were able to back into a campsite, and it died just as I told my husband he could park.

He always carries tools with us, so he would actually be able to change out the alternator, although it would be with some difficulty as he was missing one tool. However, we were immensely surprised and relieved the next morning when a couple drove up, asked our names, and said they had gotten news we might be stranded (my husband had texted a friend, who got word to our spiritual brothers in Gunnison). We're part of a worldwide brotherhood where we truly have friends we haven't met yet, and a grand Creator who keeps an eye on things! My husband was so relieved to have assistance, exactly the tool he needed but didn't have (brought by our new friends), and moral support while he changed out the parts and got our vehicle running again. And yes, we plan to visit them again in a month or so.

The Guardian pictograph

From that point, and through the rest of the trip, we lost (and found again) the handle for the hibachi, a towel and washcloth, another part from the hibachi, two socket wrenches/sockets, the spare tire cover; plus our canopy frame broke due to some big wind gusts, and I broke the spigot off our big water jug. And on our second night out, we decided to stay at a state park we like. Sadly, we chose the wrong site! The one we selected was next to a beautiful, large spruce tree that provided excellent shade on that hot late afternoon. Unfortunately, it also provided a marvelous breeding site for mosquitos. All very minor disasters, but it felt almost like we were working through a backlog from the past several years!

The next morning, we scooted out of our site as quickly as we could and headed north over Douglas Pass and through the Canyon Pintado National Historic District. This area showcases many of the petroglyphs and pictographs left centuries ago by the Fremont people and, more recently, by the Ute people who lived here. Many of the pictographs feature their reliance on corn and seed-bearing plants that were cultivated or grow wild in the area. Others relate to their myths and many are

Waving Hands pictograph

difficult to interpret. There's at least one petroglyph dating to a much later time that pictures a cavalry horse with a saddle, bridle, and brand on its shoulder.

The highway traversing the canyon is part of the Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway that stretches from northwestern Colorado into northeastern Utah. The area is rich with archaeological sites, historic and prehistoric relics, fossils, and amazing geology. And best of all, unanswered puzzles. For example, the slab in the foreground of my photo at left looks like it may have fallen from the ceiling of the alcove where the "waving hands" and the bird pictographs are found; the puzzle is whether the rippled pattern was natural or man-made. If man-made, it would have taken a very long time with stone tools -- the fallen slab is five or more feet by about eight feet in size and the remaining ceiling of the alcove is considerably bigger, and about seven feet from the floor. In addition, I wasn't able to work out how the fallen piece ended up essentially upside down. Sadly, this alcove is easily accessible and unkind people have pretty severely defaced most of the rock around the ancient pictographs, to the point it's sometimes hard to tell what is

Official greeter at Vernal, Utah

modern graffiti and what was original but faded.

Later that day, we passed through Vernal, Utah, and saw their "official greeter," a smiling pink dinosaur. Vernal is only a few miles from the Utah entrance to Dinosaur National Monument, known for its quarry wall with hundreds of dinosaur fossils jammed into a relatively small space. North of the city is a large phosphate mine, making use of the one of the prominent geological formations found throughout the area.

Geology became the focus of the portion of our trip to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area near the Wyoming border. I learned that Navaho and Weber sandstone formations are basically petrified sand dunes, sometimes hundreds of feet high; that really bizarre sharks (ever heard of buzzsaw sharks?) once lived in the oceans that now form the phosphate-rich Park City-Phosphoria formation; that Deseret limestone can be folded to the point that a mountain looks like it's in continuous pain; and that one of the oldest layers in the area, the Hades Pass formation, is the color of red velvet cake.

Sheep Creek Canyon overlook and canyon walls illustrating why Fremont named it Flaming Gorge

We spent a couple hours on the short backway of the Sheep Creek Canyon Geological Area because it's simply so fascinating. I had to do a little research online to find that the section of cliffs called The Palisades is about 3000 feet above the level of Sheep Creek. The southern portion of The Palisades (made of Deseret limestone) has a huge anticline, which folded the rock downward, and even split some of the layers so that a deep crack, probably several hundred feet long, is visible. The crack should be noticeable right in the center when the image below is enlarged.

For some reason, this unnamed mountain made me think of an elderly lady with scoliosis, probably because of the twist caused by the anticline. The red stone at the left is Hades Pass

The Palisades, showing (l to r) connection between Hades Pass, Deseret and Weber formations

formation -- rock that is incredibly ancient, dated to about three-quarters of a billion years old, and that has been tipped on end. The fins of harder rock in the layers are thin and look like razors with softer talus between. Visually moving to the right, we can see the Deseret-Madison limestone of the end portion of The Palisades, a steep ridge topped by high, tan

Rocky Mountain columbines (Aquilegia coerulea)

cliffs, except here, where the mountain was contorted by incredible tectonic forces. At the far right, the Weber sandstone formation takes over -- younger still, and theorized to have been made from incredibly tall wind-blown sand dunes.

Speaking of wind... We cut our visit to Flaming Gorge short due to high winds and headed back to Blue Mesa Reservoir a day early. We spent a day there driving one of our favorite back roads, and found oodles of wildflowers. I'm going to put some of those into my next wildflower post; here's an incentive to look forward to it.

I hope you'll continue to check out the new art I'm putting up. I've been working on marketing much more than previously, including having photos up at two venues in Colorado Springs through the summer. I've completely revamped the sales section of my website, and it should be much easier to

Our shady site near Blue Mesa Reservoir - and proof we went camping during National Camping Month

navigate and make a purchase. I did find a couple glitches that I'm working through, so if you run into them, please be patient! As always, please leave a comment or reach out to me if you have questions about my photo art.