Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
8.
Mule Canyon Rest Area
Another long-abandoned Anasazi settlement survives in the South Fork of Mule Canyon,
a 15-minute drive from Natural Bridges on Rte. 95. Among the stone and adobe struc-
tures—scarcely different in hue and texture from the rock that surrounds them—are a cir-
cular tower and a kiva, an underground chamber where members of the community met.
Drought most likely drove the Anasazis from the area in the 13th century. More of their
sunbakedruinsarefoundinArchCanyon,visiblefromasideroadfoundoffRte.95amile
to the east.
9.
Comb Ridge
Like a stockade wall flung up by giants, Comb Ridge rises with daunting abruptness from
thefloorofCombWash,eastofMuleandArchcanyons.Rte.95ascendsthe800-foot-high
ridge, where the view encompasses this massive upthrust of the Earth's crust as it extends
toward the southern horizon.
10.
Edge of the Cedars State Park
The sense of a dim, forgotten age permeates the Anasazi ruins at Edge of the Cedars State
Park,inBlandingoffRte.191.Heresixcomplexesofresidentialandceremonialstructures
have been noted by archaeologists, and a sizable Anasazi pottery collection is housed in
a park museum. Each site has its kiva, and one even possesses a “great” kiva, a cathedral
among its kind and the spiritual focus of a world that has since passed into history.
11.
Monticello
Head north 22 miles from Blanding to reach Monticello, the little San Juan County seat
perched high in the foothills of the Abajo Mountains. The early Spanish explorers who
saw these rounded summits as
abajo
(“low”) must have been duped by a desert illusion;
AbajoPeakitself,accessibleonfootorbyfour-wheel-drivevehicle,risestoanelevationof
more than 11,000 feet. Today these Blue Mountains, as they are also called, are part of the
1.2-million-acre Manti-La Sal National Forest, where cool pine woods offer respite from
aridcanyonsandsun-searedplateaus.Ahavenforcampersyear-roundandawintermagnet
forskiers,Manti-LaSalrepresentsthegreensideofalandthat,whilebeautiful,istypically
limned in shades of ocher and vermilion.
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