Day 2, Fri. 2/24
Friday dawned clear. And cold! Thermometer in the Jeep said 9 degrees.
After a quick breakfast I packed up camp and started heading south in Butler Wash with no solid destination planned. The first thing to catch my eye though was Fish Mouth cave.
So I pulled over and started hiking. It didn’t take long to spot some ruins in an alcove near the cave.
I spent some time exploring and found a couple other smaller ruins in the canyon.
After exploring the Fish Mouth area for a couple of hours, it was back to the Jeep and down the wash again. But I didn’t go too far before noting the trail head to Monarch cave and deciding to make that my second hike of the morning.
Handprints were the dominant form of rock art encountered throughout this trip. I found them around every ruin complex I visited. All types of handprints, mostly pictographs but even some petroglyph hand prints. Positives, negatives, red ones, white ones, green ones, solid ones, swirled ones. You name it, I think I saw it, as far as handprint rock art is concerned. These are from the Monarch cave site:
Next, I decided to simply head off cross country towards the complete unknown and see what I could see. I know the locations of many well known ruin sites in the area, but also know that the un-named and less known canyons of the Comb all hold something worth seeing. And I’ve always found a lot of the most memorable experiences come by just striking off cold without knowing what I’ll find.
So, up an unknown canyon I went. But soon found an impassable dry fall blocking my path. So, I backtracked until the sides allowed me to gain the canyon rim, then headed cross country to the next canyon and dropped down into it. On my way down into this canyon I spooked a red fox. He was some distance off by the time I got my camera unlimbered, but responded to my lip squeaks and moans by stopping and coming back a short distance towards me. Still couldn’t get a very good picture, but here ‘tis.
At the head of this canyon I found a large alcove with ruins, but the ruins were REALLY ruined! Just piles of rubble on the floor, not even a piece of a wall left standing. But, of course, there were the ubiquitous handprints. And this time, even some footprints to go with them!
Interestingly, this loose rock on the floor had handprints too. Not sure, but would guess this is roof fall?
Next up, the Procession Panel! One of the better petroglyph panels in the area. It is named for the line of 179 small marching figures .
The lines of figures all converge on (or emanate from) a circle.
Within the circle are these two small figures known as “lobed circles”.
The lobed circle appears frequently in rock art throughout the area. Usually in pairs. It’s meaning can only be speculated on, but many believe it is a fertility symbol, representing the uterus. Nobody really knows though.
By the time I got back to the Jeep, it had already been a full day. I had no real plans for the rest of the day and decided just to take it easy. But, my plans for the next day, all centered around hiking in Lime and Road canyons from up on the top of Cedar Mesa. So, I decided to make my way up to the head of Lime canyon and make camp.
Of course, I took the scenic route through Valley of The Gods getting to the base of the Moqui dugway.
But things weren’t looking quite so peachy up on Cedar mesa. The road to the head of Lime canyon was a mixture of snow drifts and mud. I stopped about halfway in to take this pic.
Things got worse pretty quickly from there… I hit a spot where a drift at the top of a hill stopped me and I had to hit it three times to break through and continue. Then, I hit another drift at the top of the next hill and tried using speed and momentum to break through in one try. No dice… Forward progress halted. Worse, I couldn’t back up. Stuck. Damninet! Oh well, plenty of trees around and it took only a few minutes to winch myself out. By now it was almost dark and getting pretty cold and I just wanted to get camp setup. But… Every flat spot I could find, was a muddy mucky sloppy yicky mess.
I don’t mind camping in snow. But I HATE putting up camp in a sloppy muddy mess. So, decision time… It was just about full dark already, so I knew I’d be setting up in the dark no matter what. Decided I would MUCH rather do that where there wasn’t ANY mud. So, I drove all the way down off the mesa and pitched camp in some cottonwoods in Comb Wash. And decided I’d just find something around there to do in the morning, rather than hike Lime and Road canyons as previously planned.
Camp Friday night in Comb Wash
Dinner this night was brats roasted over the coals. Delicious!
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