Return to Sand Island.

I don't know about you, but the title of this blog post reminds me of the gothic mysteries I used to, and still do, read by the box load..Phyllis A. Whitney, Mary Steward, Daphne du Maurier, Victoria Holt, Dorothy Eden and others.  My absolute favorite was the "Dark Shadows" series written by Dan Ross (based on the short lived, but much loved daytime soap opera).  He also penned under the name, Marilyn Ross, a series of gothic mysteries which I couldn't stop reading.  I'm still searching for "Barnabas, Quentin and the Vampire Beauty"; the last book in the Dark Shadows series and the only one I do not have.  Nowadays, these type of mysteries (called "cozy mysteries") are more geared towards everyday women (homemakers, bakers, caterers, etc) who play at detective.  Yes, I have box loads of these also.

So, why the return to Sand Island?  We met a couple at Painted Hand Pueblo in Colorado (yes, will be writing about this on a later date) who told us about "dinosaur" petroglyphs they had seen at Sand Island.  Really?  We had not seen them when we had first gone to the area, but we did make one of the typical mistakes most visitors make.  We concentrated on the main panel area when we knew better; explore everywhere, not just a main site.

This time we went to the end of the main road, parked and began to hike along the entire way.  Well, lets be honest; I walked while my husband drove behind me in the vehicle.  He was good to me though and made sure to remind me every 15 minutes to drink water.  We did find one section where the petroglyphs could be seen as images of dinosaurs; interpretation is up to the onlooker of course.

End of the Road near Route 163

The glyphs in this area are questionable due to the graffiti; and some of the images seem oddly out of place compared to other glyphs throughout.

There is a turn around circle and these glyphs are just before you get to this area.  In my other post about Sand Island, I mentioned they were 1/10th of a mile west of the main panel.






At the westerly end of the main panel, we found a figure in a headdress, and, what looked to us, like a scorpion.

Scorpion?

If you want to see my photos of the main panel, click HERE; otherwise I'm going to continue on an eastward trek along the road.  East of the main panel, the walls are fenced off and you cannot get near them; a zoom lens on the camera and/or binoculars help a lot, especially for those faded petroglyphs.

Claret Cup Cacti Blooming; miniature rock gardens abound in Sand Island.

Just keep walking eastward to the split in the road.



Petroglyphs or Natural Scratches?



Hunting Panel

Look at the center left side of the "Hunting Panel", you can make out several figures that look like a T-Rex and a few Brontosaurus figures.  I wonder if these are the "dinosaurs" the couple told us about?  So, the question is, who made these figures; modern man, or ancient?

Weathering of the Rock Face

 At the split in the road...

At the split, you can go down to more camping sites, the ranger station, or the boat docks for sailing along the San Juan River.  We began to see petroglyphs on the walls behind the ranger station and the first camp site.

Natural weathering created the spiral on this rock face.

As I walked past the other campsites, I found less evidence of petroglyphs and more evidence of desecration by locals and/or visitors. If any petroglyphs were on these walls, modern day persons made sure to destroy them.

As with any mystery, a death occurred in "Return to Sand Island"; sadly, I must announce the passing of my one year old...hiking boots.  These brave, loyal soles traveled with me over rocky terrains; along precarious ledges and cliff edges; through sand, water, mud and all manner of vegetation.  They danced a jig while trying to remove a bug from my personage (Get it off, it ain't mine!!!).  My black, ankle hugging, hiking boots saved my ankles from breakage many a time; while the hot pink laces announced, "Here I am!!!"  *sigh* Torn, tattered and split apart; these brave soles cried out for release from the pain.  Goodbye my dear, dear friends; now I must search for a pair that will serve me as well.

Mary Cokenour

Riding the "Rim" into Blanding.

...Brushy Basin Rim (CR 277) that is. This San Juan County road has beautiful overlooks; ATV and 4 wheel drive trails; campsites; or just drive into Blanding and decide where to go from there.

Alright then, lets me start from the beginning, or where we began, I should say.  State Highway 95, 5.1 miles heading west, is where you'll find CR 277.  We were only on it for 2/10ths of a mile when the road split down to the left, or upwards to the right. We'd seen this road from 95 many times, and already knew that we were heading on up.  Where the trail to the left went?  Well now, sure it's easy to look it up on a map to see, but what fun is that!?!  Just going to have to come back, drive it and see for ourselves.

Up, up and around we went; taking time to get shots of the overall scenery.

We'd only driven 1.1 miles before we came to another split; CR 2561 (for another day) continued off to the right; but we took the left hand trail going up, up, up once again.

5/10s of a mile brought us to campsites overlooking South Cottonwood Road.  It finally dawned on me, that standing on ledges, and edges of cliffs, has become simply a natural thing to do.  Lady Gaga can have her "edge of glory"; I've got the entire county lying below me wherever I go!

Occasionally you'll get an awesome viewing of the Abajo Mountains in the distance.  CR 288 is 8.9 miles along; full of ATV trails, this county road will bring you right back down to State Highway 95.

At 9.3 miles, CR 254 only goes on for 4/10s of a mile before it dead ends; this poor little county road looks more like a dumping site with garbage strewn on both sides...yes, that is the insides of a washing machine lying there!







Mile mark 9.8 seemed to be a semi-interesting area; huge boulders with "rock art"; lets say the "rock art" is more of the modern rock era, than that of the ancient Native cultures.

The road began a down and around descent into a canyon area, before heading up, up and around...this was so fun!

At mile mark 10.7 a sign informed us that we were now on CR 277/OHV 25; other signs along the way informed us that the road was patrolled, and no dumping was allowed.  Too bad this area seems to be frequented by those who cannot read, and obviously not patrolled; piles of debris littered most open areas, including a sofa and broken btables.  We entered the streets of Blanding at mile mark 12.8, onto 550 North; turned around and headed back the way we'd just driven.  First, to do that canyon run once again, but also to check out the other county roads we'd seen along the way.  The day was still young, and we were full of wondrous energy.

Mary Cokenour

Lower Arch Canyon, You'll Need Those ATVs.

After our adventure along Posey's Trail Road (CR 240), Roy and I decided to go back and see if we could find the trail upwards from State Highway 95.  According to various maps we have of the area, CR 205 - Lower Arch Canyon should have led us there.  It would have, if we had ATVs and not only a 4WD vehicle; and getting into Arch Canyon itself was the same dilemma. Basically, except for the scenic shots, this was a bust in trying to drive through; doesn't mean we didn't have fun though.

CR 205 is located 14.3 miles, on State Highway 95, from Route 191; it's an unmaintained dirt trail; we did see a car bumping along (passengers didn't look too happy), following a RV.  By the way, here and there you'll see no trespassing signs warning that a fenced off area is Ute tribal land; heed the warnings as there are plenty of places to camp and ride ATVs than on tribal land.

We'd only traveled 2.4 miles before we came to a split in the road and decided to continue going straight.  2/10ths of a mile later, we came upon some truly beautiful camping areas.  There was also a set of "ruins" there, but I'm sure if they were Native American or not.  We could not continue onward any further, as the trail became very narrow, and more roughed than our 4WD could handle.

A Natural Rock Garden - I want one just like it!!!

 The "ruins".

...back to the split in the road, this time going right and towards Comb Ridge.  Next problem was, which trail will be the one to connect with Posey's Trail Road (CR 240)?  Every time we tried another trail that went to the right, we encountered a "dead end", or it was ATV accessible only.  The scenery on both sides was pretty impressive though.

There came a point in time when I simply put down the paper and pencil, stopped calculating mileage, and realized that without ATVs, we wouldn't get as far as we had intended.  That was ok; it's more about enjoying the adventure, not making it a downright chore.  We saw a large cave in the distance and took a left side trail as far as we could.  We didn't come prepared for a hike,  so took what photos we could of it.

We did pass by one interesting sandstone formation; no mention of it on the maps; then again, not every formation in the area has a name.

 

 

...and that's all folks!

 

Mary Cokenour