Thanksgiving Trip Days 4 & 5.

Best day of the trip....day 4. Today we all headed to River House Ruin. Very. Very! Cool!!! 4-wheel drive required to get to it. So we loaded up on the machines and Mel and I hopped in the truck and Mel was a 4-wheelin' pro! Logan and Darin rode the wheeler and Ellie rode behind Devin again. The single ladies all on their own machines.

River House Ruins. Near Bluff, Utah on the San Juan river. Originally two or three stories high, 12 rooms, a religious kiva, granary storage rooms, petroglyphs...and more. This was the mother load ruin! Amazing to explore.

 

 

 

So many amazing signs of Anasazi life. Check out this bowl hole in the rock. And Ellie's hand is in another smaller bowl. The row of smooth grooves on the rock ledge were used to grind corn. There were actually tiny corn cobs in the ruins, see the two in the pic below. Corncobs have been found in thousands of ruins in this area......just incredible that they have survived for hundreds and hundreds of years. 

 

 

Notice the wooden log in the wall above the window. Never touched by rain and in perfect condition.

 

As we walked up the ledge and away from the ruins, we realized we were walking over hundreds and hundreds of pieces of pottery and rock shards. Fields of them. It was amazing. So many different kinds of pottery...different colors and styles and textures. 

Another stretch down the trail and we came across the most amazing petroglyphs yet.

Notice how huge the images are on the wall above. A big long panel of them.

A little ways away there was a bit of grafiti. It said "BLM kicks a--". Logan was telling some of us about it and said "The BLM kicks the A-word. I'm just going to say it the donkey way OK? The BLM kicks ass." It was SO funny!!! He knows you can say the donkey kind of ass.

On the way to River House ruin, we passed parts of the pioneers trail. This area was their last gigantic hurdle of their trek to settle southeastern Utah. San Juan Hill. We hiked up it. From a distance you can still see the trail. Up close it just looks like a mountain of rock and ridges. 

It is long. The bottom is WAY down there where you can see a dirt road. They had to come UP this. 

Impossible to even imagine this. This quote is at the bottom on a informational kiosk sign.
Even with the Hole-in-the-Rock behind them the colonizers still faced many miles of rugged terrain--primarily solid slickrock and mountains cut by deep gulches--before reaching their destination. Decker described it as "...the roughest country you or anybody else ever seen; its nothing in the world but rocks and holes, hills and hollows. The mountains are just one solid rock as smooth as an apple." Undaunted the determined pioneers cut dugways and blasted roads through the slickrock, cut a passable trail through the dense cedar forests, and when required made more cribbing for the outside wheels to pass over. Then on the north bank of the San Juan River the weary, hungry, and discouraged travelers faced yet another grueling trial: the solid rock wall of San Juan Hill. According to Charles Redd whose father, Lemuel H. Redd, Jr., drove a horse team up the hill, the steep, slick grade took its toll on the exhausted animals and men. Many of the horses went into "spasms and near-convulsions" as they battled for footholds on the upward climb. When it was all over "the worst stretches [on the hill] could be easily identified by the dried blood and matted hair from the forelegs of the struggling teams."

The view from the top was awesome. 

And to top off the trip, a motorcycle fell on the van. So now it looks a little more hammered than after the accident!

 

Sunday morning we packed up, went to church and got to hear uncle Mathew speak, then headed home with Jenny to see their place. We didn't get to spend much time with them this trip, but we are determined to go back. Three of her boys did come play games at our cabin one night.
The drive home want fast. We made great time. Overall such a fantastic trip!! Thanks Jones family for the great time!! Happy Thanksgiving!