Another weekend, another pocket

We love to backpack in certain places during particular times of the year.

And one is our winter backpacking place with fantastic scenery, the enticing winter light playing on the rocks, and nooks and crannies that never fail to reveal something new to us.

For this weekend, Joan did some amazing sleuthing via Google Earth, some obscure websites, and a few academic journals and map reading to take a route to see both a panel we’ve heard of previously and (with a hunch on our part in the field) a panel we’ve not heard of/seen in previous resources.

We made camp, dropped our packs, and followed a path indicated on Google Earth. A faint pictograph and abundant moonflower made us think our chosen path worked.

Then, we saw the panel we sought up on the cliff wall with its vibrant reds and intricate images.

It is a perfect place to sit on the rocks, enjoy the warm sun, and watch the light play upon the rocks and the images.

We returned to our campsite with the late orange afternoon light on the red rocks.

We enjoyed a quiet night in our newly repaired tent with the mandatory chocolate and hot drink by the glow of our Luci light.

The following morning, we took a longer route back, followed a hunch in the field, and stumbled upon what we think is an ancient hunting area with commanding views up and down the valley and images that seem to give credence to this theory.

One image seemed like a “fishing story,” with an extensive bull elk-looking panel.

It is an exciting place and continues to go with the assertion that we can spend many years out here and not see it all.

We continued our trek back to the truck and relished the area’s solitude.

We enjoy this area at this time of the year. We’ve seen the initial greening of the license plates already (IYKYK!), and soon, we will stop making left-hand turns in Moab, but for now, we’ll enjoy the quiet of our “backyard” wild places.