Physically Distancing around Moab

Joan and  I spent another weekend within an hour of our home.   And we continue to feel fortunate at the vast amounts of public land where we can, for now, hike, backpack, and camp.

Subtle and not so subtle, signs of spring accompany these hikes – the greening of the trees, the snow line creeping up the mountains, and the wildflowers poking through the ground, all signifying the changes of the season.

In many ways, a typical weekend for us overall since we tend to travel off the beaten path.

The 800+ yr old images, some relics from ranching days of over 100 years ago, and the occasional Bud Light can (of course) are the only signs of humanity we see on these jaunts.

This weekend we went to an obscure canyon that, in many ways, reminded us more of New Mexico than Utah.

Streams flowing through, the red rock perhaps not as vibrant as typical Utah layers, but covered in with pinyon, juniper, and much ponderosa.

But, typical for many areas of the Colorado Plateau, these canyons are travel paths for generations of people.  On foot, we noticed one butte that leads to the mouth of a canyon and a well-known panel with thousands of years worth of images upon it. A place I’ve passed many times by auto but only noticed the significance while on foot.  The routes we follow in Utah are ones followed for generations. As an amateur historian, I find this “history exploration on foot” fascinating.

You can look at a map or satellite images to see these ancient travels paths. But only by moving at two or three miles an hour, do these cultural causeways make sense on an innate level.

We savor these weekends as we don’t know how much longer we’ll have them. But we’ll enjoy them while we can.