The House on Fire to the Mormon Trail

[woodwizard]

View attachment 22247After an early Saturday home town breakfast at the Durango Diner, I walked 2nd ave through a mid summer street festival nosing in all of the tented booths when at the photography kiosk, I witnessed a picture of a ruin I’d never seen before. The reflected flashing light illuminating colors across the alcove ceiling giving the Anazazi ruin the banner “House on Fire”. So impressed, I had to find it.
Back at the shack I Googled the name and was excited by my good fortune to find out it was in the Comb Ridge-Cedar Mesa area. My truck was loaded with all the weekend camping gear when I left for work, before dawn, Friday morning. Finally, at the end of the day with everyone gone at the jobsite, I headed for the deserted Sand Island Boat Launch and Campground, 3 miles west of Bluff, Utah. The waning moon reflected off of the silently passing San Juan only to be occasionally interrupted by a late night semi passing over the down stream bridge. Not even harassed by mosquitoes, I slept like a dead man with the perfectly cool temperatures.View attachment 22248

 

[woodwizard]

View attachment 22259Along with the clear blue sunrise and stiff coffee the early morning brought the opportunity to walk the Sand Island Pictograph Panels with no one else around; a fine feature for a BLM campground. 45 miles catty-corner across Cedar Mesa, the Natural Bridges campground with its evening astronomy program (darkest skies in lower 48) was the final goal to the end of the day. View attachment 22258As I turned north, off of Highway 191 in the early shade of Comb Ridge, I pulled over long enough to inhale and infuse the sights and sounds of this most beautiful morning before I climbed back in and got my foot into it. Exiting Comb Ridge Road and heading west, the directions and map said that at MM 102 there was a turn off with a small shoulder parking area a ½ mile later. House on Fire is located less than a mile up stream in South Mule Canyon. A good thing concerning the ruin is that when the rest of the scenery is washed out with shadow less bright sun, House on Fire is the perfect mid-day shot. The fire effect needs the mid-day sun for maximum impact. Trying to insure the best possible photo, I hung out in the shade listening to music, monitoring the lighting and photographing the ruin until I captured the flames. View attachment 22260
View attachment 22261I pulled into the Natural Bridges Campground by mid afternoon and secured one of the last few outside sites. In established campgrounds my desire is to always seek out a site on the outside ring for the feel of a little more room and isolation. The rest of the day didn’t afford the opportunity to hike the drainage linking the major features of the monument so I had to settle for the in-n-out from the overlooks. The evening astronomy program was well received and attended. The effort of the monument is evident in recognizing and maintaining the value of the dark night skies. View attachment 22262View attachment 22263

 

[woodwizard]

Up before dawn, I used the opportunity to quietly enjoy watching the increasingly brilliant orange crescent glow of morning as I packed. Previously I had missed the turn onto the Mormon Trail as I crossed Cedar Mesa. I didn’t come across the trail until it intersected with the Snow Flats Road out in the middle of the Cedar Mesa. This time traveling early, I was able to drive slowly, investigating all spur roads until I found it. At first glance the trail appeared to be perfectly suited for my full sized pick-up. It wasn’t until I came across the first, mature downed pine tree blocking my path that I realized that this passage was going to have its challenges. View attachment 22264It took about 15 minutes of jumping up and down on the branches before I had it downsized to a manageable dimension to clear. By the time I climbed out of the truck to clear the next pine, I felt a twinge of concern when even evidence of ATV travel had dried up. Before I started my strong armed prune job, I surveyed the continued tracks only to see no tire marks, established vegetation growing in the 2 track and the once sufficient travel space becoming crowded with overgrowth. Somebody had to do it. After a dozen fallen trees, drop offs into multiple drainages (nervous about back tracking after the banks caved in and I had to goose it good to get out)and scouting ahead did I finally remerge onto the well established intersection between Snow Flats and the Mormon Trail. View attachment 22266Soon afterward the view of Comb Ridge came in with Sleeping Ute Mountain in the distance. Traversing and stepping down through the Twist was no real challenge so long as I didn’t go too fast and dribble the bottom of the truck off of the rocks. Not long afterward I returned to the pavement and was back in Durango by mid afternoon. I felt sad for the truck as I took it to the car wash and realized all of the new scratches down its length. At the car wash I filled the garbage can with the branches that had broken off and fell into the bed thinking next time I’ll be kinder to the paint job while going for the feature the “Citadel”. But that another story….View attachment 22265

 

[haven]

Great post! I especially liked the second of your House On Fire photos.