taatmk
06-15-2007, 07:58 PM
On Tuesday, June 12, myself and 5 others in the group visited the so-called Citadel Ruins on Cedar Mesa. It was an amazing place to live if you were the builders of those ruins. No doubt prtection and defensiveness were a motivation for that location.
After an approximatly two mile hike across mostly flat soundstone and desert soil, the point where this ruin is located is encountered. A a point overlooking this "narrow nexk of lonad", you need to work your way down the left hand side, or main canyon side to the lext lower level, then cross over to the side canyon side to drop down a sloping slickrock exspance before reaching the level of the land bridge. From there, it is mostly level walking until reaching the cap rock of the Citadel.
We hiked this a day after haevy rains during the night, and the area was covered with water filled potholes, explaining how the original inhabitants must have found water. There was even indication that they had build some check dams to deepen the storage capacity of some potholes.
A very amazing ruin.
After an approximatly two mile hike across mostly flat soundstone and desert soil, the point where this ruin is located is encountered. A a point overlooking this "narrow nexk of lonad", you need to work your way down the left hand side, or main canyon side to the lext lower level, then cross over to the side canyon side to drop down a sloping slickrock exspance before reaching the level of the land bridge. From there, it is mostly level walking until reaching the cap rock of the Citadel.
We hiked this a day after haevy rains during the night, and the area was covered with water filled potholes, explaining how the original inhabitants must have found water. There was even indication that they had build some check dams to deepen the storage capacity of some potholes.
A very amazing ruin.