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View Full Version : Trip Report "Through the Mist ", Utah rock art over Thanksgiving (Pt.1)



Swimswithtrout
12-04-2013, 05:28 PM
I'd been planning a 10 day trip to visit my mother in Phoenix, for Thanksgiving, with 6 days of it spent poking around Moab and "environs" , for several months. All looked good up 'till 3 days before we were set to leave; then winter storm "Boreas" threw a wrench in the works.

I watched the weather forecast deteriorate by the hour but held out hope, we could still get out Saturday morning, but by Friday afternoon it was apparent we'd be lucky to even get out Sunday. The Abajo's were predicted to get over 2' of snow and I knew even Moab was getting hammered with snow. Expecting the worse we left Colorado Sunday morning with NOAA promising that temps were now so cold over the I-70 corridor, that all precip would be falling as light snow.

It was easy cruising until just past Vail. Then we hit the low clouds, fog and light drizzle all the way to Grand Junction. I'd about given up hope of my first planned stop until I crossed the State Line into Utah and the clouds evaporated and the sun came out.....that is until 5 miles before Thompson Springs. Leaving the highway and turning north through town was like a set from the Twilight Zone but suddenly, 1 mi before my stop, the clouds lifted and broke.

Never having seen anything more than the Hohokum petroglyphs around the Phoenix area, I was in awe.


( I removed a tiny bit of obnoxious modern graffiti in this image)
70916 (http://imageshack.us/a/img14/3656/vrao.jpg)


(I enhanced the contrast a bit on this panel to show how the Fremont "graffiti" was overlaid over an older BCS image)
70915 (http://imageshack.us/a/img854/6472/te9r.jpg)

70913 (http://imageshack.us/a/img203/4397/02my.jpg)

70914 (http://imageshack.us/a/img9/4914/o4f3.jpg)

70920 (http://imageshack.us/a/img43/923/8q65.jpg)

70917 (http://imageshack.us/a/img4/117/e9qx.jpg)

70918 (http://imageshack.us/a/img51/5159/9ju6.jpg)

70919 (http://imageshack.us/a/img577/7649/5bw6.jpg)

Driving back out of the canyon we hit the same dense fog almost all of the way to Moab, but Monday was supposed to be beautiful.....................

(to be continued)