Yesterday I was lucky to go on a hike I’d been looking
forward to for some time. A few weeks ago I was at a meeting where the park
Superintendent talked about a trail that he said wasn’t ready for prime time,
the Blue Mesa to Teepees trail. The trail follows ridge lines through the
badlands and was washed out in spots, and in some places footholds had to be chopped
out with a pickax. Some sections are only a foot or so wide with a pretty
formidable drop on one side and a wall on the other. I talked to paleontologist
Bill about going on a hike there and he said I could trail along the next time
he went, which turned out to be yesterday. I toted along my hiking poles
because I’d heard the horror stories and wanted to be prepared. I didn’t need
them.
In the last couple of weeks a group of teenagers has been
here in the park, working on that trail and at least one other that I know
about. When we hiked the trail yesterday we found footholds chopped into steep
sections, foot after foot leveled out, an inner curve secured with stacked
rock, and a generally challenging trail, at least for me, but a navigable one.
Like the trail down into the Painted Desert that I wrote about some time back,
I was sucking wind in spots but it was so worth it.
I’ve posted pictures here before from Blue Mesa, the ones
taken from the established loop that visitors can easily see and travel. The
views from yesterday’s hike were very different, as they were taken from the
top looking down, as opposed to looking up out of the valley the loop trail
follows.
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| One of the ridge lines, where we’re walking on top of the
world. |
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| Navigating a steep hairpin turn. |
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Another ridge line section.
|
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| Petrified wood lying in a gully in Blue Mesa, lying where it
eroded from. The only place in the park where it’s been moved is in front of
the Rainbow Forest museum at the south entrance to the park, where
representative samples of the different kinds to be found have been placed. The
rule on wood or any other thing found in the park is to leave it where it was
found. |
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| Badlands, as seen from above. |
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| Look at the size of the petrified wood log in the
background, exactly where it eroded from the surrounding earth. |
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| The Teepees end of the trail. |
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| More teepees, so called because of their conical shape. |
I can’t wait to go back and take some time. It might have
taken us 45 minutes for this trip, but I’d like to spend at least a couple of
hours there. I love this park. Everywhere I look is more and more beauty.
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Thought of the day:
I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly
spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which
is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. (e.e. cummings)
