July 15: Plans and first hiking

Thank goodness for the Grand County Library.  Library Journal named it “the best small library in America in 2007,” and it is pretty good in 2012.  It has a great WiFi network and all the free access we want.  It also has a great collection on Utah history and archeology, which is helping us plan our trip.

We have tentatively decided to divide our “rock art” investigation into four geographical segments.  We will start in the Moab area, because it is rich in sites from 2,000 B.C. to 1200 A.D., and familiar to us from last summer.  Second, we will travel north to Nine-Mile Canyon and Vernal, Utah (Dinosaur National Monument), with a rich collection of Fremont Indian rock art from 600-1200 A.D.  The Canyon Road alone has over one hundred “sites,” with anywhere from 25 to a couple hundred figures per site.

The third leg will be the “San Rafael Swell” and Capitol Reef area to the west of the Green River—a very wild area, notable, among other things, as the hide-out for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (in “Robbers’ Roost”) and Aron Ralston’s misadventure in 127 Hours.

The fourth leg will be the San Juan/Grand Gulch region south of Moab and east of Glen Canyon/Lake Powell.  (Lake Powell essentially putting Glen Canyon and its extensive archeological record under water.)

The last two areas will likely involve some wilderness camping.  And that is another reason to put them last, as we consider what is essential and what we can leave in Moab.

We explored two sites today, one involving some distance, but no climbing.  (Actually, we do not really rock climb; we rock clamber.)  We need to accustom ourselves to the heat, not merely the temperature but the heat radiating off the barren sandstone rocks and cliffs on which we have to climb.

Janet got a slight case of heat sickness today, but we had lots of water and took it easy.  She has felt better on succeeding days.  Janet accompanies me on every expedition, at her own insistence.  The only times I (Bill) go off on my own is when I want to explore further off the route and do not want Janet to use up her energy reserves.  So, while I wander in search of hidden petroglyphs or trails, she sits and eats Slim Jims or Beef Jerky, which she likes.

We have encountered neither rattlesnakes nor mosquitoes.  The only fauna we frequently confront are lizards.  These lizards are 3-4 inches in length as adults.  They scramble up rocks vertically like Spiderman and come out of crevices like Batman.  Although they scamper away when we walk by them, they seem to watch us with fascination as we gaze at the rock art and take photographs.  Maybe they know much about the petroglyphs we are looking at but won’t talk to Anglos.  I have grown fond of them and call them “Lizzie.”

I hope our photo attachments come through.  The first is mom the adventurer at various sites over the last 10 days.  The second set is Lizzie.