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| Hiking | 9.69 Miles |
814 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.69 Miles | 6 Hrs 11 Mns | | 1.73 mph |
| 814 ft AEG | 35 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I spend a lot of time looking at maps and satellite pictures while planning outings to look for petroglyphs, ancient ruins, etc. A few months ago I was struck by a satellite picture which showed some vivid blue color layered in with the usual browns and reds of the Painted Desert [ photo ] . I didn't think this could be right but older satellite pictures showed the same thing.
I decided to go out and have a look - maybe I'd look for some petroglyphs at the same time (I'd found some previously not too far away). My first two tries were defeated by muddy roads but this time I got close enough to start walking.
I walked some high grassland for about an hour before coming to the edge overlooking the Painted Desert and sure enough the top layer was blue - or at least strongly bluish. Not as bright blue as the satellite picture and not the dark blue/purple/black of Blue Mesa in the Petrified Forest, but an impressive color I haven't seen in the Painted Desert before.
Of course I wanted to do more than take a picture and go home. I planned to walk one of the ridges down through the various colored layers to the desert floor and then walk the mesa edges looking for petroglyphs. I was concerned about how slippery the mudstone would be but it (eventually) worked out fine. It was very nice to walk through all the colors - a little bit surreal. It was also nice walking the mesa bottoms though I didn't find any ancient cultural signs until my return walk on the high grassland - a few pieces of pottery. The return walk gave me some different views of the colorful topography.
[ youtube video ] 17min |
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Route Editor
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