ABOUT AWE, PART 3

Site Plan of Butler Wash Ruins, Prehistoric Anasazi Cliff Dwelling

Written on October 12, 2019

Another day in AWE Country.  Not everything goes well of course.  Away from home, hauling travel gear, covered in dust.  One lodging is more than you expect, another far worse.  Making changes is not easy.  I'm less flexible than I'd like, grumpy, and ashamed of myself.  My husband's grumpy too.  We've gotten a slow start today.  Ever happen to you? Then we get out of the car and start our hike. 

The goal is to reach the cliff dwellings of the Ancient Puebloans (Anasazi), who lived here in alcoves from about AD 900-1350.  We're in Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah.  The cave ruins are nestled on Comb Ridge, a dramatic geologic fold about a mile wide and 80 miles long.  These and the prehistoric rock carvings are what I now want to see most on this trip.  Even though they won't be as spectacular as the hoodoos ("About Awe," posted 10/18/19), there's something about being with the remnants of ancient civilizations.  

Marked Trail to Cliff Overlook

The walk isn't long but the temperature's dropped to 50⁰.  We're in the desert and the walking changes everything.  All I feel is the sun on my back and shoulders.  All I see is scrub land, Prickly Pear Cacti, yellow Rubber Rabbitbrush, Desert Sage and Mormon Tea.  The desert sand gives way to slickrock--large and flat and easy walking. We're on a plateau headed toward a small canyon.  More sun and then the cliffs and dwellings come in to view.  

Butler Wash Ruin as seen from Overlook

Think of it--people just like us, living in cliffs, farming and hunting, building, cooking everyday, tending their toddlers, loving each other, giving birth and growing old.  And all at the cliff's edge.  What agility they must have had!  What spiritual lives, feeling at one with nature. The same instincts to feed and protect their families, to shelter them.  To be tender or angry, happy or sad.  I'm in AWE of them!  

I want to carry these feelings home with me, so that we connect with our neighbors not just horizontally, but also vertically through time. So that we preserve their treasures. Somehow these people have managed to connect with me.  So nature and civilization lift my mood, set things right. I'm learning so much, and through all my senses: climbing, touching, seeing, hearing. . . . There are layers of goodness everywhere. 
 

Petroglyphs near Bluff, Utah