Bears Ears is our newest National Monument, as on December 28, 2016, President Obama proclaimed the 1,351,849 acres Bears Ears National Monument, a vast, eye-poppingly beautiful swath of America in southeastern Utah. The area was best described--geographically—by David Lavender in his book One Man's West (1943) as "a million and a quarter acres of staggering desolation between the San Juan and Colorado rivers, a vast triangle of land that even today is not completely mapped." Well, thanks to satellites, it is now well mapped but good luck traversing the Monument even with mechanical aides. Mapping only showed the improbable & impassible mesa’s, buttes, bluffs, washes, scrub, desert floor, monoclines, and other types of formations I have no idea of their names. This diary describes my adventure in pictures, & hopefully provides you some knowledge of Bears Ears National Monument, but doesn’t address the despicable Utah Leg or it’s land-raping opportunist Senator, Jason Chaffetz. That’s a different, spittle-flecked diary.
The Monument borders on other National Parks & Monuments-Monmument Valley, Canyons of the Ancients, Hovenweep, Arches N.P., Canyonlands N.P., and several other Park Service/Forest Service/BLM entities.
There are many places to enter a place as large as Bears Ears. Closest to me would be the southeast corner, closest to Bluff, Utah. A beautiful 2.5 hour drive, to be sure!
Bluff, Utah sits just outside the borders of the also vast Navajo Nation, the northern border of the NN.
I went to Lower Butler Wash, west & north of Bluff by a few miles. It is in the area of some truly spectacular places, but alas it is no Fire Tree House, which is one ridge west from Butler Wash—across Cedar Mesa. Butler Wash abuts Cedar Mesa to the east.
In fact, the Salt Lake Tribune has a fine article—with pics—about Bears Ears here: www.sltrib.com/…
Even before leaving the State of Colorado where my hut is, the rock formations begin:
Finally! Utah.
I had driven past Bluff, and was looking for County Road 262, to the north. Easily found, right?
Here follows many random pics, just looking around a small portion of the Lower Butler Wash area:
Zooming out a bit:
Zoomed out:
Critters live in the desert, plenty of them. Here’s the dwelling of one of them:
I only found that snake (?) hole because I saw a flat, smooth track(snake print?) between two holes…
Much bigger critter hole—fox-sized. No idea what lives there:
I know you’re wondering if my dogs came along…
So County Road 262 should have been easy to find. It wasn’t—even though it was directly across from the turn to the Bluff ‘airport’. Heh—the Bluff airport:
Just two more things before I end this diary. First:
And secondly: NEVER FORGET—WE OWN THIS PLACE! We—me & you & all Americans. Please don’t let anyone take it from us! #Protect Bears Ears! #StandwithBearsEars!
Never, ever let anyone take this from all of us!
I hope you enjoyed the MANY pics, and I also hope you’ll let your Congressional Rep know: “Save & Protect Bears Ears”!
Peace out.