Day Three we hiked up a canyon and checked out two different ruins, the first one was Target Ruin because of a target that was painted on an inside wall of the ruin. The whole ruin is too high to get to so we only looked at it from across the canyon.
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| Target Ruin |
Here's a closeup of the target (shot with the camera looking through a pair of binoculars):
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| The Target Painted on a wall at Target Ruin |
Then we hiked a bit further up the canyon and found Ballroom Cave and shot this silhouette shot. The cave is actually quite large, and at least 20 degrees cooler than the 90+ degrees we were hiking in out in the canyon!
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| Ballroom Cave |
After that we drove to Hammond Canyon to backpack in to where the Three Finger Ruins are. It was approximately a 5 mile hike down into the canyon to where our campsite would be, below the ruin. We made it there in time to set up camp and have dinner, but not in time to explore the ruin that night.
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View of Three Finger Ruin from our campsite
Do you see it? Probably not, it's up on that cliff and quite a hike to get to. |
As we started making dinner, about half of the scouts and leaders realized they had forgotten spoons to have our freeze-dried meals! So they carved their own spoons to eat with. They were pretty proud of their work and took some time to make them usable. I don't think they'll forget the spoons next trip though.
That evening we took off our shoes and socks and soaked them in the stream that went by camp. It felt so good to cool our feet off and clean the dirt/sand off of them!
Day 4 - we decided to not make everyone hike up to the Three Finger Ruins, so just took those that wanted to and left at 6 AM. It was quite the hike!
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| View of Three Finger Ruin a little closer up |
We were told by a Navajo woman in Blanding that this area is sacred. She was happy to hear that we were going to see it. It took us a good 40 minutes to hike up to it, but as we got closer we knew it was worth the hike:
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| Three Finger Ruin Closer Up |
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| Inside one of the rooms at Three Finger Ruin |
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| Fingerprints still on the "plastered" walls at Three Finger Ruin |
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| View from the Three Finger Ruins |
It was an amazing experience to see and wonder what it was there for, what the people did that lived there, how they got food and water, why they chose such a remote place, etc. We sat there and discussed ideas and soaked in the beauty of the place and the view for over 30 minutes. It's mind boggling.
Then we hiked back down to the campsite and had breakfast, packed up, and hiked back out to the vehicles. We had left a truck in a different location so we were able to do a loop instead of an out and back trip.
Lessons Learned:
- When it's 90+ degrees F outside, it's a good idea to carry a lot of water, and filters. We did ok for water on the trip, but the weight of it was a lot to handle. One of our leaders had the great idea to put some cut up watermelon and cold Gatorade in a cooler at the truck. That was AMAZING! Everyone loved eating the cold watermelon and gulping down the cold Gatorade! It was exactly what we needed to lift our spirits after hiking up and out of the canyon.
- Bring any utensils you may need for the trip - though it was a good experience for those that forgot to make their own this time.
- Whenever you visit a place where people lived long ago, take some time and discuss with the scouts what it must have been like to live there at that time. It's a great experience, and very insightful. It brings the place alive.
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