The Last 42 Miles to Hovenweep

From Cortez, elevation 6,200, I traveled through McElmo Canyon and onto Cajon Mesa at an elevation of 5,200 feet. It was an unusual trip in that it felt like a constant uphill journey but I actually dropped a thousand feet, overall. Driving through canyons here is confusing. As I was climbing to an elevation of about 6,800 feet at one point I was very perplexed because I was going uphill while heading to the west and McElmo Creek was flowing downstream while heading west as well. I experienced some interesting ecological changes. At the highest spot on the drive, that 6,800 foot point, I was in the juniper-pinyon forest.

Utah Juniper (Juniperus osteosperma)  

Pinyon Pine (Pinus edulis)

After the high point I dropped back into the valley. One thing that really struck me was the amount of agriculture in McElmo Canyon. I expected only livestock but found a variety of other crops growing here. I passed at least two vineyards, some fruit orchards (apples I presume but they could be peaches, pears, or other similar crops). I had also read that this area supplies a majority of the pinto beans produced in the United States. The fields were relatively small, not the massive square and rectangular fields in the flatlands south of my home in Indiana, on the outwash plain left behind by the melting of the last glacier. Here, fields are tucked where they can, wherever a bend in the creek has deposited rich silt in a flat bit of land.

When I stopped the car to photograph a particularly nice looking agricultural field, holding a bit of snow from the previous week, I saw that the parched mud along the side of the road held an important lesson for me about the preferred method of disposing of my beer bottles (and I sure have a lot!). It, unfortunately, reminded me of how Edward Abbey referred to distances he traveled in the canyon country slightly to the north in six-packs rather than miles. He also wrote of throwing the empties out the window because ha had not given the “state” permission to build the road through the wild lands he loved, and claiming that since the highways had already littered the landscape, his contribution was only fitting. Ahhh, yet another man of contradictions.

As I continued along the road I was afforded vistas of geologic revelation. It is wonderful being in a landscape where the historic layers of the land are so evident. I have already done a bit of investigation of the area's geology. My fascination with geology came to the fore while working on whale watching boats on Cape Cod, having a clear sense that understanding the area's geology was essential in understanding its ecology. There I learned the glacial history of the land (above and below the ocean's surface) and my teaching about marine life was always prefaced with the glacial chapter of the story. That fascination continued in northwest Indiana and was significantly developed by my study of Dr. Henry Chandler Cowles, the pioneer ecologist who looked at the land of different ages from the brand new open beach to the thousands-of-years-old Beech Maple Climax Forest in the Indiana Dunes and then the unique plant communities found in each geologic zone. I like to think I follow in Cowles' footsteps by teaching in such a fashion that I look at interactions of components contributing to a whole rather than a reductionist view of the parts themselves. I have been similarly influenced by my colleague Dr. Ken Schoon and his book, Calumet Beginnings in which he looks at the geology of the Calumet Region and the influence it had on human settlement patterns there.  Clearly the geologic story of the Hovenweep region will be an integral part of the story I learn and tell to the visitors I encounter there.

I passed a section of the Bureau of Land Management Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. I did get out of the car for a bit in the light, wet snow to walk to the BLM sign. 

There was a wonderful indication there that this is a landscape that has been peopled for a long, long time. Another unique sign I saw told a nice story of respect for the land and the people who have called it home.

 As I passed the Ismay Trading Post (Picture to come), the road changed to a more pothole filled thoroughfare. I was in the state of Utah and was informed that I was getting closer to my final destination. 

From one of the lower points along the trip I rose above the canyon, through some scrublands and eventually onto Cajon Mesa. The mesa is an amazing landscape, one that belies the treasures held in the numerous canyons that cut through the relatively flat, sage covered plain (part of the “Great Sage Plain”).

One final turn at about Mile 41 and I was crossing off of the open range, across a cattle guard and into the main section of Hovenweep National Monument where the Visitor Center, Campground, and staff housing area is located. I was about to arrive at my home for the next couple of months and ready to begin the actual adventure.