Blanding Utah

After leaving the Moab area, we traveled south a few miles to Blanding Utah and the Recapture Recreation area. This is another BLM area that allows free camping and just happens to have a small lake.
If you look closely, you may see downsized on the far side of the lake, about midway in the frame just in front of a stand of small trees. It was a nice spot, far enough from the boat ramp to be reasonably private and close enough to the water to be entertained by the occasional skier. Blanding was our base camp while we explored the area.

click to enlarge 

Our first stop in the Blanding area was the Hovenweep National Monument. The Monument preserves about a half a dozen small sets of ruins from the late thirteenth century. There has been very little excavation done here so what you can see is what is still standing after some 700 years of neglect and exposure to the elements. The people that lived here were farmers who built check dams to hold what little water fell in this harsh desert environment and terraced their growing areas. Toward the end of the thirteenth century, the inhabitants of Hovenweep migrated south for reasons unknown settling in the Rio Grand valley and what is now southern New Mexico and Arizona. The Hopi are some of the descendants of the people who lived here.




This appears to have been a dwelling. I didn’t get it in the picture, but it is obvious that it fell or slid to its present location.

This structure is known today as Hovenweep Castle.

After our tour of the Hovenweep Monument, we ventured further south to an area just northeast of Monument Valley and took a driving tour of The Valley of the Gods. As my words would not do this area justice, I’ll let some the pictures do the talking.

We left Blanding Sunday on a westerly heading toward Capital Reef National Park. I will leave you now to continue this adventure. As always, we are C & L On The Road see you next time.