Canyonlands NP Needles district house in the cliff was a 10-mile round trip hike.This was a short hike near Combs Ridge south of Blanding, UT.A nice little tower on the ridge from our hike to Jail House Runis and Perfect Kiva.This is the Perfect Kiva which we hiked up to see closer.View from the Perfect Kiva looking back across the valley.It is a BLM site and had a nice booklet describing so many of the features and artifacts found there. Fascinating!Natural Bridges National Monument was the first National Park in Utah. It is quite spectacular.We took the trail to the Horsecollar ruins.It had a one log ladder to climb up – not so bad but going down I was glad to have a good companion.This is a gorgeous bridge on a gorgeous day.This is our “Million Dollar View” campsite that we had stayed at before. We were here five nights this time. The dark skies and stars were spectacular.House on Fire ruins – if visited when the sun is just right it appears to be in flames. who came up with that?Before Hovenweep NM we hiked around this canyon to see other cliff dwellings.Beautiful craftsmanship.Sunrise over Sleeping Giant from our campsite at Hoovenweep National Monument.Morning loop hike at the monument to see these treasures.The spirit raven was watching.The wood supports in these buildings are original.The sites on the rock ledges are such interesting selections of places to build.There is a house tucked under that large boulder.The cliff partially collapsed but the dwelling stayed attached to its foundation.We wore ourselves out with a bunch of shorter hikes and the day kept getting hotter and hotter.We sat and enjoyed this for a while – really detailed and intricate brick laying.Early morning at Lowry Pueblo in Canyon of the Ancients.It felt really special to be able to experience this lighting.Mr Fox even had to check out the photographer. That is Sleeping Ute Mountain in the background.
