Anasazi

Visited: April 2018

In a town with a population of 225, I was having a hard time finding the elementary school. When I entered the address on the school and district website, all 3 map apps I had lead me to 3 different dilapidated buildings that clearly didn't have any children in them. Sooo I stopped in the state park and asked the ranger, whose daughter went there, and I got to tell her that her dad said hi :)

I toured the replica building, the actual remains of the buildings from the "Anasazi", and got a patch for my collection.

Why did I put "Anasazi" in quotes, you ask? Well, turns out, Anasazi is 1. A lazy blanket term that people have used to cover people all over the American Southwest, with no regard to the fact that there were many different kinds of tribes/people with different customs and 2. We have now learned that 'anasazi' is a Navajo word for "ancient enemies" that they used for Ancestral Puebloan people sooo I'm not a huge fan of this word. But it's the name of the state park, so alas.

Arrowhead collection in the museum

Replica building

In the replica building

Actual excavation site

View from the excavation site

Patch collection from 4 days el oh el

Otter Creek

Visited: April 2018

A picnic stop between schools. Filled a 13 gallon trash bag and saw a pelican. There was also a small hill to hike up. If I happen to be back in the area and have more time, I would like to go places other than the "main" area where there were pull offs meant more for bird watching. I don't have the equipment/money/desire really for watercraft out in the lakes so I can't really say too much about them! Still nice to be by them, throwing rocks and eating PB and J's.

The dock

Pelican

Campfire pit on top of the hill

One of two mine shaft looking things on the hill. Not sure what they were about. 

Huntington

Visited: April 2018

I don't have much to say about this park either but that's just because it was a long drive, I was ready to be home, and there were already mosquitoes and I'm not about this life. I walked to the shore and was planning to hammock but then 3 giant mosquitoes bit me and I was out. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Millsite

Visited: April 2018

The color of this lake is very pretty. The park is under construction so I didn't get a great feel for it. It was partially drained, so it was unique to be able to wander around in the gullies and look for fossils in the limestone. The water color is also a cool blue because of the limestone (calcium carbonates make the neatest color blue- see Glacier National Park for infinite examples). So yeah I didn't get to experience it too much so I don't have much to say. It looks pretty majestic though I'd like to go back when they are done doing whatever.

The water didn't even come close to the giant boat ramp

I really like this butte

But look at the water level!

Wild drained gully

Apparently there are crawdads here

The only fossil I actually found. Not sure what it is though.

Goosenecks

Visited: April 2018

This is the alternative to Horseshoe Bend. This is more impressive IMO and you will see next to no one compared to that train wreck. If you're in this area for any reason I would say this is worth the detour. The symmetry of the MULTIPLE horseshoe bends here is incredible.

Always read the plaque

The shadow contrasts it but look at that symmetry!

As my brother pointed out, the goosenecks are not in the actual park. So here is a picture of the overlook, aka the "actual park"

Low quality picture but the geology in the distance is mind blowing

Lit up layers of the Honaker Formation

This is all vs the crowds and litter at Horseshoe Bend:

A bend just like goosenecks...

Over 5 lbs of litter and I didn't touch the tissues/TP. I even found a used condom. SO much single use plastic. Absolutely disgusting

Get in line to see the nature, folks!

Piute

Visited: April 2018

I had a very peaceful time at this park. I spent some time right on the lakeshore in the sand, poking around. I found some bones on the beach, and, of course, cleaned up a couple bags of trash. I did find a "fun" piece of trash here, a small plastic horse. I bleached it with the extra bleach in my chemical kit for work and got to keep it.

I discovered that if I kept driving down the paved road a little ways before the turn off to the obvious lake shore, there was a nice picnic area and boat ramp a little above the water. There were nice shelters to hide from the sun.

The lake from the 'main' lakeshore

Right next to the boat ramp is this majestic cliff

My work car

Color blocks

Deer bones

Fremont Indian

Visited: April 2018

I definitely want to take all my friends back to this park. It is fantastic! I used to work at a park called Bandelier National Monument, and I affectionately refer to this park as "fake Bandelier."

Bandelier National Monument in Los Alamos, NM

Bandelier protects dwellings built by the ancestral pueblo people, both pueblos on the ground and cave dwellings on the cliffside. It also features numerous walls of rock art, both petroglyphs carved into the soft volcanic rock, and pictographs painted on to some of the stronger, lighter colored faces of rock.

There are no structures left behind in Fremont Indian SP, but there are pictographs and petroglyphs galore on the volcanic tuff. (Well, there is one replica of an underground structure.)

My coworker Glynis coming out of the pithouse

Can you spot the petroglyphs?

Beautiful volcanic cliffs

I have driven past this park so many times whenever I was road tripping out to California, either from New Mexico or Colorado, most times for track races. I always wanted to stop and look at the tuff, I didn't even know there was so much rock art to see as well. I was so excited to get to go here TWICE during my work trip.

Glynis at a spiral at the top of the cliffs

The park has laminated trail guides that you can borrow. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back into the VC after my walks/hikes, so I took pictures of the trail guides after I took them on the main trail behind the VC, and just read them off my phone.

The main trail

They called this a trilobite

Even though I've worked and lived in an extremely similar place, I still got to learn and see a lot of new things. I even earned my Junior Ranger badge :)

Cave of 100 Hands

Beautiful columnar jointing

Petroglyphs on the left and pictographs on the right