This is the seventh diary installment of The Dkos Road Tour Series. See explanation at the close of this diary. I trust you will find the information enjoyable and educational. Our destinations today will take us, first, to northern Utah then to central New Mexico (north of Albuquerque), and from there to southwest Colorado. As a reminder, the information herein is “layered.” Meaning, the reader chooses how much or how little read, graduating from the essentials to more in-depth details. By the way, if you enjoy the series, it would be good to have a recommendation from commentators. Gracias.
CORAL PINK SAND DUNES SP
Location/Geography: Southwest Utah. Kane County. Closet City or Town: Kanab. Open sand dune country with a mountainous backdrop on either side. Elevation: 6,000 feet (1828 m). Area: 3,370 acres (13.6 km²).
Coordinates: 37º2'16ºN 112º43'13ºW (http://bitly/1qcy6Q5)
Google images/maps: http://bitly/TTT5K7
√ Spotlight: Sand, sand, and more sand (as in dunes everywhere)! Comely backdrop; engaging colors. Ideal hiking with or without shoes! Off-road ATV’s welcomed. The park’s habitat is home to a rare tiger beetle species endemic to this locale (and is found no other place in the world). There is also a threatened species protected by the park: Welsh’s milkweed (Asclepias welshii). Focus: dunes, erosion and the science of how dunes form.
√ Snapshot: This stunning pinkish dune field is surrounded by red sandstone cliffs, and accented with junipers (genus Juniperus) and piñon pine trees (pinus edulis). Established as a State Park in 1963 on land acquired from the BLM, this utterly distinguishing environs was meant to serve as access to the dunes for recreation and protect the park’s resources. The scenic 8-mile (12.8 km) paved road eventually changes to a graded dirt road, then continues through the Arizona Cane Beds. Absent from the view is the typical monolith scheme that accents the landscape in this sector of Utah. Instead, one sees the product of rocks and erosion––dunes composed of clastic particles of sand. Diana's Throne is the most prominent landmark in the park. However, there’s no trail to its summit. Fit hikers are instead invited to scramble up its slickrock features. For those who make it to the crest, there is a rewarding view of Zion NP, whose flank of buff-colored formations rises in the southeast. The derivative of Diana’s throne is from a classic fable who threw herself off her throne because the beauty was too much for her to bear. Possibly, this fable describes the most aesthetic extremism of the state park! Rumor also has it the red stain on the rock is said to be none other than her mortal blood. Indeed, Coral Pink’s setting is a brightly colored landscape that offers camping, hiking, off-highway vehicle riding and the usual tourist interests. A special conservation sector encompassing 265 acres (.4 square miles/ 1.036 km²) prohibits motorized vehicles and is intended to protect the Coral Pink Beetle (a subspecies of the tiger beetle Cicindela limbata) found nowhere else in the world. Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus), jackrabbits (Lepus californicus), kit foxes (Vulpes macrotis), coyotes (Canis latrans), and numerous small rodents also make the park’s sandy setting their home.
√ Guided Tour Essentials: Driving toward the park, a tall pine tree forest decorates the mountain flanks on both sides. Beyond lies the expansive dune field. These desert-like environs feature remnants of sandstone that compose the Vermilion Cliffs to the southeast. Hence, the reason there is so much sand in this area, which is from the Wingate and Kayenta formations. The dunes are seemingly adrift beneath red sandstone cliffs. The grains of sand that account for the coral-hued dunes is entirely derived from another formation–– Navajo Sandstone. This major formation from the Mesozoic Era (252.2 to 72.1 myr) is also part of the regional Glen Canyon Group. Various sandstone formations from this geologic era represent a prevailing arid climate for millions of years.
Geology: Navajo Sandstone is arguably the most dominant of the dune formations in the park, whose petrified imprint also adorns much of the Colorado Plateau. Sand deposits originate from grains of quartz and hematite. This mineral form of iron oxide is also one of several others. Some 98% of Navajo Sandstone consists of grains of quartz crystals that were once part of loose sand blowing freely across the region for millions of years. With time, however, nature’s cement of lime, iron oxides, and clay substances bonded the grains together into a harder material. Weathering and erosion of the sandstone particles have since yielded sediments carried across the terrain by winds. These prevailing winds also formed the dunes some ten thousand to fifteen thousand years ago.
Dune Classification: Dunes come in all shapes and sizes. The background that follows describes the many types of dune shapes and how each is formed:
Crescent-shaped dunes are usually wider than they are long. Their slipfaces appear on the concave sides of the dune mass, forming underneath winds that blow consistently from one direction. This type of dune is also known as barchans or transverse.
Much larger are the linear dunes, having somewhat sinuous sand ridges. Their long axes extend in the resultant direction of the sand movement.
Star dunes have pyramidal mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the high crown of the mound. This type of dune tends to accumulate in regions with predominately multi-directional winds.Star dunes also grow upward rather than laterally.
Dome dunes (aka “oval” or “circular”) lack a slipface and occur at the far upwind margins of sand seas. This type of dune is also the rarest.
Parabolic dunes are U-shaped, with convex nose-like appearance, and trailed by extended arms. This type of dune feature is also known as blowout or hairpin; also, the kind of dunes that are common in coastal desert regions. Their crests point upwind, and, therefore, opposite that of crescent-shaped dunes. Because this type is fixed by scrub and vegetation, the arms of parabolic dunes follow rather than lead while the main bulk of the dune inches forward.
Directions: Take Hwy. 89, 20 miles (32 km) west of Kanab, Utah, then 11 miles (17 km) south of Mount Carmel Junction, and another 23 miles (37 km) southeast of Zion NP.
ContactInformation: Coral Pink Sand Dunes, P.O. Box 95, Kanab UT 84740-0095. Phone: 435-648.2800
Here's my recommendation for a follow-up URL: http://bitly/2dljTOI
CORONADO STATE MONUMENT––KUAUA RUINS
Location/Geography: Central New Mexico. Bernalillo County (Rio Grande Valley region). Closest major city or town: Bernalillo; Albuquerque. Area: unknown (but not expansive).
Coordinates: 35º19’46”N 106º33’27”W (http://bitly/2gag4jM)
Google images: http://bitly/1hRE9qC
Maps: http://bitly/1p3645P
√ Spotlight: A New Mexico premier monument of enigmatic dwellers, and possibly never even visited by the famous 16th-century conquistador, Coronado. Unusual preserved kiva mural. Focus: history and archaeological ruins.
√ Snapshot: Coronado State Monument is New Mexico's first state monument (1940). It's named for Francisco Vásquez de Coronado y Luján (1510 - 1554), who is more popularly known by the shorter “Coronado.” He and his army of conquistadors spent the winter in this vicinity (1540 - 1540). Possibly, he visited the dwellers that lived in the Kuaua Pueblo (Kuaua is a Tiwa word meaning evergreen). The monument is noted for its ruins. The site’s excavation reveals a south-to-north development over the village's three centuries of occupation, as well as ceremonial rooms (kivas) built in round, square, and rectangular shapes. The pueblo was settled about 1300 and abandoned toward the end of the 1500s. Its structure is a fine example of a Rio Grande pueblo design from the period before and after European-Puebloan people contact. With its large multistoried adobe of room blocks (i.e., clusters of compounds) surrounding three spacious plazas with six kivas, the pueblo’s high exterior and doorless walls were indeed an innovative design in its time. The layout also suggests the builders had defense in mind as much as a place to live and farm. The most significant find at this pueblo is the now famous kiva, and its seventeen layers of multicolored murals denote the first extensive prehistoric mural art found in the state.
Human History: The inhabitants of the pueblo may have been Tiwa-speaking Puebloans and ancestors of the present-day residents of the Sandia and Isleta pueblos. Their glaze ware pottery is characteristic of both tribal people and forms a link with occupants who lived at the Kuaua Pueblo. Living along the Rio Grande as they did, these people cultivated their fields and hunted in nearby mountains. Rivers, like the nearby Rio Grande, are always a living life force conducive to a bountiful environment for humans and animals alike. The river also helped link the people of this pueblo site with other nearby Puebloans.
Directions: From Bernalillo, New Mexico, take Hwy. 550/44 1.7 miles (2.7 km) west of I-25, then Exit 242 to Kuaua Road.
ContactInformation: Coronado State Monument, Box 95, Bernalillo NM 87004-0095. Phone: 505-867.5351; Fax 867-1733
Here's my recommendation for a follow-up URL: http://bitly/1lizQzl
CROW CANYON ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTER
Location/Geography: Southwest Colorado (Sand and McElmo canyons region). Montezuma and Dolores counties. Closet City or Town: Cortez. Under the jurisdiction of the Canyons of the NM, which encompasses 164,000 acres (66,368.4 hectares).
Coordinates: 37.37056ºN 109ºW (http://bitly/1kTNEoT)
Google images/maps: http://bitly/1scMrxT
√ Spotlight: Some of the Four Corner’s region most fascinating ruins and setting in what many consider is the apex of the Ancestral Puebloan communities. A vivid and rewarding educational experience based on Crow Canyon Archaeological Center's influence on the site. Over six thousand ruins listed in Canyons of the Ancients catalog. Focus: human history and archaeological ruins.
√ Snapshot: Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is a nonprofit organization, whose field work in archeology is manifest on nearby Canyons of the Ancient NM, which also oversees archaeological excavation and research. The center is dedicated to long-term archaeological projects on the Ancestral Puebloans occupation of the Mesa Verde region. Crow Canyon is, therefore, an active archaeological site where people work and dig and classify artifacts. Visitors are also welcomed to share the hands-on experience though under strict guidance. In its domain are scores of fascinating prehistoric settlements and dwellings, including the Sand Canyon Pueblo. Numerous archaeological sites are seen in this sector called Sand Canyon. The information related in the ANASAZI HERITAGE CENTER destinations also directly applies here.
√ Guided Tour Essentials: Crow Canyon, along with nearby McElmo Canyon, is a high desert setting where archeologists love to work at their trade. The center offers an educational experience targeted at visitors interested in archaeological sites. On this property, there are ruins everywhere to see, and this locale was quite popular with the Ancestral Puebloans. Managed by the BLM, the Crow Canyon Center is notably one of the finest outdoor museums representing the Ancestral Puebloan culture, among other later Native American cultures throughout the region. Delores, Colorado’s equally renowned Anasazi Heritage Center touts its archaeological prominence when visiting this region. Its facility is also the recommended starting point for visits to Canyons of the Ancient NM. Archaeological sites, like Sand Canyon, are numerous throughout the setting. Broadly defined, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is an educational outreach program that offers classes solely geared to archaeological studies. The center surrounds three of the four separate sections of nearby Hovenweep NM (administered by the NPS). Canyons of the Ancients also preserve the largest concentration of archaeological sites in America, cataloging over six thousand individual sites. The construction of Sand Canyon Pueblo was believed to have begun during the late 1240s or early 1250s, lasting until approximately 1280, whose span of time corresponds to the late Pueblo III Era. With an estimated four hundred and twenty rooms, ninety kivas, and fourteen towers, including an enclosed plaza, This renowned D-shaped and bi-wall structure with its Great Kiva is one of the largest and most archaeologically significant ruins in the central Mesa Verde region. Hence, it is part of the tour that should not be missed; that is for those who can walk to its locale (see below for hiking information).
Directions: Take Hwy. 64 west through Farmington, New Mexico, to Shiprock, then turn right (north) on Hwy. 491. Follow this road to Cortez, Colorado. Closer to Cortez, stay in the left lane and bear left at the Dove Creek signpost. Follow 491 for about 1.5 miles (2.4 km). Stay in the left lane until the Crow Canyon sign shows up on the right side of the road and turn left (west) on Road L. From there, continue for about 1 mile (1.6 km). Road 23 curves left and turns into Road K, becoming Crow Canyon's main driveway. Take note that the Center’s program season runs from March through October. The center is open Monday through Friday each week. Call for dates for individual programs. Some international travel programs may be scheduled outside of this window.
Contact Information: Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, 23390 Road K, Cortez CO 80321-9408. Phone: 800-422.8975 (toll free). Local: 970-565.8975
Here's my recommendation for a follow-up URL: http://bitly/1jpkNEo
FYI: This latest installment of THE DKOS ROAD TOUR SERIES provides an excerpt from the larger text, SCENIC ICONS OF THE SOUTHWEST (http://amzn.to/2on3z89). The soft cover 8.5 x 11 format (491 pages) provides the same information but also includes a thorough background on geology, natural and human history and miscellaneous subject matter. Additionally, there is an Android app available and the less expensive Kindle version. For information about myself and my books featured on Amazon, feel free to drop by www.richholtzin.com and leave a comment. I also write under the nom de plume, RK ALLEMAN. For more background about this tour series, please read the 3/29/2017 diary, HIT THE ROAD TOUR SERIES: An Introduction.
Another installment of this series will be next Sunday. Hopefully, every Sunday there will be a trio of new scenic icons for the reader’s enjoyment and enlightenment. (For those who want to know where they’re going in these upcoming tours, the previously mentioned introduction lists a Table of Contents (in alphabetical order).
About The Author: Rich, who writes under the nom de plume, RK ALLEMAN, has worked in the field as an outdoors educator and interpreter for the likes of the Grand Canyon Field Institute (nearly 20 years), Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff), and Yavapai College (Prescott, AZ). For nearly 40 years, he has backpacked some 8,000 miles, not including hiking sorties. Most of his works focus on the geosciences (mainly, geology, archaeology, and ecology), human and natural history applicable to the Colorado Plateau Province (aka the “Four Corners Region of the Southwest).
FYI: Previous diaries:
Intro diary http://bit.ly/2nu738O
1st diary http://bit.ly/2opAB6Y
2nd diary http://bit.ly/2oe49Cm
3rd diary http://bit.ly/2pFVvMo
4th diary http://bit.ly/2oVFGDQ
5th diary http://bit.ly/2qlfctX
6th diary http://bit.ly/2qG5Vje