Day 8 - Anasazi Ruins

Today we're headed east to travel along the western edge of the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Park. We got about a half inch of snow overnight, which wouldn't have kept us from hiking Bryce Canyon, but as it's windy and cold, we made the right decision to do something else today.
This scenic byway offers some impressive views across wide valleys, and down into steep gorges. In photo 2, while this is an amazing view, what is really cool is that, just barely, you can see the La Sal mountains just over the horizon. These are the same mountains dominating the eastern skyline in Moab. here, they're nearly 100 miles away. In the town of Boulder, we visited the Anasazi State Park Museum. This small attraction has a indoor display that was currently closed for renovations, but the outdoor museum has an interesting excavated pueblo ruins.
We had lunch in Boulder at the Burr Trail Grill, a simple restaurant offering some very fine food. While they mostly offered sandwich-y type things, it was excellent, probably using fresh meat from the local ranches. While maybe not considered gourmet, it should definitely be on a foodie's stop list.
Heading back, we were impressed by the golden leaves still remaining on the cottonwoods, even at these elevations. Unfortunately we weren't prepared for shallow river crossings and rock face scrabbling, because there were two trails from one trailhead that took you to a natural bridge and some cliff dwellings. The other trail went up to some petroglyphs. You can see the area from an overlook, (photo4). I did get a close up of the horned sheep petroglyphs, but the Hundred Hands and Shaman drawings aren't clearly visible in that photo (plus you have to know where to look!) A few glimpses of Bryce Canyon from below ended our road trip for the day.Read more