On the Edge of the Canyon

I traveled to the very western edge of Colorado, along the Utah border to visit a friend and to explore and photograph some of the beautiful places along the way. My destination was pretty close to the middle of the Colorado Plateau a vast region that begins at the northern border of Colorado, stretches south to the middle of New Mexico and Arizona, east to the western edge of the Rocky Mountains, and west to the middle of Utah and Arizona. According to paleogeologists, this very ancient section of the continental crust is at least 500 million years old, having survived intact through the period of continental drift (300-400 million years ago) while it moved slowly from near the South Pole to its present location. Gradually it accumulated a mantle of sedimentary rock several miles thick and was protected by something deep in the earth from the tectonic forces that lifted the Rocky Mountains to great and rugged heights just beyond its eastern edge.

Note: If you would like to know more about the Colorado Plateau Region, visit the Wilderness at the Edge website for an excellent description of the landscape, the geological history, and current conflicting visions for its future.

My friend lived clear at the end of the road, and I heaved a sigh of relief when I arrived there. My van had been leaking steering fluid and I made this last leg of my trip by stopping every hundred miles or so to check it and add what was needed. Since this was Sunday and the nearest Volkswagon garage was in Durango, I could let that wait while I visited and learned a little bit about this part of the country.

This place was a farm, but much of it had been left in a natural condition. A creek ran along the edge of the property, a tributary of Monument Creek, and it had cut its own canyon through the sandstone rock. It was one little section of the thousands of miles of canyons etched through the Plateau (the grandest, of course, being the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River). This wild little area was home to many animals, including coyotes, foxes, rabbits, ground squirels, lizards, snakes and a variety of birds. In many places, the rocks were completely crusted with lichens, giving the canyon an ancient appearance. The Pinyon Pines (Pinus edulis) and Utah Junipers (Juniperus osteosperma) that grew among the rocks had gnarled and twisted trunks and branches that added to the atmosphere. In the morning when I wandered along the edge in the warm sun, I saw a clump of Golden Beard Penstemon (penstemon barbatus) growing on a ledge about ten feet down from the edge. The lichened wall made a beautiful background for their scarlet flowers.

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