Trip Details

Join the Pikes Peak Group for our free monthly program - online via Zoom.

Zoom link will be sent to registered participants the day prior to the program.

Joseph Kalis
PPG Programs Chair
kalis.joseph@gmail.com

Pikes Peak Group Program

7:00 PM Tuesday, March 16th, 2021 via Zoom

Dean Waits Presents: A Zoom Tour of Western Canyons and Ruins 

(A Zoom link will be sent out prior to the program.)

Dean Waits says he is starting to enjoy the Zoom way to meet.  In this presentation come Zoom with him to many very special places in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and western Colorado.  He’s backpacked twice in Bears Ears National Monument (Na.Mon.), located in the SE corner of Utah.  It’s the guardian to countless Native American ruins, artifacts, pictographs and petroglyphs dating back to the Ancestral Puebloan era and beyond.

We’ll start at the Bullet Canyon TH, then enter Grand Gulch and finish out of Kane Gulch.  Visiting many named ruins along the way; Jailhouse, Perfect Kiva, Turkey Pen and others. Then back into Fish and Owl Canyons.  There are so many other canyon’s he’s not explored. Take a look at Natural Bridges Na.Mon. with its massive stone bridges is nearby.

We’ll also take a pictorial tour of Aztec Ruins Na.Mon. and Chaco both in New Mexico.  Aztec Ruins offers a restored Kiva for the real feel as you enter complete with the sound of drums and Chaco is so different from many of the others with its massive multi roomed structures. ` There’s Canyon de Chelly in AZ where he had two Navajo guides to show him around and witnessed how a flash flood can quickly appear.  Let’s take a peek into Navajo Na.Mon.

From the Bears Ears plateau we’ll drive down the Moki Dugway, a twisting switch back dirt road that falls 1,200 ft in 3 mi’s to the valley floor and the start of giant monolithic rock mesa’s and spires, eventually to Monument Valley Na. Mon.  There you can re-imagine the early John Ford movies starring John Wayne with the sound of pounding hooves, gun fire and flying arrows.  We can do a bit of canyoneering in the San Rafael Swell.

There’s Hovenweep ruins in SW Colorado which contains a different array of rock structures located in separate enclaves.  Throughout this trip will be your chance to examine the building methods used in these different topographical locations at different times.  Some in canyon alcoves, others in wide open grasslands.  Hope you can join in on this tour, while you enjoy your favorite beverage, relaxing in your favorite chair.  Sign up on the CMC web under “Trips” and the link will be sent to you before showtime, on March 16 at 7pm.

This program is open to the public and members alike. Please register to receive the Zoom link the day prior.