Comb Wash Drive

We piled into the vehicle, kids and dog, and headed out of town. We are new to this dog thing because we forgot the dog's dish and food. We knew we would be well beyond the time frame for her nightly feeding. But she survived.

Our mission or adventure of the day was to drive down Comb Wash which butts up against Comb Ridge. The ridge is huge and before the roads were blasted in, crossing it must have been a nightmare. And according to Mormon history it was. Thank goodness for progress and dynamite.

We stopped in Blanding and grabbed some grub and then headed to the turn off. Once leaving the paved highway and entering the cottonwoods of Comb Wash, we stopped to let the children and dog play and pee. This would be our routine for the rest of the day. Drive a little, explore a little, pee a little, drive, etc.

To the west of Comb Ridge is Cedar Mesa. And Cedar Mesa is covered with Indian ruins so we figured that we might find some things as well. And we did. As we were rambling down the road, Benny was sitting in the very back because Jenna had taken over the back seat and he asked to pull over by this pile of rocks that had a road leading to them so him and his friend D-child could scramble. And there upon the rocks were several places of rock art. The name Curly was also scribed there which was a cowboy were ran with the Robber's Roost Gang (previous story). We also found a small granary there. And this would also be our routine as we drove down the road. Anytime there was a road off to the left, we decided there had to be something at those pile of rocks. And every time except one (which we didn't even get out to explore so there could have been) we found Indian remnants.

The next pile of rocks held some pretty interesting rock art. And as I stood there and looked at each thing, I ponder what the hell were they trying to tell me. I mean the elk (deer), bighorn, and snakes are pretty simple to figure out. Sometimes it is questioned whether the squiggly things that we think are snakes are actually canyons, but none the less what does all the rock art mean? Alien? The boys or dog didn't give a crap about any of it because they immediately headed over to the rocks and scrambled around. Which was fine to me because they weren't home playing stupid video games. Rockart

We loaded back into the vehicle, which became quite the chore with the dog. She can jump onto the couch and bed no problem, but hell no can she jump into a vehicle. Where she chose to sit was also an issue because she prefers comfort like the back seat rather than the hard back of the vehicle. She is no dummy. And then we arrived at the next road and the next pile of rocks. There didn't appear to be anything there, but BF saw a trail so we followed it and hit jackpot. We found pottery, handle, rockart, and another granary. We spent a great deal of time here. There was so much to look at. We also found another room which looked out at the place where most of the pottery and rock art was located. And the boys had a good time checking out all the pottery and of course crawling all over the rocks.

While the children and dog and I were waiting for BF to come back we all sat on this rock. Another place the dog had no problem jumping onto. When BF walked up, it was of course a perfect photograph opportunity. The dog went berserk. But she was barking and snarling at BF to the point that it was a little scary. But we finally did the photo taken and finally lifted her fat ass back into the vehicle. I have to say though she is a smart one as she learned how to drink out of a Nalgene bottle.

A little ways down the road, we came to another left hand road and drove down it, but didn't get out. Didn't look like anything was there so we drove on to a little cabin down the road. Nothing much to it but a fence, cabin, trough, and an outhouse. The boys didn't quite understand why it didn't have a toilet in it. We had to explain that sometimes it was just a hole in a board. And that JC Penny catalog pages were often the toilet paper. cabin. Look close you might see a ghost from the past in the cabin... photo

We finally hit pavement and it was time for the boys to switch seats with the dog. It would prove quite difficult to do. As you can tell by the photo it wasn't something that was that easy to do. We had to bribe her with a wheat thin. We entered the paved road, drove through the blasted part of Comb Ridge, and then turned off the dirt again on to Butler Wash Road. We were now on the east side of Comb Ridge which is also lined with ruins and the Indian's past. As we traveled along the road battling the last of daylight, we noticed several places that held beautiful ruins. However they would require hiking to see up close and personal so we planned for another day to explore and adventure.

As we hit Highway 95 for the second time that day, I glanced back at the ridge. I felt that I had just taken a drive through history and walked with the spirits. They showed me things of their past and shared with me the feeling of living in the fields and on the cliffs. And as I looked back at the ridge, I saw a silhouette on the ridge top wave saying good-bye, but don't be a stranger, visit often.

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