We spy the Monument namesake, Bears Ears Buttes. We are out along Colorado 95 checking out Puebloan ruins and get a pretty good outline on the horizon.

Stop one is Edge of Cedars State Park Museum just outside of the Monument in Blanding.  They house a large collection of Ancestral Puebloan pottery and artifacts wonderfully displayed and curated. Stuff I didn’t know or never saw: stone arrowheads on a yucca strand to be carried like an ammo cartridge, a chart comparing the eras of world civilizations – the Anasazi span is remarkable, a sculpture demonstrating the use of shadow and sun-light beams for telling seasons and “time”.   We have made our way through a number of museums housing similar artifacts.  It is fantastic to come across something new.  There is a partially excavated and restored Pueblo Village on the ground.  We explore including checking out the inside of the Kiva.  Edge of Cedars is definitely worth a stop.

Bears Ears NM claims over 100,000 cataloged archeological sites scattered on cliff edges, atop mesas, in washes, and in streambeds.  Many have not been explored or fully documented.  We check out a few of the more accessible ones.  Alcove dwellings great and small, some amazingly intact others eroded and looted.  Remnants of cliff-top towers that stood guard or maybe provided elevation to communicate over distance.  Circular Kivas, the space for rituals or the mundane or probably both.  There is still a lot to learn about all these ancient civilizations and those doing the studying are trying desperately to keep looters and even casual hikers from spoiling the finds.  They have a whole set of rules here that parallels the hiker’s mantra, “Leave no trace” but goes on to admonish all to follow unique site protective guidelines.  This place definitely deserves at a minimum, the protections afforded by National Monument status.