Bear's Ears National Monument is a large area of southeastern Utah that had been in the news when it was given protection by Obama, then greatly reduced in size by Trump, and then restored by Biden. It was a place that meant a lot to the Native American people of the area. On our recent southwest trip we wanted to see some of it. It appeared that the most popular trail was Mule Canyon to a ruin called House on Fire, so we set out to find it from our motel in Blanding, Utah. We discovered that as a very new national monument, Bear's Ears is only minimally developed, with very few signs or visitor information. After a lot of searching on bad dirt roads, we found a spot with several cars parked along the road that was the trailhead. The trail led up a beautiful little canyon and we enjoyed our walk so much that we didn't bother going all the way to the ruins. The rocks and meadows, birds and flowers were enough for us.
Two weeks after our southwest trip, we took Zim four hours south to the V6 ranch for a 4-day clinic about working with cattle. On the first full day of the clinic, the riders had to go 2.5 miles down the road to the town of Parkfield and bring back 125 yearling heifers and steers. I took some photos as they approached the horse camp, and used them for this painting.
One of the best days of our southwest trip, we went for a hike into Grand Wash, a canyon in Capitol Reef National Park that cuts through the rock formations of the park. It's a beautiful place with ever-changing views of the cliffs, and mile or so down the canyon are the narrows, where the wash is squeezed between high vertical walls. It's not so narrow as to make one claustrophobic, but it is pretty spectacular.
