Roads Less Traveled

We are back in western Colorado, we went on an amazing adventure with neighbors ML and D. (Brave souls they were! Little did they know that we can't resist finding out where an unknown road leads!)
We initially took off into Utah to see the petroglyphs and pictographs north of Thompson Springs, Utah; in the Sego Canyon. An amazing collection of native art from as long ago as 2,000 years; to as recent as the 1880's, before the Utes, the last Indians that inhabited western Colorado and Utah; were put onto reservations.
The outdoor art of the picotgraphs and petroglyphs, on the sandstone cliffs represent spiritual visions, clan symbols or records of events.
The first photos are the rock with numerous pictographs from the Barrier Canyon people that lived in the area as long ago as 2,000 years. We wondered at some of the figures who have heads with antenae and appear almost Martian like (did they see outer space beings or did the creators of Martian figures use these these as a basis for their science fiction!).


The next panel is a combination of the Barrier Canyon art with art with the later Fremont that lived in the area from 600 to 1200AD. The first photo is the cliff from a distance and the second is the closeup of the art. Some of the Fremont art is superimposed over the older Barrier Canyon art.


From the petroglyphs we followed the Sego Canyon along the creek a ways, on foot.

Coal was discovered in the Segpo Canyon in the 1890's and mining operations were started. All have been abandoned and Sego is now one of Utah's ghost towns. We first came to a Sego Cemetary on a hill. It was so peaceful and very typical of an old west cemetary.


We continued on up the Sego Canyon to the ghost town. Remants of numerous bridges were evident, although we only saw one that had any timbers left on the road bed. During the mining days the road and bridges served as the road to remove coal from the canyon. Now there is little traffic and the bridges were left to deteriorate and you now cross the creek bed on the road is many places (not a place to be if a sudden downpour were to come up!).
The next photo are of the remaining bridge structure.

The next photos are of one of the old mine entrances and the store and company headquarters form the mining era of the Sego Coal mine.



At this point we were about 5 miles or so from I-70 and this will be the last time we see a vehicle of any kind until we get back close to I-70. We had seen a road sign for Segers Canyon 8 miles at a fork in the road when we were heading up Sego Canyon and the start of the road looked very interesting. Oh, we couldn't resist this one!
We started up the one lane dirt road and wound our way up to the top of a mesa, with breathtaking views of the canyon below and the mountains in the very far distant horizon.

From this point we literally dropped into the Segers Canyon on what farmer Ken thought must be about a 30% grade. The road again crossed the creek bed several times, until the road became the creek bed!

Wonderful beauty and great fun.
Several times we questioned if we should turn around and go back the way we had come or keep going and try to get out. The road came out of the creek bed and we followed it across a plateau, until it was obvious that it was more of a ranch road and we could see a few tracks of other vehicles having been there at some point. We did finally come to the old highway and found access to I-70. Once we were traveling bakc to Colorado on I-70, the comment was made that it was really boring!
Having always thought we would turn around and go back out of Segers Canyon, the way we had come; I didn't take many photos. We definitely have many wonderful scenes etched in our minds from our adventure.
As always, remember to take the roads less traveled! You never know what beauties of nature await you!