Moki Dugway & Muley Point

In early April we began planning several hikes, with our friends John & Mary, to explore ruins in the Cedar Mesa area of Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah.  One of the decisions we had to make was which route we would take to get there.  If you're not familiar with Cedar Mesa, here's a spoiler alert . . . it's a long way to get to no matter which route you choose!  Deciding to come in from Mexican Hat, Utah, we used the Moki Dugway to get us on top of Cedar Mesa where we spent a couple of days camping and visiting ruins of the "Ancient Ones."

Driving through Monument Valley on our way to Mexican Hat . . .
The storm clouds made for a dramatic backdrop

Do you the sombrero shaped rock called Mexican Hat in the foreground? 
 Behind it are the tri-colored rock layers of Raplee Ridge or monocline 

The Moki Dugway is a 3-mile long, unpaved road with steep switchbacks carved into the hillside . . . 
It gains 1200 ft of elevation as it winds its way up to the top of Cedar Mesa

As you can see there are no guardrails . . . but there are great views!

The road is part of HWY 261 and was constructed in 1959 to move uranium ore
from Fry Canyon to a processing plant in Mexican Hat . . . what an engineering marvel!

From this vantage point we had excellent views of Valley of the Gods 

John & Mary at Muley Point
This short side trip from the top of Moki Dugway provided us with amazing panoramic views . . .
Behind John & Mary you can see the Goosenecks of the San Juan River and Monument Valley in the distance

After Kent discovered there was a Benchmark near Muley Point,
he decided it was time to introduce John & Mary to the intriguing world of geodetic markers 

Lee Benchmark was placed here in 1936 . . . we also found two Reference marks

We located a nice, quiet dispersed campsite that we used as a base camp for our hikes 

After a day on the road we were hungry!

A beautiful sunset . . .
It was a good way to end a good day! Tomorrow we'll begin exploring the hidden ruins of Cedar Mesa!

It's always nice when a day that wasn't full of high expectations turns into one that was filled with unexpected surprises.  If this day was any indication of what lies ahead, we are in for some good days of exploration!  Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds as we explore The Citadel.