Hovenweep :: The Holly Group

The ruins of the Square Tower Group are the most accessible since they are only a few hundred yards from the Visitors Center. Another site relatively close by (a four mile hike, one way) is the Holly Group, which was named for Jim Holley who ranched and traded in that area during the late 1800s. (Did you notice the spelling variation?)

On the morning after my arrival at Hovenweep, I made the four mile trek to Keeley Canyon to visit the Holly Group. The trail was described as primitive and moderately strenuous. Near the beginning of the trail you had to scramble over some boulders then go through a narrow (I had to go sideways most of the way), seemingly long, passageway between two very, very, large boulders. If you were claustrophobic, you might have a problem! But you could see light at the other end. Once beyond that there was a little more rock scrambling but when you got down to the bottom it was a mostly sandy trail for the next two miles. You did have to go down, through, and up the sides of several dry gulches and there were ladders in several places to get you down/up the steeper places.

It was a quite pleasant walk. The morning started out cool but quickly warmed up. It was quiet, as only nature can be. A light breeze rustled the trees. The birds were chirping and serenading each other and me. Now and then movement in a nearby bush, by some unseen critter. Blue skies punctuated with puffy, wispy clouds. Sunshine.

The last mile also entailed some boulder scrambling and a narrow passageway, but it wasn't as big or as long as the first one. At some point along the trail, I'm not exactly sure where, you cross over from Utah into Colorado.

The structure on the left is the largest that is still standing. In the middle is what they called Boulder House, and on the right are several other ruins, including Tilted Tower (behind the small building). The National Park Service uses the nomenclature of “house” for many of the buildings but, in fact, the actual use or purpose of the structures is not known.

From across the canyon are the same three buildings as in the first picture. Boulder House is on the far right.


Two views of the Boulder House, both from the east side.

According to NPS literature, “Boulder House was built sometime after A.D. 1200. It appears that the tower was constructed without outside scaffolding. Each floor was built from the inside, one floor at a time, building upward.”

Detail of the foundation of Boulder House.

The structure on the left is called Tilted Tower, for obvious reasons. Sometime after the Ancestral Puebloan people left, the sandstone boulder it was built upon shifted and slipped sideways into the canyon. The upper stories of the tower fell on the boulder and into the canyon. To me, the incredible thing is that even a portion of it remains standing.

Tilted Tower. It almost looks like someone came along with a gigantic saw and cut the end off of that boulder!

Photographs taken on May 19, ...

Urge for Spring

In going through some of my photos I found this shot of some cherry blossoms I took last year. My urge for spring is getting stronger every day.

Thanks Sheri...

While sitting in the auto repair shop in Oakhurst, I had contacted Sheri Fenley (The Educated Genealogist) to see if we could meet up for a day or two. She had been unable to attend the Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank earlier in the month and since I was (sort of) in the area I thought I'd stop by to see her on my way north.

It was a relatively short drive of 150 miles or so from Yosemite to Stockton and I arrived at Sheri's place about noon on Saturday (June 26th). It was non-stop talking for the next 10 hours and most of the day on Sunday! What did we talk about? Our families and Genealogy, of course!

On Sunday, I joined Sheri and a few members of her APG Chapter for lunch and a behind the scenes tour of the San Mateo Historical Museum Archives in Redwood City. It was nice to meet some of her cohorts and see the resources available in San Mateo. Sheri wrote a little about that excursion.

Monday morning photos as I was leaving.

Sheri was saying “Goodbye, Becky!”

Thank you, Sheri, for being a gracious hostess. I very much enjoyed meeting your family and spending time with you. Thank you, Thank you!

Aurora Surprise!

I had gotten home from work yesterday evening and was pretty tired so after an early dinner I laid down for a nap. I woke at 9:00 PM and decided to check spaceweather.com to see if there were any CME's (Coronal Mass Ejections from the sun) recorded during the day. To my surprise, there was a fresh Aurora picture and news of a CME that hit our atmosphere earlier that evening! I then checked the Auroral oval and the kp index which indicated STORM level, so within a few minutes my photography gear was loaded in the truck and off I went to do some shooting.




I spent the next 6 hours making images of the Northern Lights. I went to several different locations and recorded several hundred images throughout the night, including some sequences that I combined into a timelapse video. The most intense and colorful lights occurred between 2:00 and 3:00 AM, with pillars of light dancing sideways across the sky, dominated ultimately by some deep red hues. It was a fascinating night of picture-taking and Aurora-watching!

Saturday 12/11 conditions check

Here's a few photos from our drive to check conditions. 38° and sunny. Tommorrow calls for rain. Then the temps are to drop into the teens and single digits again. Season is underway.

Overview of local conditions

Early season taunting of the SICK-le



While We're Still In Northeast

(From left to right-standing: Nick& Kiki Kendros, Pota& Peter Cokinos, Kalliope Cokinos)

Middle Row-Catherine Cokinos w/big bow, little George Cokinos

Seated:Bill Maofis and Harry Tagalos)



So I was looking in old photo albums when I found a picture of the Kendros and Cokinos families. Dad's been reading a bunch of crime books by a certain local writer with a Greek background, and it came back to him that our families have crossed paths and were all part of that H street scene.



I wanted to know more. (What else is new?) so I hooked Dad up with Ruby Kendros Pelecanos who is sharp as a tack, and sort of a cousin. She was born right around the corner from our family at 808 K Street. Her Dad, Nick Kendros, had the Woodward Sandwich Shop at 1422 H Street in the 1920s. She also remembered Bill Maofis who had a dry cleaner across H from our family's candy shop. Bill was godfather to my Uncle Nick and to Ruby as well. Her maternal grandfather, Harry Tagalos was great friends with our grandfather, Peter Cokinos, and her paternal grandmother, Economia was first cousins with him as well. (Peter that is) (Yep, my head hurts,too) And a lot of them made the trip from the tiny hamlet of Agoulnitsa, Greece all the way over here, so along with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, they got this city rolling. Hats off to those urban pioneers.

Ginkgo biloba

The changing leaves of fall.

Surreal Sky

I am always on the lookout for interesting clouds to photograph, and this morning I definitely saw some interesting ones. The clouds shown in this photo were very high altitude and held their shape for a very long time. I shot this photo with my Canon 100-400mm lens at 400mm.

New Visitor Center Sneak Peek

Being a "Mount Rainier VIP" (did you realize that volunteers are labeled "VIPs" because they are "Volunteers In Parks?") allowed me to recently take a private tour of the new Jackson Visitor Center and remodeled Paradise Inn.

Both are still under construction (which has consumed the Paradise upper lot for the last 2 summers) but thankfully, that construction is drawing to a close this year. The Paradise Inn will re-open in May and the new Jackson Visitor Center is scheduled to re-open this October.

Exploring the bowels of a major construction site was a fascinating and educational experience. The first notable surprise was how many people were actually involved in the project, and the variety of different tasks they were all doing.

Project safety manager Derek Burr (my tour guide) says there are about 30-40 people working on the visitor center site on any given day. The various specialists include (but are not limited to!):

• Heavy equipment operators
• Carpenters
• Pipe fitters
• Sprinkler pipe fitters
• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Sheet rock workers
• Earth workers
• HVAC technicians
• Iron workers
• Sheet metal workers

Another interesting fact about the visitor center construction site is that it features a "Dance Floor." Not your Saturday Night Fever variety, but a giant platform -- nicknamed the Dance Floor -- that is suspended 24 feet in the air. Above that false floor is another 24 more feet of scaffolding that enables workers access to the fifty-foot high pitched ceilings.

Burr notes that working on the high ceiling was one of the most challenging elements of the project. The Dance Floor was created because they couldn't fit a "lift" inside the doorway of the building.

Another cool feature of this project -- designed to address the weather challenges of Paradise -- is a scaffolding that extends beyond the roof-line by 10 feet. "That way that people can work on the outside of the building from the inside, without being killed by snow falling off the roof,” says Burr.

There are even more people working at the Paradise Inn-- 40-50, says Burr. The goal is to rehabilitate the 86-year old building so that it retains its rustic feel but can better withstand the ravages of time and weather.

To make the building stronger while keeping the historic atmosphere, many of the original beams, planks, and logs in the walls and floors were taken out, reinforced with concrete and steel, and then put back. The Inn has seen a lot of wear and tear over the years. Earthquakes and large snow-loads have made the floor uneven, pushed on the walls and created gaps and even some trenches throughout the structure.

One such trench in the corner of the dining room was so big that Burr wondered if “they were gonna dig up some skeletons?” Seriously though, an NPS archaeologist did examine the area and thankfully, no skeletons were found (Remember... Redrum...).

One big challenge for this type of construction project is to keep employees working at Paradise. "It's not an easy job," says Burr. To those of us who visit Paradise for those gorgeous views and hikes, it might be hard to imagine what could be so difficult about working there. (It beats a cubicle, doesn't it?) But the commute is quite long and many of the workers reside in temporary housing. And then of course, there is always the threat of crashing your truck on a slick icy road that is threatened by avalanches, or the joy of digging it out of the snow daily.

Burr, however, has enjoyed the job and his surroundings. "Some people don't even like to look at the view. But I take as many pictures as I can." Photos by Burr, Agiewich and NPS.

Chamonix '11?

Day 3 in Chamonix. No avalanches, Police stations, Emergency rooms, Doctor's offices or lost gear today. And thankfully no one died. We seem to be on a roll now. Of course going from sea level to 11K feet has a few draw backs but that is easy (although painful) to fix.

The climbers above are on thethe NW face of the Midi and is taken from the stationwalk way. (Goulotte Profit / Perroux III 4, M5 I think?)A short climb I hope to get on by next week when I can actually breath and climb at 3800m /11k. Today it was hard enough just skiing down.



Sunset from the Midistation after doing the Cosmic Arete with 20cm of new snow and acold wind @ -18C.

Wordless Wednesday - Icelandic Sunset

Near Keflavik, Iceland. Summer of 1973.Copyright © 1973/.. by Rebeckah R. Wiseman

Fully Summer

Optimal route condition and great weather systems are starting to line up with one another. Longer trail approaches on the West Side of the mountain are melting out which facilitates access to some rarely climbed gems. The freezing level has been hovering between 12,000 feet to 14,000 feet making for comfortable climbs. Mid-July has historically been the busiest time up high on the mountain - and for good reason.



Crevasses are starting to open wider, and as the summer wears on, the routes that navigate along glaciers become more circuitous. Longer summit climbs aren't necessarily the worst thing, but they can put climbers crossing bridges and overhangs during the warmest part of the day.



Notable events in the last week include a posse of "mono-skiers" on the Muir Snowfield, the opening of the new Carbon River Ranger Station in the often overlooked northwestern part of the park, and black bears starting to make their way into the alpine meadows. Come on up and enjoy prime-time at the park!

Gretton - Bulwick - Deene - Gretton

10 miles. With Maureen and Eddie. Fine, sunny, rather windy and cool.





We set off from Gretton Village Hall, and followed the Jurassic Way as far as Harringworth Lodge and the lake. At the end of the lake, we turned right just after a hedge, instead of left towards the Lodge. We crossed two fields then the minor road between Deene and Spanhoe. The path continues in a straight line across four fields towards a small wood, called Bantrup Bushes. At that point we turned left and shortly after the end of the wood, right, following the hedge until we turned right on to a track which joins Red Lodge Road and crosses the A43 by a bridge.





The road turns left, and joins the main village road, where we turned right. There is a bridge over the Willow Brook.

We made our way to the church, opposite the Queen's Head pub.

Harvest festival display in St Nicholas church, Bulwick.

We moseyed around the church and stopped for a break on a handy bench.





We took the path between some houses and the pub car park over a stile into a field. This leads past Bulwick Hall, though there is not much to see from here. We should have kept straight across and then crossed the ploughed field ahead of us, but made an unnecessary detour - this meant we did see the Hall. I blame the footpath signs - I'm sure they are there somewhere.

This fine gateway may once have been the main entrance to Bulwick Hall.





After a bit of off-track wandering we found the correct route on the opposite side of the A43. It is marked at each side, but the signs are not clear, though there are better ones just away from the road itself.





Down we went, over the bridge, following a path through the wood and then into a rather boggy section - not to be recommended after wet weather, though it proved passable today. The path crosses a couple of fields and goes past this monument:







apparently erected in 2000 by or to EB and MB sacred to the memory of their parents (Brudenell , who live at Deene House). More infoor at any rate some entertaining guesses.





The path continues down to the road past the old school house and into Deene. Before the road begins to climb uphill, the path goes to the left, behind Home Farm, and makes for the upper side of a piece of woodland called The Rookery.





We crossed a narrow band of trees, went through a deer-proof gate and continued across a large grass field and a smaller one, then joined a track at right angles, turning right towards Kirby Lane, coming out opposite the gate to Kirby Hall.





We walked down the road to the Hall, past the shop (ice-creams available!) and up the grass to a rather wobbly stile. Down across the field to the right of the trees, and climb the four stiles in a row as a special treat to access the field leading to the lane to Gretton.





Then back to the village hall.





Wildlife - a few kites, one being mobbed by crows; some rabbits, a squirrel.