2020 Winter Camping Trip Day17-Deer Creek Hike

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day17, 2020/12/12

Deer Creek

We started hiking in Deer Creek, then it started snowing. It was very cold! Brrrrr. Although it was cold, the snow view was pretty. Brown rocks with powdery white snow...that reminded me of chocolate cake with powder sugar decoration. Big cake.

Deer Creek hike is a hike along the Deer Creek (obviously). I fell a couple of times because there was ice under the snow. It was a little dangerous and the temperature was even decreasing a lot, so we turn around after a mile of hiking in. The temperature was negative in F, and probably -20C. This trailhead is along the paved road, but it is really small road and we weren't sure if it would be plowed, so we decided to go back to the main road area. 

Fremont foe or enemy or friends?

Ancestral Pueblo and Fremont culture difference

On the way we stopped by Anasazi State Park Museum. This was a great opportunity to learn Native Americans, Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) culture. The place is actually where they lived and you can see the remnant of their home. These ancestral Puebloans are different from Fremont people (I mentioned Fremont culture on the previous entry on Day16). This site here at the museum, Coombs site, is the border of ancestral Puebloan and Fremont culture. As you can see in the panel in the left, Fremont and this Coombs site are close. There are proofs Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan were trading. It is interesting to see how culture is different in the two cultures. As it is stated in the description, Ancestral Pueblons' potteries are thin and highly decorated. Their mug is in the display. It is a nice decoration actually. It looks like mathematical pattern.  

 

mug

The big mystery of these Ancestral Puebloan is that they lived here from around A.D.1129 then left about A.D.1175 and then never returned. It might be because lack of resource since drought began around A.D.1150. Maybe it got more competitive for the resource with other tribes. Maybe there were conflicts within Ancestral Puebloan. It is not possible to know now, but it is fun thinking about that. Interestingly, when they left the site, they probably intentionally burned the site, however, still structure is left as it is. 

Coombs site

There are many rooms and some rooms has fire pit. I was surprised how small the fire pit is. It is much smaller than my campfire. Well, they probably needed to ration logs. Clearly, the fire for them was not for fun but to survive. Mr.N said that my size of fire for sure burns their house.

After they migrated, it is believed that they became members of tribes now in South West of United States. This visit was really interesting!

What a beautiful view

Then we headed back to the main road. The view was completely different compared to a couple of days ago. Wow. Snow in the desert is quite rare scene to see. It was wonderful! Storm was gone and blue sky came. What a contrast with snow covered rocks and blue sky. It was really really beautiful. 

snowy Bryce

Then we got an idea, "Let's go back to see snowy hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park!" We saw some snow covered hoodoos! We enjoyed seeing those for some time, but I got super cold, since it was -23C (-9F). -18C was OK but below -20C was really tough for me. So we went to a motel. First time in this trip sleeping on actual bed with electricity. I set the temperature at 80F on the heater. First time in 2 weeks using shampoo, hot water, and Wifi. What a....what a luxurious day. Bryce area would be sunny on the next day, so we decided to take a rest and come back next morning.