The World's Most Beautiful Places
This is a view of Delicate Arch at sunset as a spring thunderstorm passes through the area. Delicate Arch is located in Arches National Park, which is just north of Moab, Utah. The geologic Entrada sandstone layer that covers much of the park is ideal for creating natural arches over thousands and millions of years, through a combination of wind and water erosion, as well as from the seasonal freeze and thaw cycle.
The Anasazi were a people known to have inhabited the four corners region of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, from approximately 100 AD, until 1600 AD. Known academically as the Ancestral Puebloans, they went through a number of phases of development, going through a variety phases from the Basketmaker II-III stages, up through the Pueblo I-IV phases. Each phase is marked by increasing technological sophistication in their development, both in food production, and housing. The Basketmaker culture was known primarily as semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, that ultimately evolved into a society situated in well established cliff dwelling agricultural communities that grew crops of corn, beans, and squash in the canyons of the Colorado Plateau in the American Southwest.
The Ancestral Puebloans were among four major pre-Colombian native cultural traditions to exist in the southwest. The others include the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Patayan.
The most prominent archaeological examples of the Anasazi culture, can be found today at Mesa Verde NP (Colorado), Hovenweep NM (Utah), Chaco Canyon NHP (New Mexico), Canyon De Chelly NM (Arizona), Canyons of the Ancients NM (Colorado), Bandelier NM (New Mexico), Navajo NM (Arizona), and Bears Ears NM (Utah).
A number of theories exist as to what happened to the Anasazi, but one thing that seems certain is that they didn’t really disappear, but instead migrated to other areas of the southwest, and evolved into the puebloan cultures found today in Arizona and New Mexico. Including the Acoma, Zuni and Hopi.
There is also a strong indication that they shared a connection with the Fremont Indians that inhabited much of Utah outside of the four corners area, during the same time period.
Mt Timpanogos is an 11,752 ft peak in the Wasatch Mountain Range that rises above the surrounding Utah and Heber Valleys. Even though the shortest hike to its summit is more than 14 miles, it is one of the most hiked mountain peaks in the Rocky Mountains. The two primary trails to it summit are from Aspen Grove via Provo Canyon and the Alpine Loop near Sundance Resort, and the Timpooneke Campground in American Fork Canyon.
The mountain derives its name from a Native American tribe that inhabited the area around the mountain at the time of the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in Utah.
In addition to being a designated wilderness area, the mountain also hosts a national monument near its base, that was setup to protect beautiful cave system discovered by various individuals between 1887 and 1921.
It has been said that the mountain resembles a sleeping indian princess, and that its a legend that came from local tribes, but its more likely the tale as its known today came from Eugene Lusk “Timp” Roberts, a professor at Brigham Young University, who was trying to promote the mountain to the world. Roberts was also the creator of an annual one day hike that attracted thousands of people between 1911 and 1970. The hiking event was ultimately cancelled due to the damage being done to the mountain over the years.
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