Fallen Roof Ruins, Bears Ears National Monument, UT. (John Voss / Doonerak Photography)

There are wild places that echo the past and invite us to imagine life lived very differently. Bears Ears is one of those places. I’ve been there a few times, most memorably with my family backpacking into Grand Gulch one April Spring Break. We camped in a wash below several ruins where we could still see undisturbed pottery shards in the midden of a five room house, 700 year old cedar roof support logs still in place. We still talk about that trip.

Fallen Roof Ruins is off-trail down a remote canyon many miles from the roads of Cedar Mesa. I perched myself and my tripod on the very edge of a 100 foot canyon and used my widest lens to photograph the ruins. Anasazi ruins are typically high on the rock walls and face south for winter warmth, and are often hard  to reach, so as to provide protection from enemy tribes and wild animals. After taking a few photographs of this site, I sat to watch the sun traverse the cliffs  directly opposite, surmising what it must have been like to live an elemental existence so long ago.

Places like Bears Ears deserve our protection. Here is a link to the Protect Bears Ears Coalition for more information, as well as a YouTube link featuring the Monument.