Utah to Arizona: the roadkill route

The Barton's with 6 of their children.  Mrs. Barton died
just after the birth of her 7th child.

We stumbled upon Bluff Fort in Bluff, Utah.  This is a historical site so we stopped.  Glad we did.

This fort was established in 1880 by a group of Mormons-the Barton Clan. 

We toured the cabins and other building that were on display.  The oldest cabin was the original Barton home from 1880.  They created it by combining three one-room log cabins and putting a sod roof over everything.   The sod roof was constructed using narrow trunks from cottonwood trees which grew in the area.  These cottonwoods were laid tightly together over the centre beam of the roof.  Then, they were covered with a layer of burlap, which was then covered by a layer of sand.  Seeds were planted in the sand-usually sunflowers or stinkweed.  The sod roof was a good insulator, keeping the cabin warm in winter and cool in summer.  It wasn't good in wet weather.  It leaked.  During rain, the roof continued to drip constantly, long after the rain had stopped. 

Sod-roofed Barton homestead

The entire cabin was one room. Kitchen was the
small desk in the front right corner of the picture.

Early RV.

Trivia tidbit-we passed by the only place in the USA where 4 states corners meet.  These states are Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and  Arizona.

In northern Arizona the landscape continues to be spectacular rock formations.

Spectacular highway view

As we travelled south along highway 191 we saw roadsigns that said "Open Range" and it had a picture of a cow. 

We soon learned that this meant the livestock was roaming freely.  We have a whole new meaning to the term, "Holey Cow."  Literally!  There was a dead cow lying in the ditch at the side of the road, dead.  Hit by a vehicle.  (Hey, Elaine-maybe hold up on that beef order! Perhaps we can scoop a cow here. Just kidding.) Then we saw another one.  Then we saw a dead horse lying right beside the road.  We talked about the likelihood of actually hitting a slow moving cow and how impossible it seemed to be.  Certainly a driver can see a side of beef that big in time to slow down to avoid it?  Then, we rounded a bend and there were two horses grazing, just feet away from us on the road.  We were so surprised that we came upon them that quickly, and we sure didn't see them in advance.
Next, we saw some activity in the ditch so we slowed down.  Yuck.  It was a dead horse, being eaten by two wild dogs (we really aren't sure if they're dogs-we don't know what they are.)  We turned around to get the picture.  The van window was rolled down all the way to get a better picture.  Very bad idea.  Dead horses smell really, really bad.  Got the picture and had to breathe through our mouths for the next few miles.

Dead horse with wild animal which was eating it.  Bad smell!

Altogether, we saw a herd of sheep, numerous horses, many cows and even a bull, not to mention just the regular deer, on the side of the road.

Flock of sheep being herded by 3 dogs.  Speed limit - 65 miles per hour.

Roadside horses.  Handy if you run out of gas.

On their way to McDonald's.

We took this roadkill route so that we could see Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Chinle, Arizona.  It's within the Navajo Nation-a very different place.  Another country within the USA. 

Spider Rock within Canyon de Chelly National Park