Navajo Blanket Ridge

(Click image to enlarge)

My wife has long speculated that patterns in the eroded ridge originally inspired some of the zig-zag patterns that appear in Navajo blankets. If one studies this area for a while many repeating patterns can be discovered.

The photograph above contains a deceptively expansive view. The butte in the right foreground is 360 feet high and 3.3 miles away. From this vantage point it is 8.5 miles to the base of the zig-zag ridge, 19 miles to the stone monument in the upper left of the image, and 63 miles to the distant mountains in the middle top of the image.

Extremely few vast and unpopulated landscapes remain in America. Ongoing development and tourism are shrinking them every day. I think places like these are good for the human spirit, soul, or whatever you like to call it. Once developed these places are lost forever, so it is in our collective best interest to preserve them.