Old Highway 95

 We spent five nights at our first site in Bears Ears.  Took four really fun hikes.  

On the fifth morning we decided we would head out for Black Mesa, stopping to see one of our favorite sites along the way—old Highway 95.  So, we packed up, drove up the road 2 1/2 miles, found a terrific camping site with an awesome view of the valley, and decided to toss our previous plans and stay there.  That’s the advantage of doing road trips—you don’t have to have a plan.  You can make up on the fly whatever you want to do and wherever you want to stay.  

For one thing, the site was close to our objective—old Highway 95.

We discovered this old highway five years ago while hiking in Bears Ears.  There were no signs and no history about the road.  We just sort of stumbled onto it on a hike.

It is now one of the top places we have hiked in the past 11 years.

 

We find it very moving.

And is the only one of our top places that isn’t completely nature.

So, what is it?

It is a road carved out of the side of a mountain that descends into a beautiful valley.  We cannot find any information on when it was constructed, except a geological survey marker off to the side of it, hardly noticeable, dated 1958.  What is absolutely awesome about this road is that it is carved out of the side of a mountain.  Men blasted a road where only sheer rock was before.  

It was clearly a one-lane road.  So you had to ascend and descend looking far into the distance to see if you could make it to the few spots where there was room to pass if another car was coming the other way.  There did not seem to be any guard rails.  The road was rock, so it had to be filled in continually with gravel.  You can see the unevenness of the road bed in some of the photos below.

 

Can you imagine descending this road in a 1950s car, trying not to ride the brakes? On gravel?  With no guard rails?  Was there a priest at the top who was constantly on duty to pray for you to make it?

From what we can tell from talking with people, it was closed in the early 70s, and a new route was created.  One wonders why it was even built if there was the opportunity for a more sane route all along.  We ran into a man who said he had heard that a veteran returning from Vietnam saw that they were blasting a new route for Highway 95....and cried.  

 

When we were here five years ago, a Ranger told us that a woman drove that road every day to work as a Ranger.  It was memorable enough that he remembered it....in awe we think.

We can find no information about it on the internet.  Just an abandoned part of history, much like many of the old cabins and mines we have come across on our camping road trips.

But this one really seems to “capture us.”  In this wonderful beauty of Bears Ears to see this awesome tribute to men’s skill, strength, and probably desperation.  How many died making this road?  How much were they paid? 

Who were they?

Here are some photos of our hike on old, abandoned Highway 95.   This is Vicky on the old highway--for real.  This is the road bed that had gravel put on it. 

 

 

See it below on the right and then extending down the mountainside on the left?

See it coming down from left to right?

We sat outside that afternoon, on the edge of the rock face where we were camping. (question:  how many knitting grandmas knit blankets for family in places like this?)

 

 

Looking far into the distance.  Across the valley we could see rock faces that seemed to extend for over a mile.  They can be seen in the photo.  

 

 

 

We decided that tomorrow we would try to get down off of our high rock face and work out way to the rock face on the far side and see if we could follow it to look into the canyon where our road to the valley was.

 

Sounds like an adventure, huh?  We were excited.

 

So, the next morning, we set off down into the valley, working our way down the cliffs, not following any trails, just trying to see where we might descend safely.  Making it up as we went.  We found a route down.

 

 

And then we walked across the rock face on the far side of the valley. Isn't it something?

 

Then we came to an overlook where we could see “our” road.  It was glorious.  You can see the road carved into the wall of the canyon across the way.  It's unbelievable.

 

 

 

 

Turning around, you can see, in the far distance, our camper high on the mountain.  About right in the middle.