Czech Plush Monkey's Adventures!
Monkey sees and does stuff.

Fluted Rock
el. 8304' + Opice

Monkey reaches the summit in the comfort of his companion's backpack.

"I had to ride. This air is too high for breathing. I'm a sea-level monkey."

Should you wonder if that makes him a sea monkey...

"I heard that! Don't go there," he warns.

The view from the top.
The Road Mistaken
(apologies to Robert Frost)

2 roads split beside a piney wood,
And sorry, I've got no time for both
So this here traveler did as should
Climbed a rock from which I could
See where each one went.

Now I'm telling this from on high
Atop my vantage a little tense
2 roads split beside a wood, and I--
Chose the one looked best from sky
And blew the other off.

Opice pointedly redirects the conversation, "The view is spectacular!" He follows-up with a question. "Where's the flutes? I don't hear any flutes."

What Monkey doesn't understand is he's standing on them. Fluted Rock is a volcanic remnant north north (north) west of Window Rock, a bit south (and east) of the intersection of Navajo Highways 28 and 7. It's name comes from the polygon shaped rock columns comprising it. As they break off they leave a fluted edge around the lava core.

 
Looks like dragon skin, don't it?

<~~
Sort of an aerial view left.

 

Close-up of left at right.
      
~~>

close-up

Monkey gets it and lays down atop one of the weathered 6 sided rock "pillows."

"So it's all like I'm on top of a pedestal and I can look up and see the entire sky and no one else is doing this but me. Cool. I rule."

Opice's traveling companions sort out why the basalt took on these shapes while he continues to bask in the glory of his oneness with the rock, the

Fluted Rock rest

mountain, the reservation, and the earth. "I'm all," he keeps repeating like a mantra.
(Don't disturb him. He's being quiet.)

When this magma cooled it shrank on all axes. By the nature of the material it cracked at approx. 120° angels to the plane thus tending to form hexagonal posts.

"I knew that," Monkey butts in.

Devil's Postpile formed much the same way as Fluted Rock. 

On to or back to Regional Tour,
or (ditto)
Natural Arch,
or the
Hubbell T.P.,
or
Stone Hogan.

Restart the
SouthWest Tour 2005
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