They found about twenty-four archaeological sites per square mile in this area.” “Back in the Seventies,” he told me, “the Bureau of Land Management did a survey.
Hagedorn - owner of Get In The Wild Adventures - was well qualified to talk about Robbers Roost he’d been exploring the region for twenty-five years. So I decided to ask my guide, Christopher Hagedorn, for a little prehistorical background. I knew practically nothing about the ancient inhabitants of this beautiful place. I was in Robbers Roost on a canyoneering tour my second visit to Utah. How many had sought a safe path through this steep ravine? How many had scanned these canyon walls with fear and wonder, just as I was doing now? After all, human beings have inhabited this desert region for 12,000 years. But one might also argue that he was real. The man I’m describing was probably a figment of my sun-ravaged imagination. How - in the name of whichever god (or gods) he happened to worship - was he going to manage that? First, though, he must traverse this canyon. And his only objective at that particular moment was to bring food to his family. His age, height and posture were similar to mine.
Peering over the edge of a vertiginous slot canyon in Robbers Roost, my mind was seized by the image of a man.
