The Year in Review: 2019: It’s time again to present our annual feature, Rick Bell’s
Year in Review, for your viewing pleasure. This year’s focus is on our namesake
and logo, the Twin Rocks, which happen to be our closest neighbor. Living above
the Trading Post, Susie and I watch the Rocks from early morning until late at
night, and the great stone pillars seem to change with the weather, seasons,
and lighting conditions. Here’s a collection from the last twelve months under
the Twin Rocks.
January
Bluff’s International Balloon Festival occurs every January,
and it is just around the corner again. From January 17 through 19, 2020, we
will see more than twenty balloon crews in town for the 22nd Annual Festival.
Many of the balloons are inflated in the Twin Rocks Trading Post parking lot
and drift over our trademark stone sentinels.
February
Anytime during the year, we see things fly around the Twin
Rocks. They are usually the ravens that inhabit our world, but sometimes an
annoying clone will buzz around for a while. A pilot in his powered parachute circled
and circled last February in the clear winter air.
March
Most visitors to the trading post view the Twin Rocks’ east
face from the parking lot and café. A short three-minute walk around the
monuments reveal a lovely little box canyon and an entirely different view, the
west side of the Twin Rocks. The narrow gap separating the great stone pillars,
only about 18 inches apart at the bottom, is clearly visible.
April
Popcorn clouds provide a lacy backdrop for the Twin Rocks.
The time of day and season dictates the visual effect, dramatic whether in
sunshine or shadow. April in Bluff brings wonderful weather and many more
visitors to the area. There is perhaps no place in the Four Corners that
inspires as many selfies as the Twin Rocks.
May
If you approach directly from the south, only one Twin is
visible, giving the impression that is all there is. When you move a few yards
east or west, the second Twin emerges out of hiding from behind the first. We
typically see several cars a day stop on the south side and take photos of the
seemingly solitary Twin.
We have very few flowering plants in the area, but there is
a nice little blossoming tree in the backyard come summer. It seems that nobody
around here can identify the little tree, not even Priscilla. For a few months
each year, we get to enjoy its bright white blossoms outside our bedroom
window.
July
In Bluff when we have clouds in the late afternoon, we get
some pretty glorious sunsets. Depending upon the atmospheric conditions, the
colors can range from pale pink to spectacular swirls of dark purple and red.
The best place to view sunsets is from the Bluff Cemetery, located high above
town, but a close second is right behind the Twin Rocks Trading Post and Café.
August
In most years, August brings the annual monsoons coming up
from the southwest. Dramatic dark-cloud banks rise from the west and provide an
unusual backdrop for the Twins. To the Navajo people, the Twin Rocks represent
the feathered prayer sticks, called k’eet’a’an, placed there by the Holy
People to bless the Hero Twins, “Monster Slayer” and “Child Born for Water.”
September
An unusual early morning rainbow arrived just as dawn began
to illuminate the tips of the Twin Rocks. Bluff averages only about 6 inches of
moisture a year with most of it arriving during the monsoon season. In 2019,
only .02 inches of rain fell during the “rainy season,” but fortunately the
skies have opened up lately, and we have exceeded our normal annual rainfall.
October
The Twin Rocks were formed by layers of compacted
Summerville Formation shale, capped by a harder layer of Bluff Sandstone,
forming stratified tiers of stone. This entire area was a vast inland sea
during the Late Jurassic period, more than 150 million years ago. As the waters
receded, great layers of sand were deposited and solidified. Later, hard-limestone
caps formed and prevented the layers beneath it from eroding as millenniums of wind
sculpted the monuments.
November
When November arrives, the days grow shorter and the
direction of the sun moves decidedly to the south. For a brief few minutes each
morning, only one of the great monuments catches the rising sun, creating the
unusual view of one Twin in brilliant sunshine and the other in deep shadow.
December
Heavy snowfalls are relatively rare here, but Christmas
night saw a light dusting. Every season is different, and the low winter sun
paints its own subdued portrait of the Navajo Holy Twins in our side yard.
Either in the brightest direct sunlight, or the soft silvery light of evening,
the Twin Rocks are constant companions and silent next-door neighbors.
It would be remiss not to report a conversation that is
repeated daily here at the Trading Post during tourist season. Several times a
day, some variation of this conversation takes place:
Visitor: “Aren’t you worried?”
Rick: “Worried about what?”
Visitor: “Worried about those rocks falling down.”
Rick: “No. I figure if they fall, there’s a 50-50 chance
they fall in the opposite direction.”
Susie: “And if they do fall this way, we won’t even know it.
They can just place a nice bronze plaque on the rubble which says, ‘Here Lies .
. . ’”
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