I DRIVE MY RENTED RED CHEVY CRUZE AS DEEP INTO BEARS EARS as it will go. When the rocks and ruts get too big in the national monument in southeast Utah, I park. Kitty Calhoun—who has guided ice, rock, and alpine climbs across the world for four decades—grabs her pack stuffed with snacks and water and sets off for a trail that will take us to the Citadel Ruins, a rock formation with an ancient Pueblo ruin built into its side.
We hike along the top of Road Canyon. Across the canyon, to our left, horizontal lines in the brick-red rock look like a child’s attempt to put icing on the side of a cake. Green desert plants dot the cake like candy decorations. Beyond the canyon, the two buttes that give Bears Ears its name dominate the landscape.
Calhoun glides atop the uneven terrain like a dancer, as if the rocks and ledges and cacti that will grab my ankles in the three days we’ll spend hiking, scrambling, and rock climbing in Utah, aren’t there. We shimmy down between two boulders, shuffle through a crevice, and emerge onto slick rock. We make a U-turn and walk along a shelf just below where we were moments ago. Now the canyon drops off to our right. We know we’re close to the Citadel, but a knob of rocks obscures our
