Mexican Hat from the San Juan

I took the reference photos for this synth while on a float trip down the San Juan river between Bluff, Utah and Mexican Hat, Utah in late August, 2009. We went with Wild Rivers Expeditions http://www.riversandruins.com/ on their 1-day upper canyon tour. The guide who took us was named Marcos, and he had deep knowledge of the geology of San Juan Canyon. He also had a tremendous knowledge of the archeological sites in the canyon and was able to draw on his Navajo background to help interpret many of the petroglyphs we saw.

But back to Mexican Hat. The legend, paraphrased from the story Marcos told (Marcos was also good with legends, stories, and bad jokes,) is this: a Mexican fellow fell in love with a ravishingly beautiful Navajo woman. The problem was that the woman was married. The woman would go down to the San Juan river to bathe every day. The man watched her every day and eventually started talking to her. Soon, they fell in love. Finally one day the Mexican man and Navajo woman decided to consummate their love, and it was that fateful day that the Navajo woman's husband decided to see why his wife enjoyed bathing every day. Well, he found out, and in a fit of rage, the Navajo husband killed his wife. The Mexican man was so overwhelmed with grief that he threw his large, Mexican sombrero high into the air where the wind caught it and left it atop this pinnacle of rocks. The sombrero remains to this day as a testament of the Mexican man and Navajo woman's love.

Aren't legends fun?