About ten miles out from the areas that have been excavated, the archeologists stumbled on a fascinating discovery, when they weren’t even looking. There is huge ditch around the perimeter (something like 50 square miles). Inside the ditch there is a very high wall. At first they thought the ditches were canals—but they are sandstone and don’t hold any water. Eventually the archeologists determined that it was an amazing fortification. Does that sound familiar? Captain Moroni was indeed a military genius. This form of fortification has been written up in National Geographic. Brother Navas has copies of many interesting resources for us to read on the way. We also listened to some CD’s by John Lund (who was the Book of Mormon scholar on the cruise we took several years ago).
We were the last ones out of the park at 6:00 PM. The other stragglers were apparently staying in the hotels within the park, because the parking lots were empty. What an incredible day – and with the great weather, no one even gave out during the exploration.