Yesterday turned into one cool find. The past few months I have been based out of the Cedar Mesa/Bears Ears/Grand Gulch/Mesa Verde area. The Archaeology and the density of human occupation sites going back over two thousand years is a bit overwhelming. I have found though, that ya gotta do a bit of hiking to find the ones not yet found by the general public. Yesterdays hike involved around fourhundred feet of elevation loss and gain. Not too bad for such an old fart I figure. - Found what was probably a seasonal use, three room structure with a roof that came with an eighthundred year warranty. Also found a mano and matate left just as it was used for grinding corn then as well.
Very cool.
I renamed my buddy Dr. D after taking this shot. The D is for Defies. - Defies Death. :)
He then kept saying COOL! ........... COOOL!! So I followed..
What they did was to chop holes into the rock. Into those, they put Juniper/Cedar posts. That is how they kept it from sliding off the face. You can see that the floor inside is all fill to level it out.
I realize this stuff is about as interesting as watching paint dry to many if not most. But, it trips my trigger.
Found this yesterday. It took me a while too. There is an old saying that goes, "If it was a snake it would have bitten me." That was true for this petroglyph as it was flat, underneath an overhanging boulder. The curvy line across the target is the shadow line cast onto the "target" at midday, at either a solstice or equinox.
We love exploring and discovery of ruins and rock art. We lived in Southwest for a time.
This spring we finally checked off a lifelong bucket list item for me. We made it to Chaco Canyon Cultural National Park. For anyone intrigued by the indigenous cultures this is a must.
One amazing place for sure. The culture's influence and building styles were far-reaching too.
I was at a site this past week. It was a large pueblo built at the headend of a canyon. All of the structures had tumbled down except for one still standing. It said, Chaco. It looked so out of place with all of the carefully faced stonework surrounded by jumbles of piled rock.