Today I drove part of the canyon with a Navajo guide. I picked him up at the Visitors center after registering and we were off. His fee is $15 an hour - a real bargain that gets you into the canyon and gets you a trained, tested and certified guide.
Although we were in the canyon 5 hours, we only covered about 30 miles because of all the stops for photographs. Most of this was in deep sand, so we were in 4WD all day. We stopped at many of the petroglyph and pictograph panels on the canyon walls, things you can't see from the rim. A petroglyph is a "pecked" drawing where the darker covering layer of sandstone (in many cases, the "Desert Varnish") is "pecked" away with a harder stone pick to reveal the lighter stone underneath. A pictograph is a painted image using ancient "homemade" paints. It all looks like "Rock Art" to me.
Here's one of the first petroglyphs I saw - In all likelihood, this was made by the early Navajos in the canyon as the horse was unknown in the region until after the arrival of the Spaniards. This shows a couple riders on horses chasing down an Elk or a Deer. This was taken with a 28-135mm set to 135mm. I wasn't very far away from the panel - perhaps 50 feet or so.
Junction Ruin from the floor of the
canyon. You can't see this one from the rim. In
fact, there are dozens of ruins in the canyons you can't see from the rim
and many whose existence is not publicized and yet others that have never
been excavated. The Navajo believe there are still more to be discovered.
The current Navajo occupants of the canyon call any of the peoples who were there before them Anasazi - the ancient ones. In fact, the previous occupants were, at various times, Pueblo, Zuni or members of other tribes. In the construction of the ruins, you can see influences from different tribes. As one tribe left or was run off, the new occupants simply added on to what was already there.
I
was close enough to touch the pictographs but - of course - das verbotten -
and I wouldn't do that anyhow. As we were climbing to the cave we stopped on
the way at this spot. He explained this was called the "playground" and was,
in fact, still used as such by Navajo children today. A playground? Yep. See
the white streak across the stone at about 1:00 from dead center? This is a
slide - Navajo children find a small, flat piece of sandstone (not hard in
this area) and stand on it while scooting down the slope - a snowboard
without snow so to speak. Another variation
is to grab a handful of coarse sand from the floor of the canyon, throw it
near the top of the "slide," jump on it and slide as far as you can! This
area is where the formations are shaped like the sand dunes from which they
were formed.
Some of the pictographs inside the cave -
This symbol appears frequently in SW pictography. For those that wish it so, it's been claimed to be an irrefutable record of a visitation by extraterrestrials. See the "antenna" on the head? James said that's unlikely - it's most likely a ceremonial headdress on a shaman's head!
Why were they made? What do the mean? Who knows! These are in the style of the Anasazi - dating anywhere from AD 300 to AD 1300. They are not graffiti, they're not doodles and they are not hieroglyphics, in which a word or phrase can be assigned to a specific symbol.
They may have been made to mark the landscape - mark a trail, indicate the presence of water or identify tribal claims. Some appear to record events - a successful hunt, the migration of a tribe, etc. Some appear to have been related to spiritual and religious life.
Here's the view at the entrance to the cave. We're about 100 feet above the floor of the canyon. At right center is James' family farm - you can just make out the buildings. At bottom center is the vegetable garden. Cottonwoods are starting their autumn yellow glow in the distance.
This is called the Round Corner House - for obvious reasons. But this is the only structure in the canyon built in this fashion. The rounded corners are more common much further north - which suggests there may have been visitors from the north or at the least, an exchange of ideas.
More fall Cottonwoods.
Hmmm. Which way now?
Although not needed for the entire trip, we were in 4wd all the time in the canyon. There were places where we sunk deep enough in the sand that it was scrapping the underside of the jeep. Mostly the sand was just deep enough to require 4wd.
This is a Cholla Cactus.
This is also a learning experience. This is a painful learning experience. This bad boy is said to actually jump onto you when you get too close. The spines dig deep into the skin and it will take you a good day or so to get the spines out and get over the pain - so I've been told - I've learned to recognize the beast and give it a wide birth. Unfortunately, it can sometimes follow you home!!
To propagate, small parts of this plant dry and break off where they are carried hither and yon by animals, water flow and the wind. These little things litter the canyon floor. You pick them up in the soles of your boots and bring them home with you - where they fall off your boots to imbed themselves in your carpet. They camouflage themselves so well, at least in my carpet, the only way you can find them is while barefoot in total darkness at 3:00 in the morning.