Ruins and rock art

DAA

Administrator
Staff member
Did a backpacking trip last weekend, about 45 - 50 miles in three and a half days. This was actually the third time I have done this particular route now. So I didn't take as many pictures as usual. But I still took way more than I can post
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This cottonwood reminds me of a serpent or dragon the way it's grown back down.

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My buddy Jared on the trail.

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Cool rock art panel, lots going on here

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Some of the details, a bear print, what could be a lion print (but could also be coyote?), turkey tracks, a moon, all kinds of stuff.

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Lots of this kind of stuff around, potsherds and corn cobs. But, not NEARLY as much as there was not too many years ago. Too many jackwagons taking the stuff home, it's disappearing pretty fast.

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Camp first night

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- DAA

 
Last batch...


My buddy Randy doing what he does. He's an amazing photographer and has done more hiking and backpacking to photograph this kind of stuff than just about anyone alive. Literally.

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So this was my third time on this route, but Randy's first. He spotted this rock art panel I'd missed on my first two trips. It's pretty unique. Knock kneed goat with a cane and a big Johnson. I call the whole panel The Old Farts Club.

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Camp spot for the last night on the trail, me and Jared elected to sleep out under the stars as the weather had warmed up a good bit compared to the first two nights which got pretty cold. That's my green sleeping bag in the foreground.

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Later!

- DAA
 
As usual, Dave, great pictures. Thank you so much for sharing with those of us that will never see them first hand!

Regards,
hm
 
Looks like a heck of a trip! Thanks for sharing.
Do you have to hump all your water for the duration or is there a reliable source along the way?
 
Originally Posted By: atdLooks like a heck of a trip! Thanks for sharing.
Do you have to hump all your water for the duration or is there a reliable source along the way?

So in this particular canyon system, that changes a lot from year to year and month to month. In wet years, there are "reliable" sources. In really dry years, there isn't much that could truly be called "reliable". This has been a very dry spring, so we expected to have trouble finding water. Have gone thirsty in this canyon this time of year before. But, we were pleasantly surprised to find water everywhere I hoped to find it.

Which, is to say, in the places you have to resort to looking in dry years. Knowing we'd have to go the (literal) extra miles to find that water, we made sure to tank up and each carry enough water at a time to last an easy day and a half or an emergency three days worth.

A lot more water than I like to carry, but, like I said, have been thirsty down there before, would rather carry an extra gallon than do that again...


Originally Posted By: steve garrettany idea what they used as ink to make the art?

Only an idea... Iron oxide I'm pretty sure for the reds. Would guess charcoal for the blacks. Clay for the whites. Couldn't even guess what for the greens, yellows and (very rare) blues.

Would guess it would have to be non-organic, minerals. Bet they used a lot of plant based stuff too, but none of that has lasted 8,000 years
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Worth pointing out - the most elaborate pictographs, are NOT Anasazi. It's thought to be from a much, much earlier culture. The Anasazi rock art is pretty crude by comparison. The really, really cool big barrier style anthropomorphs are thought to be from 6,000 years earlier than the Anasazi (who built the cliff dwellings).

- DAA
 
Originally Posted By: steve garrettany idea what they used as ink to make the art?


So... This ruin has the green tribal thing going. Green is not a common color at all for rock art in most areas of Utah. But there are a few places green is used in this canyon.

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Anyway... Notice the ceiling above this granary?

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Kinda greenish looking stuff? Don't know what that rock/mineral is called, but the granary is in the same alcove as the ruin with the green paint and I have always suspected that greenish rock was used.

- DAA
 
Nice Dave. I did a 16-mile trek with three Scouts new to backpacking and thought we'd done well. You're making me feel a bit inadequate...
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I'd like to learn more about your kit if you don't mind sharing. I'm always looking for ways to lighten the load and think my sleeping pad, bag, and tent are where to start. I'm considering a switch to a quilt instead, and have been looking at lightweight tents that use trekking poles for support. What gear are you running, and do you like it? Anything you would do different? Thanks.
 
Sure.

I haven't looked at what is latest and greatest for five or six years, all my stuff is older than that, so there's likely better options now. But, I don't think I'd go back and do any of this differently.

Tent - I'm using a Six Moon Design Skyscape one man. It's designed to use trekking poles, but I can't stand to use trekking poles so I have dedicated carbon fiber poles for it (which weigh a fraction of what trekking poles do). All in with poles, stakes and stuff sack it's 31 oz. For trips with my son, I have a Big Agnes copper spur UL2 that weighs 57 oz. all in.

Sleeping bag - For this trip and most of my backpacking trips, I'm using a Zpacks 30* extra long/wide bag that weighs 20 oz. It's basically a quilt with a zipper
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. At only 20 oz. and packs up not much larger than a grapefruit, and really is good to go at 30 degrees, it's magic. For colder backpacking trips, I use a Feathered Friends Swift 20* bag that weighs 32 oz.

Sleeping pad - I tried a few and settled on an Exped UL7 that weighs 16 oz. I like the longitudinal baffles, I don't tend to roll off it as much as the Thermarests with the cross wise baffles and it's nice and quiet. My son loves his XTherm but my gawd is that thing loud. One of my hiking partners on this last trip uses one too and he woke up the whole canyon every time he rolled over in the night.

So, anyway, for a trip like this, my sleep system, tent, bag and pad, all in with stuff sacks, poles, stakes repair kit etc. comes in at 67 oz. Not ultralight by any means, more medium weight, but it's all gear that I have used a LOT and is still going strong.

My total starting pack weight for a three night/four day canyon trip, including 4 days worth of food, a fifth of whiskey, cigars, camera, binoculars and a half gallon of water is about 22 lbs. With close to 10 lbs of that in consumables (food, whiskey, cigars, water). I usually come off the trail after eating most of my food and drinking most of my whiskey at about 17 lbs total pack weight. I was 6 lbs heavier on this trip as I carried an extra 3 quarts of water putting me at about 28 lbs total with 16 lbs of that consumables, 10 lbs of water alone.

- DAA
 
Originally Posted By: steve garrettDave one of your pictures has a circle with 2 eyes, any thoughts on that piece of art it looks unusual.

I do not think those are eyes or that it's supposed to be any kind of face, but, who knows? Moon is possible? Usually moon figures are pretty straightforward, and often include Venus, so I don't know what the "eyes" would be about, if it's a moon depiction.

Shield, be my guess. There are three of them at the site, actually - the ones on either side of that one are definitely shields in my opinion, so I'd guess that one in the middle with eyes is too.

Pic showing all three from a previous trip.

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And a closer look at the one on the left above, from an even earlier trip.

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- DAA
 
And just because, my favorite shield figure of all time, from a different canyon altogether.

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That one is just too cool
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. Tucked into a neat little cave you have to chimney up a crack in the cliff face to get to. Nice ruin up in there too. Did that one again last year, basically hiked 60 miles just to go see it again
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- DAA
 
dave, have you made it back to the Anasazi fortress yet? what are the oldest evidence of people's that were in these areas. was there a name for them, any places to find information on the various peoples that lived in these areas. The anasazi's being of course the most recent, but people before them?
 
About 8,000 years, anthropologists just call the early culture archaic.

Tons, and tons, and tons of books on this stuff. I've read (and own) a couple dozen.

- DAA
 
Originally Posted By: DAASure.

I haven't looked at what is latest and greatest for five or six years, all my stuff is older than that, so there's likely better options now. But, I don't think I'd go back and do any of this differently.
- DAA

Thanks for that information Dave. My research into better, lighter gear continues and your input is valuable.
 
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